ELM Solutions’ Nathan Cemenska shares data and insights from the company’s most recent LegalVIEW Insights report
Nathan Cemenska, Director of Legal Operations and Industry Insights at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, is featured on the latest installment of Law.com’s popular Legal Speak podcast, where he shares new insights into how corporate legal departments can successfully negotiate against substantial rate increases requested by some of the industry’s largest firms.
Cemenska elaborates on data sourced from the most recent entry in the company’s ongoing LegalVIEW Insights report series, which leverages more than $155 billion in legal invoice data to offer a deeper dive into the trends, relationships and opportunities continuing to push the legal ecosystem forward. Published earlier this month, the LegalVIEW Insights 2023-1 report found that corporate legal departments may hold more pricing negotiation power over both large and small law firms than previously realized, with approximately 32% of the timekeepers practicing inside the Am Law 100 receiving no rate increases at all during the period July 2021 to June 2022.
Cemenska tells Legal Speak host Zack Needles that in-house legal teams can bolster their negotiating power with large and medium-sized law firms alike by gradually building, testing, and – should the results warrant it – expanding their relationships with smaller, often less expensive firms. Growing a diverse portfolio of legal service providers takes time, but the investment can pay dividends.
“Buyers at corporate law departments that have invested in cultivating relationships with a broad range of trusted law firm partners will find themselves in a strong position to negotiate rates,” Cemenska says. “However, that requires foresight in addition to an intimate understanding of an organization’s legal spend.”
Owned and operated by ALM Media, Law.com is the hub connecting more than 18 online U.S. national and regional award-winning legal publications, including The American Lawyer and Legaltech News. The platform’s Legal Speak podcast offers weekly in-depth interviews with some of the legal industry’s most influential figures, law firms and providers.
ELM Solutions is the market-leading global provider of enterprise legal spend and matter management and legal analytics solutions. The company provides a comprehensive suite of tools that address the growing needs of corporate legal operations departments to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. Corporate legal and insurance claims departments trust its innovative technology and end-to-end customer experience to drive world-class business outcomes.
