The Hill Times: Harlow explained that when it comes to routine legal work of the government, “it becomes cheaper for in-house counsel to handle those matters, partially because they become more efficient at it, as opposed to hiring firms to do one-off work, and generally, quite frankly, the hourly rate for in-house counsel is, as a general rule, much cheaper than that of external counsel.”
“External counsel can play a role in highly specialized matters, but they are no substitute for a strong, stable legal workforce within the public service. Federal government lawyers are not a discretionary expense,” Harlow said…