Resource Library

This Leading Practices Profile, an update to ACC’s 2009 The Role of the General Counsel in Canada LPP, describes practices implemented by the law departments of six organizations in Canada regarding law department structure, the professional development of their in-house lawyers, the selection and management of external service providers and the use of technology. Those practices were designed and intended to enable those departments to provide higher-value legal service to their respective organizations. Four of those organizations are private enterprises; one is an international, not-for-profit corporation and one is a statutory agency of a provincial government.

From intake through client satisfaction assessment, driving value in legal spending is happening in-house. These 2014 ACC Value Champions share how they apply risk-focused triage, play books, agile staffing, flexible sourcing and early dispute resolution to control legal spending.

The pressure is on to run legal departments more like businesses - applying analytics to sharpen focus, deploying technology to automate processes, thoughtfully cultivating talent to meet department needs, unbundling legal services, applying disciplined approaches to managing external resources and consciously continuing improvement.

This Leading Practices Profile, an update to ACC’s 2011 Crisis Management and the Role of In-House Lawyers: Company Leading Practices, features the leading business continuity and crisis management plans of four entities that share plan aspects, including core components, operational strategies, and lessons learned. The Profile also addresses the law departments’ role in prevention planning, training, risk assessment, crisis management, and continuity planning.

The ACC Law Department Management Report is a study of corporate law departments and their operations based on a survey of nearly 300 chief legal officers, general counsel, and legal operations professionals across 37 industries and 25 countries. This report builds on the chief legal officers survey and other ACC reports, discussing the qualities that drive high-performing legal operations in top law departments. This resource also contains benchmarks for companies and leaders looking to learn more about the evolution of the general counsel as a strategic business partner.

PowerPoint presentation related to process and project management.

ACC homepage poll results for the week of 6/6/2011 - 6/12/2011.

This InfoPAK examines the concept of organizational effectiveness and how corporate counsel can use its principles to effectively develop an international, “world-class” legal department. The InfoPAK focuses primarily on “soft” organizational development issues, including those relating to development of a shared vision and organizational culture for the legal department, and development of the people who make up the department. The InfoPAK begins with a discussion of the important foundational step of aligning the legal department’s priorities with the organization’s business strategy and developing a corresponding shared vision for the department. Discussions of successful management of client relationships and internal departmental issues including leadership issues and team management follow. Because change is the one constant in today’s legal department, the InfoPAK also discusses change management and creating a “one team” culture. Finally, it discusses metrics and measurement tools for managing organizational development.

ACC homepage poll results for the week of 9/19/2011 - 9/25/2011.

The ACC Guide to Value-Based Fees provides a step-by-step approach to help those new to the process get started and to help those who are veterans of the process consider whether there may be opportunities to improve what they already do. The checklists, flow-charts and tables are designed to help in assessing a particular matter to determine which value-based fee constructs would fit best, as well how to best implement and carry out those terms.