GCs to Law Firms: Pay for Your Own Tuna Fish Sandwiches - Law Blog - WSJ

Absolutely.  Those sneaky profits are really annoying.  Billing for Lexis and Westlaw: before they came along we didn't bill clients for the cost of our library.  I never billed clients for such things.  I paid for the Lexis subscriptions my practice required.  - GWC
GCs to Law Firms: Pay for Your Own Tuna Fish Sandwiches - Law Blog - WSJ: 
by Jennifer Smith

"Here’s a tip for law firms who want to keep clients happy: Don’t buy them fancy lunches with their own money. As The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, law-firm clients that cracked down on outside legal spending in recent years have turned their attention to the expense side of the bill. They’re fighting over line items such as photocopies and food, and pushing back hard on charges for pricey legal research databases such as Westlaw and LexisNexis. Their position: many of these costs are law firm overhead, and so shouldn’t be passed on to the client in the first place. “I think the relationship has changed, and the locus of power has shifted some, and the downturn had something to do with that,” said Christine Helwick, general counsel for California State University"

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