[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

No one is immune to the economic crisis.  Not even the lawyers who navigate its aftermath.

Companies have directed cuts at the their law firms this past year, according to a new study.  Firm consultancy Altman Weil surveyed 200 chief legal officers (CLO):

• 46% supervised a department of between 2 and 15 attorneys
• 13% oversaw more than 100 attorneys. 
• Half of all departments had at least 1 attorney that resides outside the U.S.

All Costs. For the first time in 3 years, more in-house departments decreased their spending on law firms than increased it over the last 12 months, Reuters said.  Here's how they did it:

• 71% of companies negotiated price reductions with their law firms
• 41% shifted work to firms that charged less
• 39% of chief legal officers said they decreased their outside counsel budget between 2011 to 2012, compared to 25% of companies that reported cutting costs that way between 2010 to 2011

"Chief Legal Officers are not waiting for law firms to change their business models," and are instead taking the initiative to create savings on their own, according to Daniel DiLucchio, a principal of Altman Weil.

Survival of the Fittest. However, this trend doesn't mean that lawyers are an endangered species – or that in-house groups prize cost above all else.  Factors contributing to CLOs' choice of law firms:

• how well firms understand a company's business and industry
• referrals from colleagues

For further details, go to [Reuters, 11/5/12].