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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Vault Law Blog special legal correspondent Raj Selvadurai is down in Washington, DC this morning at a symposium sponsored by &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bisnow.com/&quot; target=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bisnow.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; color=&quot;#800080&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;BisNow&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;on rapidly changing &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;relations &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;between law firms and corporate law departments.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The panel includes Citigroup&amp;#8217;s GC &lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; color=&quot;#800080&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Michael Helfer&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt; and 3 of BigLaw&amp;#8217;s biggest machers: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#800080&quot;&gt;Eric Friedman&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of Skadden, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#800080&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#800080&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#800080&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.akingump.com/bmclean/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#800080&quot;&gt;Bruce McLean&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.akingump.com/bmclean/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.akingump.com/bmclean/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;of Akin Gump, and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#800080&quot;&gt;Tom Yannucci&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of Kirkland &amp;amp; Ellis.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The topic:&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The &amp;#8220;tectonic shift&amp;#8221; in the legal profession, including &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;alternative fee arrangements&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (including fixed fees and performance incentives), the role of junior associates (or lack thereof), changing &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;expectations&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; for results and delivery of services, and more.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;One interesting aspect of the discussion is the public airing of alternative fee arrangements expectations and practices.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;According to Helfer, alternative fee arrangements account for 30% of Citigroup&amp;#8217;s total legal spend (the bulk of that fixed fee), and plans to increase that percentage.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;All to the panelists reported that their firm use discount (or &amp;#8220;alternative,&amp;#8221; or &amp;#8220;special,&amp;#8221; depending on the firm&amp;#8217;s jargon) fees to varying degrees.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Discount rates make up about 15% of Akin&amp;#8217;s revenues and&amp;nbsp;about 10% of Kirkland&amp;#8217;s (most all in litigation).&amp;nbsp; Skadden has just begun experimenting with alternative arrangements, which currently constitute less than 10% of the firm&amp;#8217;s total.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Questions to Helfer: Is it relevant to GCs how law firms are run? &lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Do they care about law firm profitability? &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Paraphrased Answer:&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Yes, of course.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;GCs value stability and morale in their outside firms.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;But what is most essential is developing and maintaining business trust, and key to that is flexibility and reasonableness of billing arrangements.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;For example, clients should not be expected to subsidize the training of junior associates.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;-posted by brian&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

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