Discussion 9 Legal Research

One of the debates in law firm economics is when to bill for paralegal time. Business clients negotiate lawyer’s fees. Businesses that regularly use attorneys, such as insurance companies, don’t just hire a law firm and hope the fees are reasonable. Corporations typically will not pay for anything they regard as basic assistant or clerical work.

You are arguing on behalf of Cheap Corp., which wants to hire a law firm. The law firm claims that it is foolish not to pay them for paralegal research time, due to a lower billing rate. Your position on behalf of Cheap Corp. is that you refuse to pay for routine citation checking or routine updating of basic knowledge.