In a bid to cut legal costs, Pfizer is creating a stir among lawyers after selecting just one law firm to handle almost all of its employment-related litigation. Moreover, the drugmaker is reportedly pioneering a capped-fee arrangement for the outside legal work, according toCorporate Counsel.
The winning law firm, Jackson Lewis, gets paid a certain sum each month, but has agreed to forgo billable hours. Pfizer, meanwhile, gets to recoup any money left over at the end of the year, based on a monthly accounting of time the firm spends on Pfizer legal work. "Jackson Lewis got it because they recognized that we needed to find some alternative to billing by the hour. They actually brought it up before we did," Maggie Madden, who heads Pfizer's employment law group, tells Corporate Counsel.
The move was made two years after the drugmaker dumped 80 percent of its hundreds of outside law firms and continues to scrutinize legal costs. A March 2007 audit of outside legal work, for instance, found that 40 percent of invoice data was "vague and noncompliant" with Pfizer's billing guidelines, the mag writes. Pfizer was getting overcharged for copies, billed for time spent on planes sleeping (or at least, not doing Pfizer-related work), and putting together budgets.
Under the deal, Jackson Lewis gets any employment-related legal work that arises over the next two years, including single-plaintiff discrimination cases, equal employment opportunity matters, class actions, and general advice and counsel. All existing employment cases were transferred to the firm except for one single-plaintiff case and two class actions, the mag writes.
5 Comments
Well, you know those corp. lawyers....
It's actually an interesting move and makes me wonder if the role of pharma lawyers are changing more generally. Dan Troy's becoming both Chief Counsel and number 2 at Glaxo is suggestive.
I doubt this is in response to anticipated preemption since the those cases are only a share of the legal budget (usually presented larger than it is) relative to patent fights and other inter- and intra-company actions.
I actually wrote about this two months before Corporate Counsel . . . in a post on June 18 called, "Rumors, innuendo, criminal charges and changes inside Pfizer Inc's legal department."
http://peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/06/rumors-innuendo-criminal-charges-and.html
:)
Thanks, Peter!
Peter,
Once a sleaze bag, always a sleaze bag. If you want to make accusations, you need a more reliable source than CafePharma. Everyone knows that you are often the anonymous source of many of the rumors and innuendo on that bathroom wall.
KtP
"Jackson Lewis gets any employment-related legal work that comes in the door for the next two years, including single-plaintiff discrimination cases, equal employment opportunity matters, class actions, and general advice and counsel. All existing employment cases were transferred to the firm except for one single-plaintiff case and two class actions-a benefits case being handled by Sidley Austin, and a Fair Labor Standards Act case filed by Pfizer sales reps that's being litigated by Littler Mendelson."
-Corporate Counsel
And guess who that "one single-plaintiff case" is?
Rost vs. Pfizer.