The Client Cost Strategies station is about determining how the cost of legal support provided to internal clients is funded, allocated, and made visible across the organisation.

In many businesses, legal is treated as a centrally funded overhead with little or no connection between demand and cost. 

While simple, this approach often masks true consumption, distorts behaviour, and removes incentives for the business to engage legal efficiently.

More mature legal teams recognise that how legal is paid for influences how it is used.

This station on the Internal Client Line focuses on designing cost strategies that drive accountability, transparency, and better decision-making—without turning legal into a commercial billing operation.

Client cost strategies are not about profit. They are about aligning legal demand with business responsibility.

The Client Cost Strategies station should address:

◼️ Funding Model Definition: Whether legal is centrally funded, charged back, or hybrid.

◼️ Cost Visibility: Making legal effort and spend visible to internal clients.

◼️ Work-Type Differentiation: Applying different cost treatments to different categories of work.

◼️ Internal Chargeback Logic: Rules for allocating cost to business units where appropriate.

◼️ External Spend Allocation: How outside counsel costs are attributed.

◼️ Incentive Design: Avoiding behaviours that suppress early legal engagement.

◼️ Governance Alignment: Consistency with finance and budgeting frameworks.

◼️ Demand Shaping: Using cost signals to influence behaviour.

◼️ Budget Ownership: Clarity on who ultimately owns legal cost decisions.

◼️ Review Mechanisms: Adjusting strategies as the business evolves.

The Client Cost Strategies station is considered a Specialist resource within the GLS Legal Operations model.

A Foundational Resource: Is responsible for determining the overall performance capabilities of a “critical” legal function. If it is not optimised, the function can never be optimised. 

A Repeater Resource: Supports the performance of multiple "critical" legal functions and as such represents a "ripple effect" productivity intervention point. 

A Specialist Resource: Is responsible for driving the performance of a very specific part of an individual legal function. Its productivity contribution is limited to that single legal function. 

The best practice features of effective Client Cost Strategies include:

◼️ Clarity: Internal clients understand how legal costs are treated.

◼️ Work-Type Sensitivity: Different cost models for BAU, revenue, and special projects.

◼️ Transparency: Visibility into legal effort and external spend.

◼️ Behavioural Alignment: Cost signals encourage appropriate engagement.

◼️ Finance Integration: Alignment with budgeting and cost centre structures.

◼️ Simplicity: Models are easy to understand and administer.

◼️ Governance Oversight: Senior agreement on cost principles.

◼️ Flexibility: Ability to adapt as demand changes.

◼️ Data Support: Decisions grounded in demand and workflow analytics.

◼️ Non-Punitive Design: Avoids discouraging early legal involvement.

Well-designed Client Cost Strategies deliver business value by:

◼️ Improving Cost Transparency: Business units understand what legal support consumes.

◼️ Driving Accountability: Demand is linked to ownership.

◼️ Supporting Better Decisions: Cost informs prioritisation and planning.

◼️ Reducing Waste: Unnecessary demand is discouraged.

◼️ Encouraging Early Engagement: Clear rules reduce hesitation.

◼️ Aligning Spend to Value: Resources follow importance.

◼️ Improving Forecasting: Legal demand becomes more predictable.

◼️ Reducing External Spend Leakage: Better internal discipline lowers outside costs.

◼️ Strengthening Governance: Cost allocation supports risk oversight.

◼️ Supporting Scale: Growth does not automatically inflate legal cost.

For the legal department, Client Cost Strategies provide:

◼️ Demand Discipline: Reduced low-value or speculative requests.

◼️ Stronger Positioning: Legal seen as commercially aware.

◼️ Improved Planning: Better visibility into future demand.

◼️ Budget Credibility: Clear linkage between activity and cost.

◼️ External Spend Control: Better conversations with the business.

◼️ Reduced Friction: Fewer disputes about “why legal is expensive.”

◼️ Data for Transformation: Evidence to support automation and redesign.

◼️ Stronger Executive Support: Cost logic resonates with leadership.

◼️ Operational Focus: Effort aligned to value.

◼️ Sustainable Growth: Legal capacity scales intelligently.

Client Cost Strategies are essential for:

◼️ Senior Executives

◼️ Business Unit Leaders

◼️ Finance Teams

◼️ Commercial & Sales Teams

◼️ Procurement Teams

◼️ Project & Transformation Teams

◼️ Legal Operations Teams

◼️ General Counsel

◼️ In-House Legal Teams

◼️ External Counsel (indirectly)

Where Client Cost Strategies are absent or poorly designed, organisations experience:

◼️ Uncontrolled Demand: Legal is treated as “free.”

◼️ Hidden Cost Growth: Spend increases without visibility.

◼️ Misaligned Priorities: Low-value work crowds out critical matters.

◼️ Late Engagement: Cost uncertainty delays legal involvement.

◼️ Budget Shock: Unexpected external legal bills.

◼️ Internal Friction: Disputes between legal, finance, and the business.

◼️ Poor Forecasting: No ability to plan capacity.

◼️ Weak Governance: Cost and risk decisions are disconnected.

◼️ Ineffective Transformation: No baseline to justify change.

◼️ Erosion of Trust: Legal perceived as a cost centre, not a partner.

Supporting Client Cost Strategies requires:

◼️ Matter & Workflow Tracking: Visibility into legal activity.

◼️ Cost Attribution Logic: Ability to allocate effort and spend.

◼️ Integration with Finance Systems: Alignment with budgeting tools.

◼️ Analytics & Dashboards: Insight into cost drivers.

◼️ Work-Type Tagging: Differentiation by demand category.

◼️ External Spend Tracking: Clear attribution of outside counsel costs.

◼️ Scenario Modelling: Assessing cost strategy impacts.

◼️ Scalability: Works as volume and complexity increase.

◼️ Data Accuracy Controls: Reliable inputs underpin decisions.

◼️ Change Enablement: Easy refinement over time.