Legal departments expressed outrage and girded for battle last fall when their outside law firms rolled out plans for aggressive rate increases for 2023. Yet the showdown that seemed sure to come never really materialized.
Legal observers say that while some law departments pushed back on increases more than they had in recent years, and some won larger-than-typical concessions, many departments are ending up with substantial hikes, sometimes more than 15%. And few departments are exercising the nuclear option of firing firms over higher rates.
