The 2026 Legal Ops Playbook for Outside Counsel Rate Control

If you manage outside counsel spend, you already know rates are going up. What you may not realize is why — and why the window to push back is narrowing.

In this CLOC Solution Lab webinar, PERSUIT's Director of Legal Advisory Maui Gevero and Haylley Watson, North American Category Manager for Legal Services at Syngenta, unpack the forces behind the double-digit rate increase trend — from law firms quietly testing whether clients will absorb aggressive hikes, to AI's unexpected role in accelerating the problem rather than solving it.

Hayley's team walked into negotiations facing requests of 8 to 25 percent increases. By the end, Syngenta landed in a very different place — and the playbook they used to get there is covered in full.

The session goes well beyond benchmarks. It covers negotiation tactics your law firms are already anticipating, the discount tactics that look generous but aren't, and how to build a holistic rate strategy that doesn't start over every year.

If your next rate cycle is coming, this is required watching.

Watch the replay.