Study Shows Feds Spent $3.3 Billion on Outside Legal Work

An in-depth study of federal legal spending by the National Law Journal shows that the government has awarded $3.3 billion to more than 4,700 vendors for legal work over the last 5 years, the ABA Journal reports. Although most of the money was given to those who helped the Justice Department administer the federal program tasked with managing forfeitures, law enforcement training in other countries, and litigation support for disaster cases, the study found that about $400 million has gone to private law firms and solo practitioners.