Are Your Outside Counsel Guidelines Working For or Against You?
Last week we provided a checklist for building an Outside Counsel Management program; this week, we’re talking about Outside Counsel Guidelines.
The Harsh Reality
Guidelines are increasingly commonplace, but the reality is that they often fall short of delivering the quality or cost savings envisioned.
Even worse, in a 2021 law firm study commissioned by Aderant, 2/3rd of respondents reported that only a small percentage of their attorneys even knew what was in their client’s guidelines.
Are You Serious?
We see a lot of teams put together outside counsel guidelines and ship them off to their firms with little to no follow-up and no internal ownership.
These same teams don’t monitor for compliance, don’t provide feedback to firms, and – wait for it… Are surprised that firms aren’t following their guidelines.
Make no mistake – an Outside Counsel Management program and Outside Counsel Guidelines are a lot of effort and a serious commitment. If you don’t dedicate the time and resources, the outcome is likely to be as bad, if not worse, than having no guidelines at all.
If you’ve made the leap, created your Outside Counsel Guidelines, but things still don’t seem to be working, what should you do? Read on!
Outside Counsel Guidelines: What to do!
Here are three tips to help improve your OC guideline performance and compliance:
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Is it even possible to follow your guidelines? Many are so long and complex that even with training, they can’t be followed. Simplify your guidelines, then simplify them more.
Rethink Your Communication Plan
You conducted a training session, but who attended? What about new associates? To improve coverage, create recorded sessions, easy-to-read summaries, and a confirmation process.
Partner With Outside Counsel
Outside counsel wants a successful partnership and knows what is and isn’t working. Partner with them to identify and fix guideline problems.
