The In-House Perspective on Law Firms Using Client Products

Hey Biglaw partners, if you’re switching products to please your client, you may be wasting your time. Last week, we reported that Day Pitney is getting rid of all the free Cokes in its office in favor of client Pepsi-Co’s products.

This was disappointing news around the firm, since according to our survey, 78% of lawyers prefer Coke to Pepsi.

As we recounted anecdotally in that post, Day Pitney is not alone. Many firms have been known to switch products to please clients. One former Biglaw type who is now in-house says, though, that product loyalty is inconsequential.

For the record, I am now in house with a very large company and I have absolutely NO expectation whatsoever that any of our firms will require their staff and attorneys to use our products, and only our products. In fact, I would see a move like the one taken by Day Pitney as nothing but full, balls-to-the-wall pandering. Forget what soda you stock at meetings. How about you do good work and stop overbilling me? THAT’S what matters. Idiots.

Is this in-house lawyer’s analysis flat?

UPDATE: Others say Pepsi will can those who don’t drink their kool-aid, er, their Sierra Mist…

Another in-houser wrote to say:

I’m in-house and work with a colleague who’s formerly of PepsiCo. According to him, Pepsi is dead serious about their service providers stocking Pepsi products to the exclusion of others. He tells of lunch meetings where noobs took him and other Pepsi execs to restaurants that served only Coke products. Those ignorant wretches were duly schooled in the Pepsi way and either changed their behavior or suffered the consequence of lost accounts. For real.

So it’s a real thing. At Pepsi.

What about other companies? A product loyalty survey for in-house lawyers, below. For the non in-housers, here’s a link to the results.

Earlier: Day Pitney Lawyers: No Coke for You! What would your firm do to snag a client?