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Allocate Time Strategically in 2021
- December 14, 2020
- Category: Workflows and Workloads
- Publication: Legal Business World, Issue 8 (2020), pg 36 Canadian Lawyer In-House, December 2020
People who are paid more to work tend to work more hours. Altman Weil’s 2020 Chief Legal Officer Flash Survey reported that, in spite of the pandemic, this averaged out to 10% more. A 45-hour week becomes a 50-hour week.
Productivity gains of at least 10% are readily available when law departments work to have their non-core clients be more self-sufficient. It is noted that 40% of workloads for core clients is still routine work. General Counsel should have an accurate picture of the current and future demand for their department’s services. They should introduce work intake protocols to reduce routine work by 50%. Finally, they should attend to the practice management habits of each member of the law department. -
Adaptable and Resilient Law Departments Add Value
- November 5, 2020
- Category: Positioning and Strategy
- Publication: Canadian Lawyer In-House, website, published on 5 Nov 2020 Legal Business World, Issue 7 (2020) on page 23
Six Chief Legal Officers share their views about the current state of their law departments and the outlook for the next six months. The article covers workflows and workloads, the relationship of the law department with business units, law department resources, performance and the relative use of external counsel.
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Thoughts on Pricing Legal Services
- October 9, 2020
- Category: Managing Total Legal Spend
- Publication: Legal Business World (Issue 6-2020) at pg 53 and Canadian Lawyer In-House website, posted 8 October 2020
One study reported that 65% of 316 companies surveyed did not consider or did not heavily use Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs). Legal and Procurement departments must be highly proficient in law firm economics, AFAs, law firm culture, and partner compensation systems. Specific questions are recommended for inclusion in the Request for Proposals (RFP). Fee arrangements must demonstrate efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation in legal work and in service delivery.
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Critical Preparations
- August 15, 2020
- Category: Managing Total Legal Spend
- Publication: Canadian Lawyer In-House, Website, Opinion section Legal Business World, Issue 5 (2020)
There are preparations critical to effective sourcing of external legal services. A formal set of financial and non-financial objectives should be reduced to writing and agreed upon between the Law and Procurement departments. The roles and responsibilities for each should be explicit with the law department focused on non-financial negotiations with law firms. The Request for Proposals or Invitation should detail the scope of work for the reference period and it should ask a range of financial questions as well as address operating and professional practices.
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Three Principles for Explicit Work Intake Criteria, post-COVID-19
- July 1, 2020
- Category: Workflows and Workloads
- Publication: Canadian Lawyer In-House, Opinion website Legal Business World, Issue 4 (2020)
Conversations with 15 General Counsel over 3 days focused on four challenges: business plans and metrics; workflows and workloads; the organization and resources of the law department; and relationships with external counsel. Workloads are, by far, the greatest challenge. But few departments have programs in place to reduce routine work. Three principles should be applied to intake criteria: demonstrate productivity improvements in legal, increase coverage for specialization and special or strategic projects, and calculate the savings from additional resources.
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Benchmarking Law Department Operations
- June 25, 2020
- Category: Benchmarking and Surveys
- Publication: Canadian Lawyer In-House, website
The article profiles the ACC report on benchmarking law department operations and best practices across 15 functions and 92 sub-functions. The article examines the External Resources Management function and its 13 sub-functions. From 50% to 75% of the 316 respondents are only in the early stages of adopting leading practices.
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Three Basic Competencies for Corporate Counsel
- May 29, 2020
- Category: Performance Management
- Publication: Canadian Lawyer In-House website, Opinion section and Legal Business World, Issue 3 (2020)
There are at least three basic competencies which corporate counsel should master by the time they reach their 10th year of practice: efficiency, relationship-building and legal project management. Proficiency in each can be improved with the right protocols and training.
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The Critical Elements of Non-Hourly Billing
- April 4, 2020
- Category: Managing Total Legal Spend
- Publication: Canadian Lawyer In-House (website) and Legal Business World
Traditional legal panels cannot be strategic for three reasons. First, hourly-based fees mitigate against the client’s objectives. Second, companies rarely commit to a volume of work over time. Third, hourly fees make it difficult to target innovation.
The 8 critical elements for non-hourly pricing are: solid historical data; scoping the demand for legal services; a clear strategy for the preferred way to retain counsel; a well-designed RFP; a well-configured alternate fee arrangement; two rounds of fee discussions with preferred law firms; ad a master agreement with each firm that goes far beyond billing guidelines. -
Budgeting Complex Legal Work
- February 1, 2020
- Category: Managing Total Legal Spend
- Publication: Lexpert, February 2016 at pg 66
Our survey of 50 matter budgets from 20 law firms revealed that 80 % of the firms did not have standards and templates for budgeting complex matters in several specialties. Detailed matter budgets set out the hours for individual timekeepers by phase and task. They also set out the planning assumptions as well as a probability, expressed as a percentage, for each assumption. Law departments should master legal project planning and budgeting.
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The [8] Critical Elements for Successful Non-Hourly Pricing
- January 26, 2020
- Category: Managing Total Legal Spend
- Publication: Buying Legal Council, Buying Legal Brief, 2nd instalment
The 8 critical elements for non-hourly pricing are: solid historical data about law firm staffing ratios and geographic distributions for each legal specialty; a 3 to 5-year forecast of the demand for legal services; a clear strategy on the best way to source and retain external counsel; a carefully designed RFP covering qualitative and financial elements; pricing, including non-hourly pricing, building on blended rates to achieve optimal staffing; a first round of pricing negotiations designed to customize initial pricing; a second round of negotiations to finalize pricing and operating protocols; and a master agreement with law firms covering service delivery, pricing and innovation.
Articles on Demand – Archive