In an era of expanding regulatory risks and demands, in-house legal teams are facing a significant increase in their workloads, with Thomson Reuters reporting that 55% of legal departments experienced a surge in work over the previous year. 

Traditionally, external law firms have filled resource gaps, but at a premium. The average hourly rate for AmLaw 100 firms reached $961 in 2023, a 4.8% increase from the previous year.

To address these pressures, forward-thinking legal departments have begun to seek other avenues to onboard high-quality interim talent, utilizing Alternative Service Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) to access expertise without the financial burden of full-time hires or expensive law firm retainers.  

A recent Thomson Reuters report underscores this trend, noting that corporate legal departments “are increasingly seeing the value of alternative legal service providers,” and that “the boundaries between alternative legal services providers and law firms...are rapidly blurring.” 

To help legal teams navigate these outsourcing decisions, Legal.io has developed the Budget & Savings Calculator. This tool provides in-house legal departments with data and insights to make informed choices about their outside counsel spend and staffing strategies. Many companies struggle to accurately assess the financial implications of their staffing choices, which can lead to inefficient budget allocation. 

The Budget & Savings Calculator allows in-house legal leaders and hiring decision makers to: 

• Quantify Potential Savings: Compare costs between traditional law firms and Legal.io's staffing solutions with precision.

• Forecast Long-Term Budget Allocation: Visualize resource distribution over time to support strategic planning.

• Analyze Granular Financial Data: Access detailed hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly cost breakdowns for accurate projections.

• Evaluate Multiple Scenarios: Model various staffing configurations to align with your organization's financial objectives.

By providing concrete data on the financial implications of different staffing models, the Budget & Savings Calculator empowers legal departments to optimize their resources effectively utilizing a robust, quantitative approach .

Explore the Budget & Savings Calculator to deliver data-driven insights that drive real ROI for your legal team’s hiring strategy.