Company-wide training: It sounds good on paper and is theoretically designed to improve your staff's knowledge and performance. But long after the hours are completed, the booklets are shelved and the notes are misplaced, how much will you and your colleagues be able to recall from that hour or so of company training? Find some realistic solutions to making that information stick.
This ACC Value Practice piece highlights the Zurich North America law department’s practices relating to performance/value assessments for outside counsel, billing and convergence
Check this "How To" for a guide to why evaluation of outside counsel makes sense, and how to approach these evaluations for best results.
Southern California Edison Company Law department uses a review committee to conduct annual performance reviews of law firms and create report cards, and to make recommendations on conflict waivers.
Allstate's two-way performance assessment process for in-house lawyers and outside law firms is described, with links to performance surveys used by both groups.
Explores an alternative billing method that uses a risk/reward model for working with outside counsel.
Many have discussed the topic of selecting and retaining quality outside counsel, especially as it relates to efficient litigation. Here, the author explores this topic, with a focus on the law firm qualities that in-house attorneys should be looking for during this process.
Discusses the Open Legal Standards Initiative (OPLSI) and its mission to set the standard for quality and efficient legal services by developing business process and metrics classification systems, conducting benchmarking surveys, and preparing industry events and publications on these topics.
This article provides a roadmap for how to assess the performance of your outside counsel. It also offers some tips on how you can apply this information to both cut your outside legal bills and improve the quality of services you receive.
Law is the original outsourced function. Yet the question of what gets in-sourced and what gets outsourced has really never been systematically addressed. Rather than focusing on meaningful measures of law firm productivity and efficiency, law departments have emphasized scrutinizing the bill. Five key questions can help your department get service that is more attuned to your company's competitive environment.