The latest newsletter of executive recruiters Laurence Simons mentioned ProcureLaw.com, “an online tendering platform for legal services.” Misys General Counsel, Tom Kilroy, tells us that he saved around 50 per cent on legal fees after running a tender to select a law firm to carry out an employment law project. Forty nine law firms took part in the process over 14 jurisdictions. According to Tom, ProcureLaw enabled the global IT company to “run a genuine and fair price comparison between competing bids” and the legal department would be using it “more extensively in the future.
To cut legal fees in half astonishes me, but there you have the quote. To invite 49 law firms to propose on work also astonishes me. To put so much emphasis on “price competition” – well, you get my point.