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New Legal Spend Study Indicates COVID-19 Disruptions Likely to Impact Outsourced Legal Service Vendors

PORTLAND, Ore., April 21, 2020 – Exterro Inc., the preferred provider of Legal GRC software specifically designed for in-house legal, privacy, and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations, and the Association of Corporate Counsel exclusive Alliance Partner for Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Compliance and E-Discovery, announced the release of the 4th Annual Study of Effective Legal Spend Management. Built in conjunction with Blickstein Group and the Corporate Counsel Business Journal, this report focuses on how law departments are handling business disruption—with many now facing a critical need to reduce costs—and the best way to create process efficiencies at a lower level of spending.

This report features an inside look at how some of the leading legal departments at major U.S. companies are mobilizing to create smaller spending impacts in key areas,” said Bill Piwonka, Chief Marketing Officer, Exterro. “Legal operations, data privacy processes, and e-discovery activities all fall under the microscope in this comprehensive report.

In analyzing the 4th Annual Study of Effective Legal Spend Management, understanding where the risks of increased spending are likely to occur—litigation, compliance, or elsewhere—is key to determining how best to allocate legal department dollars. This speaks to a greater need for an enterprise-wide strategy that can answer a company’s Legal Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) challenges, and more efficiently identify and fill gaps in legal budgets with a comprehensive spending strategy.

Findings include:

  • Only 64% of legal departments have a comprehensive legal spending strategy
  • While 71% agree that ensuring defensibility against the CCPA is a top priority, few understand the full costs of compliance so far
  • Sticking to a single or preferred third-party provider/partner can help keep external costs low

The need to reduce spend is acute right now—even more acute than it was when this survey was in the field [in March]—so it makes sense to pull the levers at your disposal as hard and often as possible,” says Brad Blickstein, principal at Blickstein Group, referring to negotiating discounts with service providers and seeking discounts with other vendors as additional spending reduction options. “Rather than battling over rates all the time, make them a partner and incentivize them based on what you value.

The 22-question survey was answered by legal department heads at 52 U.S. businesses, many with a multinational presence. Read the full report here.