Eaton Corp. general counsel Heath Monesmith started revamping his outside counsel strategy about two years ago, when the legal department was trying to deal with a sprawling inventory of 185 law firms.

Monesmith wanted to build deeper, more trusting relationships with outside counsel. “And you can only do that with a few firms,” he says. “It’s not practical to try and do it with a large number.” Eaton is a power management corporation registered in Ireland, but with operations based in Cleveland. It has over 96,000 employees doing business in more than 175 countries.