For general counsel and legal operations leaders managing $5 million or more in annual outside counsel spend, rate increases are no longer a minor line item. They're a strategic problem. Am Law 50 firms posted average increases of 10.4% last year, and senior partners at some of the country's largest firms are now billing up to $4,000 per hour.

Most legal departments accept these increases by default because they don't come to the table with benchmarks, structured guidelines, and a disciplined review process.

This report covers:

• Average hourly billing rates are steadily increasing into 2026

• How to approach rate negotiations at the start of an engagement, not annually

• Why outside counsel billing guidelines only work when they're actively enforced

• Where alternative fee arrangements apply, and why 90% of legal spend still flows through hourly billing

• How a legal bill review program captures savings on the spend that AFAs don't cover

Legal departments that have implemented a consistent invoice review process have recovered significant savings, including a major U.S. retailer that reduced outside legal spend by 8%, totaling nearly $200,000 in one year.

Download the full report to see where your outside counsel spend may be at risk and what a proactive legal bill review strategy can recover.