Re-Play: How Some Law Departments are Winning Law Firm Rate Negotiations

Most legal departments walk away from rate negotiations feeling like they won — tighter discounts, approved timekeepers, signed guidelines. Then the year-end data comes in, and net costs are up 9%, 11%, 12% anyway.

The problem isn't effort. It's timing. Reacting to proposed rates is a fundamentally weaker position than designing the rules before firms ever submit a number.

In this replay of our recent webinar, How Some Law Departments are Winning Law Firm Rate Negotiations, Ken Callander, Founder of Value Strategies, and Maui Guevero, Director of Legal Advisory at PERSUIT, share what the data from 500+ law firms, multiple geographies, and thousands of timekeeper submissions actually shows about where leverage still exists — and how leading legal departments are starting to use it.

You'll walk away knowing which governance levers are holding up in 2026, how portfolio-level visibility changes what's negotiable, and why ad hoc approaches increasingly fail as rate dispersion widens across global matters.

If outside counsel spend is a pressure point going into this year, this one is worth your time.

Watch the replay now.