The Road Not Taken is a bold call for law departments to rethink their external legal spend strategy. With law departments under increasing pressure to deliver more with less, LexFusion’s latest memo by Baretz+Brunelle partner and LexFusion co-founder Casey Flaherty lays out a compelling roadmap for modernizing legal service delivery—one grounded in systemic change, not superficial savings.
The piece critiques the status quo of preferred-provider programs, noting that most fail to deliver sustained value due to misaligned incentives, rising administrative burdens, and an overfocus on rate discounts. Instead, Casey proposes a four-pronged model: strategic “portfolios” for repeatable work, curated “panels” for frequent but varied matters, a “marketplace” of vetted external talent for the novel and niche, and flexible protocols for “extraordinary” high-impact spend.
At the heart of the approach is the concept of work packaging—organizing legal work into portfolios that allow for scale, innovation, and cost predictability.
The takeaway: legal departments must shift focus from “who gets the work” to “how the work gets done,” and invest accordingly, especially in light of AI reshaping expectations and economic headwinds intensifying.
Download the Red Team memo to explore Casey’s insights.
