Due to the global scale of Hearst’s operations, Burton encourages the OGC attorneys to use outside counsel for legal projects that require local counsel or niche expertise as well as for more basic work that can take time away from the more complex, mission-critical legal challenges. Doing this efficiently and cost-effectively, however, has become increasingly challenging as the hourly rates for law firm partners surpassed the $1,000 mark, on the one hand, and identifying smaller, less expensive providers became an extremely time-consuming endeavor with unreliable results, on the other. Because of these constraints, OGC attorneys were instead absorbing the work themselves, which meant they had less time to focus on more high-value projects.