The Value-Able Law DepartmentExecutive Summary:
The current pressures on law departments. which are likely to intensify rather than abate, are such that the law departments must explore new avenues to maximize the value that their companies realize from their investment in legal services. The internal and external resources deployed on a company's behalf must all contribute as fully and as efficiently as possible to achieving the company's legal goals. Benchmarking against other law departments may no longer satisfy the expectations of corporate management, since many companies have driven continual improvement processes throughout the rest of their organizations. They're unlikely to accept anything less from their in-house lawyers.
Those pressures will, therefore, prompt forward-thinking law departments to re-examine their approaches to identifying and deploying the legal resources at their disposal. They likely will revisit periodically the "make-or-buy" equation. In the context of their companies' uses of outside legal expertise, rather than engage in the discussion of "do we retain the lawyer or do we retain the law firm," they should ask something akin to the following question: "which outside lawyer can best provide the specific type of legal expertise we need and how can we most effectively combine that lawyer's assistance with that of the other members of the legal team?"
The line between work done by internal talent and that completed by external talent may need to be redrawn for a variety of reasons. In some cases, perhaps more work should be completed by in-house attorneys and other personnel of the company. Other companies may need to assign more work to outside counsel in order to achieve the most efficiency. Some companies may find that they should pull more work in-house on some matters and more work should be handled by outside counsel as to other matters.
What talents should a law department have on its staff to meet the company's legal needs? How should it fill the slots so identified?
Correspondingly, what types and amounts of legal talent will it need among its external legal advisers? Where should they be located?
Once it determines what work should be completed in-house and which assignments are better left to outside counsel, how can a law department assure itself (and its corporate management) that the entire team of lawyers and other professionals (both inside and outside the company) will work together seamlessly so as to deliver the best legal work appropriate to meet the company's needs?
In addition to recalibrating the application of personnel and other resources internal and external, law departments should consider whether techniques that they might have failed to apply previously can assist them in delivering the "most bang for the buck" that their companies spend on their legal needs. Does "total quality management" offer some benefits that would be useful in that regard? Might some project management approaches provide insight into the most appropriate use of legal talents?
Ultimately, law departments will need to become more specific and granular in their selection of personnel and outside counsel. Rather than continue to the age-old debate of "choose the lawyer" versus "choose the law firm," law departments will need to assemble teams of individuals to represent their companies in specific matters (litigation or otherwise). While some law departments have formed teams by having several of their network law firms work together on one or more matters, in at least some situations in-house lawyers will need to dig into the firms and other organizations with which they're familiar to select individuals or groups to form ad hoc, cross-organizational teams. They may have to find on-demand or contract solutions to immediate talent voids when a longer term solution is not feasible or appropriate.
This book addresses the implications of such a more-granular approach to identifying and selecting the legal resources necessary to address a company's needs for legal service. How might that approach affect or change the nature of the relationship between in-house and outside counsel? What tools and techniques will law departments need to implement such an approach? Will they need to find new expertise or train the in-house lawyers on new approaches or techniques?
Table of Contents:
Part One: Identifying and deploying internal resources to maximum value and advantage
Chapter 1: Value - Some thoughts regarding a definition
- The in-house counsel perspective
- Factors affecting value
- A discussion of ‘quality’
Chapter 2: The measure of value
- Internal and external factors affecting value determination
- The balancing act of resources versus goals
Chapter 3: Planning to identify and apply the appropriate resources
- Contents of a strategic plan
- Strategic strengths and challenges
Chapter 4: Identifying the highest value of in-house counsel
- Benefits and value of in-house counsel
- Qualification and skills of in-house counsel
- Case study: A new in-house lawyer focuses on delivering value
Chapter 5: The role and importance of metrics
- Benchmarking
- Self-diagnosis
- Selecting measurements
- Case study: American Express
- Case study: Motorola
Chapter 6: The ‘make-or-buy’ dilemma
- Cost
- Necessity of admission to practice
- Type(s) of legal work that comprise most of the ongoing work for the company
- The degree to which the particular work is core to the business
- Volume of work and its variability
- Business plans and expectations
- Location work to the extent that work must be done in particular locations
- Centrality of issues to the company’s compliance posture
- Importance of consistency across matters
- Corporate culture/ethos
- Repetitiveness of issues or matters
- Frequency of the need for counseling
Chapter 7: Areas to consider for possible increased in-house role
- Creating a discovery centre within the law department to increase security of data
- Creating a discovery management unit to realize better results in addition to cost savings
- Utilizing on-demand personnel to reduce costs
Chapter 8: The knowledge management challenge
- Why does an organization need a knowledge management system?
- Compliance: A particularly difficult knowledge management challenge
- What value can a knowledge management system offer?
- Hurdles to an effective knowledge management system
- Overcoming the hurdles
- Conclusion
Chapter 9: Using technology to realize greater value
- Improved collaboration
- Case study: Creating a law department extranet to enhance collaboration with outside counsel
- Technology to enhance compliance
Chapter 10: Law department organization and structure
- Managing disputes and litigation
- Compliance
- Managing outside counsel
- Support of the board of directors and the corporate secretary function
- Contract management and administration
- Human resources and employment law
Chapter 11: Cost control – Some possible approaches
- Counsel-selection tools
- Counsel-management tools
- Information management
Part Two: Identifying and deploying external resources to maximum value and advantage
Chapter 12: The value of outside counsel
- Amount of resources
- Type of resource
- Location of resources
- Expertise
- Connections
Chapter 13: An overview of the identification and selection of outside counsel
- Methods of identifying candidate law firms
- A new, improved approach
- Ongoing evaluation
Chapter 14: Unbundling the outside legal service to realize increased value
- Legal research
- Document or data management
- Court reporting
- Temporary or on-demand personnel
- Case study: Unbundling
Chapter 15: The importance of consistent process
Chapter 16: Don’t select either the firm or the lawyer – Select ‘appropriate counsel’
- Case study: Team building
Chapter 17: Setting yourself up to succeed
- Project management
- Strategic partnering
- Business objectives for resolving litigation
- Communication
Chapter 18: Prepare to defend your selection
- Case study in the use of objective criteria
- Evaluation against stated expectations
- Case study: KONE, Inc.
Chapter 19: Managing outside legal resources to maximize their contribution to achieving business goals
- Selection of outside counsel
- The retention of counsel
- Day-to-day management of counsel
- The importance of communication
- Evaluation of firms
- Incorporating other providers in its legal service delivery
Chapter 20: Fees and value
- Corporate law department perspective
- Law firm perspective
- The contexts in which alternative fees should be discussed by clients and law firms
- Alternative fees – Different types
- Fixed fee
- Blended rates
- Retainer
- Value-based fee
- Case study: Engaging clients in a ‘value’ discussion about assignments to support alternative fees
- Percentage fee
- Contingent fee
- Task-based fee
- Hourly rate plus contingency
- Volume discount
- Incentives to expedite
- Task-based budgeting
- Graduated discount
- Convergence
- Obstacles to wider use of alternative fee arrangements
- Overcoming the hurdles
Chapter 21: Law firm structure and its impact on value
- Case study: A law firm structure that benefits clients by delivering more value
- Case study: Impediments to law firm being responsive to client’s needs regarding value
Chapter 22: Reporting by outside counsel
- Case study: Wal-Mart
Chapter 23: Tracking your success and reporting about it
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