Inaugural Study From Exterro and Blickstein Group Evaluates Twenty-Five Legal Spend Management Techniques

PORTLAND, Ore., May 09, 2017 -- Exterro^® Inc., the preferred provider of software specifically designed for in-house legal and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations, and the Blickstein Group today announced the results of the Study of Effective Legal Spend Management. While there has been much written and discussed about spend management and cost containment by law departments, there has been very little research about what actually works. In Spring 2017, Blickstein Group, a consultancy serving the corporate legal community, and Exterro collaborated on a study to change that and determine what strategies are most effective for managing legal spend. The survey results confirmed the need for this type of research, as most companies reported expecting to see flat or even decreased legal spend compared to last year, even while the demand for legal services is consistently increasing. To reduce costs while meeting increased demand, survey respondents evaluated 25 different techniques for controlling outside legal counsel spend.

“The results from this first of its kind survey supported what we’ve been hearing from our customers, prospects and partners in the market. That is, while the scope and complexity of e-discovery continues to grow, the pressure to control costs is even greater. We’re thrilled to have partnered with the Blickstein Group to share these results, and hopefully provide some new ideas for better managing the process of e-discovery,” said Bill Piwonka, Exterro CMO.

Key Findings Include:

• Of the twenty-five tactics for controlling legal spend evaluated, the most effective are:
  • Moving work in-house (59% say this has a strong or major impact),
  • Law firm preferred provider networks (46% say this has a strong or major impact), and
  • Alternative fee arrangements (41% say this has a strong or major impact).
• 57% of respondents expect their company’s total overall spend to stay flat or decrease and 70% expect the same for outside legal spend.
• More than half of respondents (58%) view their ability to control e-discovery spend as critical or very critical.

“In this inaugural study on effective legal spend management we found that overall, law departments do not expect their spending to rise. Since we know that demand for legal services is still increasing, it is clear to me that it must be because legal professionals have gotten very good at managing their spend. These survey findings should help them find even more ways to manage their legal spend," said Brad Blickstein, Principal of Blickstein Group.

The survey was developed with guidance from an advisory board made up of e-discovery veterans in senior management positions. It was completed by general counsel, legal operations professionals, and in-house E-Discovery managers from across the United States. Download the complete report here.

About Exterro
Exterro®, Inc. is the preferred provider of software specifically designed for in-house legal and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations. Founded with the simple vision that applying the concepts of process optimization and data science to the way companies respond to litigation would drive more successful outcomes at a lower cost, Exterro has been positioned as a Leader in the last three years of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for E-Discovery Software. Built on an open architecture platform, Exterro's e-discovery and information governance software integrates with existing IT, HR and legal systems to deliver complete visibility into all critical data required for managing information assets more efficiently.

For more information, contact:

Kristin Kolasinski
Marketing Communications & Events Manager 
Exterro, Inc.
[email protected]
(503) 501-5141