NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When RFP and eAuction software users were asked to name their preferred providers in the Buying Legal Counsel’s (BLC) 2020 Market Intelligence Report, PERSUIT was #1 in both categories. Law Firms’ legal rates are increasing at an alarming rate (exceeding $900B in 2019), but client bargaining power is also at an all-time high due to the availability of new legal technologies. As a result, BLC’s report has called it “borderline negligent for companies today not to organize a formal procurement effort to manage and get ahead of legal spend.” In other words, if the client now has the bargaining power, it’s the client’s imperative to use it to combat increasing legal fees. A formal procurement effort can include legal spend management tools like AFAs, RFPs, pre-matter scoping, eAuctions, and data analytics. PERSUIT delivers all of these tools for outside counsel engagement, on a single platform.
As the world grapples with COVID-19 and the post-pandemic recovery, litigation matters will only increase - and so will the pressure on legal departments to reduce costs, as a result (this has been the case in previous economic downturns). Corporate legal departments are taking a strategic approach, leveraging RFPs, to control legal spend and partnering with procurement teams to drive down costs.
While procurement teams have used RFPs and eAuctions to source vendors for some time, legal departments have only recently begun adopting this strategy. BLC has found that eAuctions are set to experience the most growth of any legal spend management tool with use anticipated to almost double from 32% to 58%. Further, buyers are favoring matter-level sourcing as 85% of buyers are using RFPs to select law firms and legal service providers versus relying solely on panel firms. Exclusive sourcing within panel firms has dropped to 68%.
PERSUIT is well-positioned to service US and international clients of any size during this growth period, providing a path away from the increasing costs of billable-hour models and towards more cost-effective AFAs. PERSUIT’s program increases bargaining power by leveraging procurement best practices of RFPs and eAuctions. This results in a decrease in legal fees and long-term value.
About PERSUIT
PERSUIT is a Software as a Service ("SaaS") company specializing in legal RFP technology, founded in early 2016 by Jim Delkousis, a veteran BigLaw partner. The PERSUIT platform is self-service enabled and an out-of-the-box, cloud-based software application, providing in-house teams the ability to launch matter-based RFPs, RFI’s, AFAs, Hourly Rate reviews, and Panel Convergence Programs using industry best-practice templates. Request types can be used to drive price competition via real-time bidding to achieve true market pricing every time, delivering 35%+ savings on external legal spend.
For more information, visit www.PERSUIT.com.
About the Buying Legal Council Market Intelligence Report
The Buying Legal Council Market Intelligence Report provides the most comprehensive insight into the legal procurement category, helping in-house teams identify key sourcing opportunities, spend dynamics, and procurement best practices for legal services. The Buying Legal Council (BLC) is the international trade organization for professionals tasked with sourcing legal services and managing legal service supplier relationships. The BLC’s annual market intelligence report provides the most comprehensive insight into the legal services market.
