“Richard Stock has been a significant contributor to the Buying Legal Council community since 2015. He authored four chapters in our book “Definitive Guide to Buying Legal Services” (published in 2021). Also in 2021, he won first place global award for “Innovation in Legal Services Procurement”. Richard has spoken at our conferences in New York, Chicago, London, and Sydney. He has led a dozen seminars, podcasts, and YouTube videos for our members. His experience makes him one of the most practical legal management consultants and a thought leader for the strategic sourcing of legal services.” – Dr. Silvia Hodges Silverstein, CEO, Buying Legal Council
“Avenue Living Asset Management is a rapidly-growing, entrepreneurial company based in Calgary and has expanding legal requirements. Our Legal and Risk Management Department recently grew to 17 individuals. We retained Catalyst Consulting to evaluate the demand for services and to recommend how we could better manage our workflows and workloads. Richard also provided us with business planning and communication tools, resource requirements, and key performance indicators for the next 2 years. I found his analysis to be methodical and his advice to be clear and practical.” – Kathleen Cowick, Senior Legal Counsel and Director of Legal Operations, Avenue Living Asset Management (2021)
“The Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) offers professional liability insurance and risk management services to more than 700 member hospitals and health organizations across nearly every province and territory in Canada.
Over the last 15 years, we have relied on Richard and Catalyst Consulting many times for their advice and assistance in forecasting our demand for legal services. Richard worked with us to introduce non-hourly fee arrangements with our primary law firm. He helped plan, and he participated fully in, negotiations respecting multi-year agreements for legal services. Richard was a significant contributor to HIROC receiving a 2013 Value Champion Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel.” – Mike Boyce, Vice President, Claims, Health Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (2019)
“I was introduced to Catalyst Consulting and Richard Stock while I was developing a strategy for the Legal Consulting category at Bell Canada. Richard’s vast knowledge, his approach to sourcing this category of spend by providing us with multiple scenarios to consider was instrumental in allowing us to negotiate structured agreements with Legal firms. Our agreements were very beneficial to us and provided direction to each of the firms we would retain as preferred vendors. Due to the success of our first experience, I called upon Richard for a second mandate at Bell Canada to further refine our agreements a few years later, again obtaining superior results in engaging with the Legal firms we had chosen. In my present role at National Bank of Canada, I engaged Richard again on two occasions, initially to help me rationalize our external Legal spend by segmenting the spend into categories with preferred suppliers, and subsequently to develop a methodology for spend referred by the Bank but paid for by our clients. On all the engagements I was very pleased with Richard’s deep knowledge, his focus and practical way in which he executes his mandates. During visits to the firms with whom we would be negotiating it was clear that Richard commands a high level of respect in the Legal profession. Richard & Catalyst Consulting are great partners to work with in a category that has multiple challenges and complexities.” – David Annett, Vice President Sourcing & Real Estate, National Bank of Canada (2019)
“I have known Catalyst Consulting and Richard’s work for many years. He was instrumental in customizing RFPs for Bombardier Transport and negotiating multi-year agreements with our primary firms on-site in Germany, the UK, the US and Canada. I was more recently his co-panelist for international programs in Paris and Vancouver. He is a prolific writer and thought leader – he continues to be one of the best at his craft domestically and internationally.” – Daniel Desjardins, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Bombardier, Inc. (2018)
“Velan’s portfolio of US legal services has been supported by ± 20 firms for more than 30 years. We retained Catalyst Consulting in 2014 and again in 2021 to develop a better and more cost-effective approach of working with external counsel for the next 3 years – one that provides predictable pricing.
Richard Stock carried out a comprehensive comparative analysis of law firm practice patterns by legal specialty and jurisdiction. Velan was able to migrate to a flexible, fixed fee pricing arrangement with a single firm covering national coordination and local counsel services in 20 US states. Richard was successful in negotiating all aspects of the arrangement with our preferred counsel, in large measure because he is an experienced and respected intermediary between corporate law departments and law firms.” – Sabine Bruckert, Executive VP, Human Resources, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Velan (2021)
“Veolia Environnement (Veolia), a world leader in environmental services, namely water, waste and energy management is a company incorporated under French law with its head office in Paris. We are active in 54 countries on five continents.
In 2019, Veolia launched a comprehensive project to optimize the procurement of external legal services. This resulted in a redefinition of relations with our lawyers in all regions. The project was structured by geographical area and consisted of “regional panels” aligned with a “global panel” of law firms that were selected following a call for tenders.
Our program was led by the legal and purchasing departments of the Veolia Group in Paris, and supported by Richard Stock from Catalyst Consulting serving as our Project Manager. Catalyst was responsible for the constitution of panels for the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. Catalyst Consulting demonstrated its solid international expertise both in terms of legal data analysis and the ability to negotiate with more than 30 law firms while knowing how to adapt to the constraints set by Veolia. Richard’s experience and skill made it possible for us to introduce new strategic partnering agreements for 3 years with each of our law firms.” – Bruno Masson, Deputy Group General Counsel, Veolia Environnement (2020)
“I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Stock while I was searching for the legal structure which would enable me to monitor all the legal matters that Turkish Airlines has worldwide. As the Chief Legal Counsel of the airline that flies to more countries than any other airline in the world, I was supposed to not only have an eye all the matters we have, but also to reduce the cost of legal spend. After a couple of meetings and calls, Richard fully understood what I needed and immediately came up with his tailor-made solution proposals and conducted the RFP process very smoothly. I would like to thank Richard once more for believing in me and making such a huge project happen.” – Ali Uysal, Chief Legal Counsel, Turkish Airlines (2018)
“Catalyst Consulting has been an advisor to several law departments where I have been the General Counsel over the last 19 years. The oil and gas sector is forever changing and lawyers must adapt. Richard has provided us with detailed analysis on workloads, workflows and resources. He is a skillful negotiator in arriving at cost-effective pricing for external counsel in Canada and the US. I know that many of my colleagues with the Alberta General Counsel Association regard his contribution as both practical and thought-provoking. Looking at his list of clients demonstrates the depth of his influence and speaks volumes about the confidence he enjoys throughout industry.” – Rob Van Walleghem, Vice-President and General Counsel, Trans Mountain Canada Inc. (2019)
“Richard Stock and Catalyst Consulting have been part of the CCCA fabric since 1996, which speaks to their profound commitment to helping the in-house bar better serve the businesses which employ them. They have developed and sponsored panels and presented at the national and chapter levels every year, and at 4 of our 5 international events. Richard was a regular contributor to our membership magazine, served in our mentor program, and developed a strategic plan for the CCCA some years ago. He continues to be a thought leader and highly regarded advisor as he collaborates with corporate and government legal departments in Canada, the US and abroad.” – Fred Headon, Ad. E., President (2013-14) Canadian Bar Association; Chair CBA Legal Futures Initiative (2012-2017); CCCA Board member (2007-12)