A recent Corporate Counsel story, “GCs Not Satisfied With Outside Counsel Rates,” reports that the Consero Group’s new 2013 Spring General Counsel Survey (pdf), which addresses areas of concern to in-house counsel at U.S. companies, has found that 61 percent of Fortune 1000 general counsel are not satisfied with the rates they pay their outside counsel – a sign that economic pressures are forcing alternative fee arrangements to again become an important issue in corporate board rooms.

The survey, compiled by the executive events organizer Consero Group in partnership with Applied Discovery, also found that 61 percent of the GCs surveyed already use alternative fee arrangement for outside counsel, but 60 percent said they plan to further increase their use of such arrangements.

“Alternative fee arrangements are reining in costs of outside counsel are not new topics, but the appetite for alternative arrangements and for efficient counsel hasn’t decreased,” Consero’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Mandell said.  “In fact, there has been a lull in this discussion in recent years but it appears to again be gaining stream.”  Mandell said there is an opportunity now for law firms to cater to this increase in order to increase business.