I spent about 40 years in private practice and now do some locum work in the public sector, and so I come across outside firms providing services. My experience is this:
l They are not always the experts that they maintain they are.

l Often they lack the benefits that the broad general experience of smaller private firms give, which helps one apply common sense, understanding, and 'thinking outside the box' and so on.

They lack the 'common touch', which is invaluable.

l I have seen fees quoted for work out of all proportion to the real cost and time involved for the task - I can spot it as I have experience of the work, but am sure many in the public sector do not. This is not just the large firms either - big fees for completing simple free forms. I now know why I am not rich.

l The lack of hands-on experience with people and communicating with them helps produce documents that are bigger and more complex than necessary (but is the price per word or per hour? That is often the question the client ponders). Being too focused in your specialism results in losing track of understandability.



To be fair, I have also seen some very good advice from the 'experts', but on the whole it is not that much better than the average small general practice could give.



Industry in-house lawyers are justified in the concerns they have recently expressed about billing (see [2007] Gazette, 27 September, 1).



Oh, and by the way, why at meetings do they always seem to come in twos?



Richard Langdon, Durham