In 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, Casey Flaherty, Baretz+Brunelle partner and LexFusion co-founder, reflects on how his long-standing advice to in-house legal departments, to ask law firms about their technology use, has backfired. While well-intentioned, this guidance often results in superficial check-the-box exercises that create more friction than value. Legal departments, already burdened and under-resourced, are substituting shallow questionnaires for the deeper, structured dialogues necessary to drive real innovation and change.
Casey underscores the urgent challenges in-house teams face: ballooning workloads, static budgets, rising burnout, and lack of meaningful investment in digital transformation. In this context, asking law firms about technology becomes a coping mechanism rather than a strategic initiative, resulting in added complexity, wasted time, and missed opportunities. He concludes with four core recommendations to reduce friction and refocus legal procurement on value.
Read the article to explore Casey’s insights.