KANSAS CITY, Kan., Aug. 24, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epiq Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:EPIQ), a leading global provider of technology solutions for the legal profession, completed its second annual Texas Corporate Counsel Survey, a qualitative survey that focused on issues facing corporate counsel and law firms in the Texas marketplace. This year's informal survey of 75 corporate counsel and law firms, which included in-depth personal interviews, indicated that corporations were responding favorably to area law firms that were nimble and able to offer flexible billing or alternative fee arrangements.
When Texas corporate counsel were surveyed, "Have you used new firms (this year) other than your traditional law firm partners?," nearly ninety percent of respondents said that they were using or considering new firms outside their standard relationships or, at a minimum, were requiring firms to compete against one another for their work. Last year, only 35 percent of those surveyed said they had moved to using new firms.
Observed Mark Habbinga, Esq., Epiq's Director of eDiscovery Solutions, who conducted the survey, "Many Texas law firms told us that they are locked into a specific business model which affected flexibility in adapting or creating alternative fee arrangements."
The survey indicated that in the past two years, more than 80 percent of counsel respondents noted that they have asked for fee adjustments from their law firms. Additionally 90 percent of outside counsel surveyed said that they asked for caps as part of an alternative fee agreement.
Other alternative fee options utilized in the Texas market and mentioned in the survey included: flat rates for repeatable case types, annual spend flat rates, and various "hybrid models" such as reduced hourly and contingency-based hybrids, bonus-based hybrids, and tiered or blended hourly rates based on litigation phases (pre-filing, discovery, pretrial, trial, and appeal).
"As reflected in the survey outcomes, both general counsel and law firms are looking to establish clearer guidance from the outset on the entire litigation process aligned to established performance metrics," said Habbinga. "Budgeting and billing must also be better monitored, using more technology and focusing on total case cost throughout a project."
The Epiq survey, conducted between April and July of this year, polled corporate counsel and law firms primarily located in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas, covering such industries as banking, entertainment, hotel, oil & gas, outsourcing, professional retail, services, software and transportation. Survey questions addressed a range of topics, including litigation case loads, department budgets, team size, and alternative fees – as well as relations between law firms and GCs.
The survey also addressed budget and staff headcount concerns. In this year's survey, 75 percent said budgets continued to be cut or frozen. According to interviews conducted on behalf of the survey, general counsel are seeking out new methods to manage this issue, including engaging contract attorneys/paralegals to be virtual members of their legal departments, pulling associates in-house from their outside law firm (secondment) on a contract basis, and partnering directly with e-discovery and managed review partners to leverage efficiencies and pricing across their litigation caseloads.
About Epiq Systems
Epiq Systems is a leading global provider of integrated technology solutions for the legal profession. Our solutions streamline the administration of bankruptcy, litigation, financial transactions and regulatory compliance matters. We offer innovative technology solutions for electronic discovery, document review, legal notification, claims administration and controlled disbursement of funds. Our clients include leading law firms, corporate legal departments, bankruptcy trustees, government agencies and other professional advisors who require innovative technology, responsive service and deep subject-matter expertise.
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For further information on this survey, please contact: Cindy Morgan-Olson (colson@epiqsystems.com), Epiq Public Relations, 646-408-5896, or Mark Habbinga, mhabbinga@epiqsystems.com.