Petetin: focus on client needs More than half (54.5%) of chief legal officers in Europe's largest 100 businesses have fired or are considering firing one of their law firms this year, research has revealed.

The main reasons given for taking such drastic action are cost management and quality of work, both of which were cited as factors by 45% of respondents to the Association of Corporate Counsel's (ACC) first European in-house counsel sentiment survey.


Other criticisms included the lack of desired results, poor responsiveness, mishandling of one or more critical matters and overstaffing.


Law firms were also panned in the survey for showing a lack of innovation - when asked to give an example of an innovative practice proposed or used by their external law firm, the vast majority of respondents could not name one.


Martine Petetin, president of ACC Europe and European regional general counsel for British American Tobacco, said: 'Law firms frequently show technical brilliance but often fail to really understand the business needs of their clients. Clients do not always need this brilliance but rather a good, feet-on-the-ground adviser.'


Respondents to the survey - conducted in association with Global Counsel and management consultancy Altman Weil - said the key issues they faced in 2004 are corporate governance and compliance.


For many heads of legal this is a positive development, with 40% believing that new corporate governance regulation in the aftermath of Enron and other financial scandals had improved their relationship with senior management. In-house counsel added that this regulation meant that 80% of senior management are now judged as more risk averse.