BigLaw is Doomed If Clients Refuse to Pay for Associates

Some general counsel are starting to push back against big law firms charging $400 an hour for the work of associates, writes Joe Patrice for Above the Law.

Patrice quotes from an Am Law Daily report on a recent summit:

At a Manhattan conference on legal innovation this month, Mark Smolik, the general counsel of DHL Supply Chain Americas, had a message for the law firm representatives in his audience.

“Sorry, law firms. You spend on the training,” Smolik said. “I cannot afford to pay your associates $325 an hour.”

Smolik warned the group that he could hire those associates himself and “pick them up right out of law school.”

Read the Above the Law article.