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Private Draft QVM - Quality, Value, and Metrics
I. Introduction to QVM Legal
Professional services providers include legal, medical, and accounting professions. There is
considerable agreement about defining the characteristic features of a profession. Each has
professional associations, a knowledge base, established training, licensing, work autonomy,
colleague control, a code of ethics, and high standards of professional and intellectual excellence.
Members of a profession are individuals whose qualities of detachment, autonomy, and group
allegiance are more extensive than those found among other groups. Their clients are assured they
are making a responsible choice.
However, professions vary considerably on the definition and enforcement of quality principles and
standards. A comparison between the legal and accounting professions illustrates the objective and
subjective differences in approaches. In the accounting profession, results are repeatable and costs
can be evaluated. Accounting associations have institutionalized the standards and principles that
are uniformly accepted worldwide. Of course, the challenge is greater in the legal profession, which
relies principally on subjective standards. While the subject of measurable standards has been
discussed in the literature3, there are no global measurable standards or principles that are
consistently applied to define the quality of corporate and business-related legal services.
Before any system or program can be implemented, the quality standards in legal services must be
clearly defined and understood. In addition to taking into account the differences in the services, this
requires evaluating quality standards and principles from three different perspectives in professional
services: institutional, the individual professional or firm, and the business client. Ideally, their
standards should intersect.
The first perspective is that of institutions that have an interest is defining standards for their
members. For example, the International Standards Organization has issued eight management
principles (e.g. ISO 9000) to control quality management. They have created a quality standard
3 Paul Lippe, What if Someone Could Measure What Lawyers Do?, ABA JOURNAL (Feb. 8, 2012);
http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/what_if_someone_could_measure_what_lawyers_do/, Reed Smith, Measuring Firm
Quality with Client Value Initiatives (Oct. 28, 2014), Corporate Counsel, http://www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202674776843/Measuring-
Firm-Quality-With-Client-Value-Initiatives?slreturn=20170528123211, Mark A. Cohen, A New Metric to Evaluate Law Firm Quality, BIG LAW
BUSINESS (Jan. 6, 2016), https://bol.bna.com/a-new-metric-to-evaluate-law-firm-quality/, Susan Tahernia, Leading Practices in Law
Department Metrics – Company Best Practices, ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL (Oct. 2013);
https://www.acc.com/chapters/wpenn/upload/ACC-Leading-Practices-in-Law-Department-Metrics-Company-Best-Practices.pdf, Michelle
Graham, Using Metrics to Measure Law Department Performance Checklist, ABOVE THE LAW (May 3, 2016),
http://abovethelaw.com/?sponsored_content=using-metrics-to-measure-law-department-performance-checklist, H. He, The Strategic
Entry Behavior Choices of Firms under Minimum Quality Standard, THEORETICAL ECONOMICS LETTERS (April 12, 2015),
http://file.scirp.org/Html/6-1500626_52003.htm, Ram Phuyal & Niranjan Devkota, Strategic Entry Deterrence with New Technology under
Quality Regulation in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly ;
http://www.academia.edu/3540929/Strategic_Entry_Deterrence_with_New_Technology_under_Quality_Regulation_in_a_Vertically_Diff
erentiated_Duopoly, Ron Dolin, Getting to New Law: Standardized Quality Metrics, RADICAL CONCEPTS (March 25, 2017),
http://radicalconcepts.com/239/getting-to-new-law-standardized-quality-metrics/, ACC EUROPE ROUNDTABLE SESSION, Metrics and Concrete
Measures to Demonstrate Increasing Tangible Legal Value (May 4, 2012), http://www.acc.com/chapters/wpenn/upload/Metrics-and-
Concrete-Measures-to-Demonstrate-Increasing-Tangible-Legal-Value.pdf ,David J. Kappos & Stuart Graham, The Case for Standard
Measures of Patent Quality, SLOAN MIT REVIEW (Spring 2012), http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-case-for-standard-measures-of-
patent-quality/. Kenneth Grady, Debunking the Legal Service Quality Myth, SEYTLINES (March 25, 2015)
http://www.seytlines.com/2015/04/debunking-the-legal-service-quality-myth. Kenneth Grady, The 4 Most Important Ways to Measure
Law Department Effectiveness, SEYTLINES (August 1, 2014), http://www.seytlines.com/2014/08/if-you-could-have-only-4-what-4-would-
they-be/, Tyler Chapman & Amy Kosey, The Secret Law Firm Metric Clients Will Pay Their Attorneys to Improve, LEXISNEXIS (2017)
http://www.lexisnexis.com/business-of-law/insights/practice-management/white-papers/the-secret-law-firm-metric-clients-will-pay-
their-attorneys-to-improve, Tim Corcoran, The Changing Definition of Value: What Matters Most to In-House Counsel, CORCORAN BIZ BLOG
(Feb. 26, 2016), http://www.corcoranlawbizblog.com/2014/02/changingdefinition-of-value/.
Which Law Firm Metrics Are More Useful to Clients? LATITUDE LEGAL (Feb. 24, 2016) http://latitudelegal.com/resources/which-law-firm-
metrics-are-more-useful-to-clients/. Ron Dolin, A Call for Measuring Quality in Legal Services, BIG LAW BUSINESS (Mar. 30, 2015),
https://bol.bna.com/a-call-for-measuring-quality-in-legal-services/ Mary Juetten, Key Performance Metrics in the Innovation Department,
FORBES (June 15, 2016), https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2016/06/15/key-performance-metrics-in-the-innovation-
department/#27b353014694, Robert Ming, Meaningful Metrics for Transactional Legal Groups, INSIDE COUNSEL (Oct. 20, 2016),
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2016/10/20/meaningful-metrics-for-transactional-legal-groups.
3
I. Introduction to QVM Legal
Professional services providers include legal, medical, and accounting professions. There is
considerable agreement about defining the characteristic features of a profession. Each has
professional associations, a knowledge base, established training, licensing, work autonomy,
colleague control, a code of ethics, and high standards of professional and intellectual excellence.
Members of a profession are individuals whose qualities of detachment, autonomy, and group
allegiance are more extensive than those found among other groups. Their clients are assured they
are making a responsible choice.
However, professions vary considerably on the definition and enforcement of quality principles and
standards. A comparison between the legal and accounting professions illustrates the objective and
subjective differences in approaches. In the accounting profession, results are repeatable and costs
can be evaluated. Accounting associations have institutionalized the standards and principles that
are uniformly accepted worldwide. Of course, the challenge is greater in the legal profession, which
relies principally on subjective standards. While the subject of measurable standards has been
discussed in the literature3, there are no global measurable standards or principles that are
consistently applied to define the quality of corporate and business-related legal services.
Before any system or program can be implemented, the quality standards in legal services must be
clearly defined and understood. In addition to taking into account the differences in the services, this
requires evaluating quality standards and principles from three different perspectives in professional
services: institutional, the individual professional or firm, and the business client. Ideally, their
standards should intersect.
The first perspective is that of institutions that have an interest is defining standards for their
members. For example, the International Standards Organization has issued eight management
principles (e.g. ISO 9000) to control quality management. They have created a quality standard
3 Paul Lippe, What if Someone Could Measure What Lawyers Do?, ABA JOURNAL (Feb. 8, 2012);
http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/what_if_someone_could_measure_what_lawyers_do/, Reed Smith, Measuring Firm
Quality with Client Value Initiatives (Oct. 28, 2014), Corporate Counsel, http://www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202674776843/Measuring-
Firm-Quality-With-Client-Value-Initiatives?slreturn=20170528123211, Mark A. Cohen, A New Metric to Evaluate Law Firm Quality, BIG LAW
BUSINESS (Jan. 6, 2016), https://bol.bna.com/a-new-metric-to-evaluate-law-firm-quality/, Susan Tahernia, Leading Practices in Law
Department Metrics – Company Best Practices, ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL (Oct. 2013);
https://www.acc.com/chapters/wpenn/upload/ACC-Leading-Practices-in-Law-Department-Metrics-Company-Best-Practices.pdf, Michelle
Graham, Using Metrics to Measure Law Department Performance Checklist, ABOVE THE LAW (May 3, 2016),
http://abovethelaw.com/?sponsored_content=using-metrics-to-measure-law-department-performance-checklist, H. He, The Strategic
Entry Behavior Choices of Firms under Minimum Quality Standard, THEORETICAL ECONOMICS LETTERS (April 12, 2015),
http://file.scirp.org/Html/6-1500626_52003.htm, Ram Phuyal & Niranjan Devkota, Strategic Entry Deterrence with New Technology under
Quality Regulation in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly ;
http://www.academia.edu/3540929/Strategic_Entry_Deterrence_with_New_Technology_under_Quality_Regulation_in_a_Vertically_Diff
erentiated_Duopoly, Ron Dolin, Getting to New Law: Standardized Quality Metrics, RADICAL CONCEPTS (March 25, 2017),
http://radicalconcepts.com/239/getting-to-new-law-standardized-quality-metrics/, ACC EUROPE ROUNDTABLE SESSION, Metrics and Concrete
Measures to Demonstrate Increasing Tangible Legal Value (May 4, 2012), http://www.acc.com/chapters/wpenn/upload/Metrics-and-
Concrete-Measures-to-Demonstrate-Increasing-Tangible-Legal-Value.pdf ,David J. Kappos & Stuart Graham, The Case for Standard
Measures of Patent Quality, SLOAN MIT REVIEW (Spring 2012), http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-case-for-standard-measures-of-
patent-quality/. Kenneth Grady, Debunking the Legal Service Quality Myth, SEYTLINES (March 25, 2015)
http://www.seytlines.com/2015/04/debunking-the-legal-service-quality-myth. Kenneth Grady, The 4 Most Important Ways to Measure
Law Department Effectiveness, SEYTLINES (August 1, 2014), http://www.seytlines.com/2014/08/if-you-could-have-only-4-what-4-would-
they-be/, Tyler Chapman & Amy Kosey, The Secret Law Firm Metric Clients Will Pay Their Attorneys to Improve, LEXISNEXIS (2017)
http://www.lexisnexis.com/business-of-law/insights/practice-management/white-papers/the-secret-law-firm-metric-clients-will-pay-
their-attorneys-to-improve, Tim Corcoran, The Changing Definition of Value: What Matters Most to In-House Counsel, CORCORAN BIZ BLOG
(Feb. 26, 2016), http://www.corcoranlawbizblog.com/2014/02/changingdefinition-of-value/.
Which Law Firm Metrics Are More Useful to Clients? LATITUDE LEGAL (Feb. 24, 2016) http://latitudelegal.com/resources/which-law-firm-
metrics-are-more-useful-to-clients/. Ron Dolin, A Call for Measuring Quality in Legal Services, BIG LAW BUSINESS (Mar. 30, 2015),
https://bol.bna.com/a-call-for-measuring-quality-in-legal-services/ Mary Juetten, Key Performance Metrics in the Innovation Department,
FORBES (June 15, 2016), https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2016/06/15/key-performance-metrics-in-the-innovation-
department/#27b353014694, Robert Ming, Meaningful Metrics for Transactional Legal Groups, INSIDE COUNSEL (Oct. 20, 2016),
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2016/10/20/meaningful-metrics-for-transactional-legal-groups.
3
