Via the blog of legal business consulting firm Hildebrandt comes this report that most in-house counsel are expecting litigation work to double in 2014.
The source is BTI Consulting Group’s Litigation Outlook 2014.
The bad news, as Hildebrandt puts it, is that: “thanks to cost-containment measures such as early case assessment (ECA), alternative fee arrangements and a larger focus on settlements (the resolution rate is expected to hit 40 percent), the study stated that spending will increase a ‘mere tenth of a percent.'”
On the bright side (for firms, at least) in-house lawyers are expecting spending to increase more on IP litigation (2.7%).