Law Department Purchasing Consortium debuts

A group of major corporations has teamed up "to leverage the buying power of participating law departments to gain market advantages in purchasing services and products from law firms ," according to President Peter Jenkins.

"Before law firms think this is a squeeze play and get defensive, , the good news about the Law Department Purchasing Consortium is that the corporate counsel understand that they need the help of the law firms with which they do business to achieve their improved efficiency and cost-reduction goals," Jenkins said.

More than 35 law firms and suppliers confirmed in writing that they were willing to serve Consortium law departments as “Approved Providers.”  Among those who signed on are:

       Barnes & Thornburg                   ACT Litigation 
       Butler Rubin                                  Allegient Systems
       Eversheds                                      CaseShare Systems
       Fasken Martineau                       Courtroom Connect
       Finegan Henderson                    Digital Mandate
       Murtha Cullina                             Eastwood Stein Deposition Management
       O'Hagan, Smith & Amundsen     Integrity Interactive Corporation
       Seyfarth Shaw                               Legal Research Center
       Spencer Fane                               LT Online (LawTrac)
       Summit Law Group                     Six Sigma Academy

The Consortium is looking to identify “partnering-savvy” attorneys and suppliers who are committed to helping their corporate customers achieve their business goals through genuine, win-win collaborative arrangements, Jenkins said. 

The Consortium’s leaders are intent on helping participating law departments gain more value for their legal spend and cut costs, but not at the expense of their preferred outside counsel.

The consortium is the brainchild of Gary Cohen, General Counsel of The Finish Line, Inc. (past Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Small Law Department Committee and current member of ACC’s Board of Directors).

"With the recent launch of the Law Department Purchasing Consortium, partnering initiatives are no longer the domain of large organizations. The Consortium, guided by some of Corporate America’s top General Counsel, provides law department leaders from companies of all sizes with the resources and infrastructure to pool their buying power and implement cutting-edge management tools and technology," Cohen said.

The sole focus of this initiative is to leverage the buying power of participating law departments to gain market advantages in purchasing services from law firms and legal suppliers.  Charter participants in the Consortium now include, among others, law department leaders from:

       AT&T                                          Active Technologies
       Beaulieu Group                          Bemis Company
       Express Carriers                        Determined Productions
       Heineken USA                           Katy Industries
       LabCorp                                     LSG Sky Chefs
       NACCO Materials                      Motorola      
       Nestle’ North America                Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
       Primerica Financial Services     Royal Bank of Canada
       Sony Corporation of America    TriMas Corporation      
       Westinghouse Electric Co.

“This is the tire-kicking stage.  Before opening the Consortium’s doors to law department participant registration nationwide, we want to make sure that the Consortium’s first-level deliverables and facilities are strongly in place,”  Jenkins said.