General counsel say they’ve grown exasperated by law firms’ continued lack of transparency, especially related to billing.

Mary K Young observes that some law firms might need to put systems in place to better track clients’ outside counsel guidelines, which she noted are inherently tricky because there’s no uniformity from one to the next. But she suspects that some of the complaints from general counsel stem from communication breakdowns inside their own companies.

As Big Law budgets grow, law firms are pouring more resources into business development for associates. Mayer Brown recently expanded an associate-driven program run by associates and associate-level employees. Mary K Young notes that every firm is a little bit different in how they develop business.

Legacy New York firms are seeking to keep pace with growing competition through mergers and acquisitions. Kent Zimmermann observes that small and less profitable firms are growing size and profitability slower, so they have a growing differential on profitability in comparison to higher-performing competitors. And Mary K Young advises smaller clients to be as profitable as they can be in order to get and retain talent.