Maximizing Outside Counsel Value
VALUE IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL
We’ve spent January focusing on controlling costs and improving outside counsel management, but we want to end the month focusing on the ultimate goal, getting the most VALUE for your spending and maximizing outside counsel value.
COST ISN'T EVERYTHING
It’s relatively easy these days to monitor outside counsel costs, and legal spend tracking is one of the most frequently used capabilities of Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) systems. Still, it is only part of the picture.
Focusing only on cost can obscure important considerations like quality and timeliness and can (ironically) drive up long-term spending.
Maximizing Ouside Counsel Value: What to do
Here are three tips to get the most value from your Outside Counsel Program:
Define Clear Guidelines
It’s essential to identify what’s important (and valuable) to you and clearly and concisely codify the Outside Counsel behaviors needed to support these goals in your Outside Counsel Guidelines
Track Qualitative Metrics
Quantitative metrics like Spend per OC are excellent, but measuring qualitative elements of OC performance gets to the heart of value. Implement internal surveys to evaluate OC quality and responsiveness and leverage reports from your IP Management system to stay on top of OC timeliness and help ensure you are maximizing outside counsel value.
Regularly Evaluate Everything
Never stop reviewing and improving your metrics, measurements, and processes.
