Wow!  Does any general counsel in the land truly not know this?  Here's the law.com headline - with emphasis, mind you, as if gold had been discovered in them thar hills.

EUREKA!!

'Enormous' Bargaining Chip: Survey Shows Law Firms Charging Clients Different Rates — for the Same Work!

Law firms' corporate clients are not created equal, if billing rates are any indication.

Firms are charging different hourly rates to different clients for doing similar work, according to an analysis of more than $4 billion in law firm billings that will be released in September.

Differences in billing rates are just some of the preliminary findings in the "Real Rate Report" by CT TyMetrix and The Corporate Executive Board. The report examines billing from more than 4,000 law firms, 50,000 individual billers, and 18.9 million invoice items from 2007 to 2009.

The data was collected from CT TyMetrix's clients. Law firms and corporate legal departments have been using the company's web-based financial and e-commerce software to handle ebilling and matter management for more than 10 years. About $30 billion in legal invoices have flowed through the company's systems, said Julie Peck, vice president of corporate strategy and market development at CT TyMetrix.

And the results of the report, once released, will be aimed at helping general counsel make better decisions about how and where to spend their money. The findings will be broken down by several factors, including geography, law firm size, staffing, and the types of matters handled.

"It will give general counsel an enormous amount of bargaining power," Peck said.

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