Greetings!
Now that offices have been opening up again, many law firms will be looking at their contracts. From the office lease agreements to the coffee vendors, adjustments may be necessary. Your legal research contracts are no exception.
Here are my top 5 tips for your legal research contract:
1) Know the expiration date.
- If you don’t know the exact date when your contract expires, it would be best to find out.
- You want to be proactive before your renewal period.
- When negotiating research contracts, time is your friend. Give yourself ample time to analyze usage, survey attorneys, and negotiate.
- Vendors will try to get you to renew early. Be prepared for this. Their goal is to lock you down for the next three to five years.
2) Check for the auto-renewal clause.
- You want to have a good idea of what your plan is before the auto-renewal period.
- If you enter the auto-renewal period, you lose leverage to negotiate.
- Evaluate all of your options.
3) Know the year-over-year annual increase.
- Annual increases can creep up on you.
- If the increases are not listed as a percentage, do the calculation.
- Ask how they get to the annual increase in the contract.
- Pay attention to how much you’re paying in the last month of the contract. This will determine where you begin negotiating on the next renewal.
4) Check for any hyperlinks that are part of the contract.
- This supplement is the “fine print” that usually contains the Terms & Conditions.
- The supplement can be updated by usually giving you 30 or 60-days written notice.
- Depending on who the contact is, you may or may not ever see this notice.
5) Confirm all addenda tied to the main contract.
- With any research contract, check to see if there are addenda associated with the contract.
- Print subscription contracts can be tied to the main contract.
- LOUs (Letter of Understanding) could also be part of the contract.
- Other individual subscriptions may only work with that particular vendor.
At Legal Counsel Consulting, we specialize in helping law firms navigate the complexity and confusion of legal research subscriptions and contracts. Visit our contact page to request and schedule a short complimentary consultation.
Best regards,George
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Free Resources:
During COVID-19, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters are offering resources related to the Coronavirus.