Page 97 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (n)
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matter expertise is needed. The general counsel and designated in-house legal team also make the
final decision. This is unlikely to change in the future.
What is Important to Legal Procurement Professionals?
Legal procurement professionals look for lawyers and law firms who have experience with
legal issues similar to the one at hand (for matter-specific RFPs) or for types of services the
company typically faces (when looking for panel firms). The firms’ and their lawyers’ know-how
and skills must be well matched. As a rule, procurement will want to know if the firm has done
similar work or solved a similar issue for another client. More advanced versions of this are
whether the lawyer or firm has argued in front of a particular judge or court. Procurement wants
to be sure outside counsel will be able to deliver the desired outcome and be efficient.
Procurement naturally looks to match the right firm with the right expertise for the right
amount of money: Value for money and service excellence is central to procurement when
evaluating firms’ offerings.
Procurement also looks for firms offering value-added options. Continued legal education
(CLE) seminars for in-house counsel and business-level training as well as hotline/helpline access
for in-house counsel and line management to ask quick questions are favorites among procurement
professionals. Other desired value-adds include in-person visits of the client’s office/plant/facility
to get to know their business; participation on internal calls that provide insight into a specific
business or practice area; Secondments of lawyers; provision or development of basic templates
and forms; conducting pre-matter planning sessions; and share-points with real-time access to the
company’s documents. (See the Buying Legal Council’s annual survey for further information.)
Procurement also looks at law firm’s approach to staffing (What is the lawyer to paralegal
ratio? What is the percentage of partner hours?) and how firms deliver the service. Project
management and process improvement capabilities have become important to legal procurement
professionals.
Procurement is certainly not shy about its intent to lower legal spending, and unless
alternative fee arrangements are used, legal procurement professionals clearly expect discounts on
law firm’s standard rates. It is untrue, however, that procurement professionals only look at the
lowest price without consideration of a firm’s expertise and experience.
What You Should Do Today
If your clients involve procurement, you may need to rethink how you deliver legal
services, reengineer your processes, improve your project management capabilities, boost your
pricing prowess, and perfect your cost management.
It is highly advised that you to develop relationships with your current and prospective
clients’ legal procurement professionals if you haven’t done so already. Do not wait until they
issue the next RFP. Get to know them, understand what is important to them and what drives their
decisions. You are more likely to prepare a proposal offer that is aligned with their intentions and
more likely to win the work. (See the Buying Legal Council’s latest book, “Winning Proposals,”
for further information.)
Think also about which legal tasks and projects you could or should standardize, and
automate and work with procurement to discuss the options. Show how you plan to bring real
efficiencies to their matters. Show that you are a great partner for their company.
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final decision. This is unlikely to change in the future.
What is Important to Legal Procurement Professionals?
Legal procurement professionals look for lawyers and law firms who have experience with
legal issues similar to the one at hand (for matter-specific RFPs) or for types of services the
company typically faces (when looking for panel firms). The firms’ and their lawyers’ know-how
and skills must be well matched. As a rule, procurement will want to know if the firm has done
similar work or solved a similar issue for another client. More advanced versions of this are
whether the lawyer or firm has argued in front of a particular judge or court. Procurement wants
to be sure outside counsel will be able to deliver the desired outcome and be efficient.
Procurement naturally looks to match the right firm with the right expertise for the right
amount of money: Value for money and service excellence is central to procurement when
evaluating firms’ offerings.
Procurement also looks for firms offering value-added options. Continued legal education
(CLE) seminars for in-house counsel and business-level training as well as hotline/helpline access
for in-house counsel and line management to ask quick questions are favorites among procurement
professionals. Other desired value-adds include in-person visits of the client’s office/plant/facility
to get to know their business; participation on internal calls that provide insight into a specific
business or practice area; Secondments of lawyers; provision or development of basic templates
and forms; conducting pre-matter planning sessions; and share-points with real-time access to the
company’s documents. (See the Buying Legal Council’s annual survey for further information.)
Procurement also looks at law firm’s approach to staffing (What is the lawyer to paralegal
ratio? What is the percentage of partner hours?) and how firms deliver the service. Project
management and process improvement capabilities have become important to legal procurement
professionals.
Procurement is certainly not shy about its intent to lower legal spending, and unless
alternative fee arrangements are used, legal procurement professionals clearly expect discounts on
law firm’s standard rates. It is untrue, however, that procurement professionals only look at the
lowest price without consideration of a firm’s expertise and experience.
What You Should Do Today
If your clients involve procurement, you may need to rethink how you deliver legal
services, reengineer your processes, improve your project management capabilities, boost your
pricing prowess, and perfect your cost management.
It is highly advised that you to develop relationships with your current and prospective
clients’ legal procurement professionals if you haven’t done so already. Do not wait until they
issue the next RFP. Get to know them, understand what is important to them and what drives their
decisions. You are more likely to prepare a proposal offer that is aligned with their intentions and
more likely to win the work. (See the Buying Legal Council’s latest book, “Winning Proposals,”
for further information.)
Think also about which legal tasks and projects you could or should standardize, and
automate and work with procurement to discuss the options. Show how you plan to bring real
efficiencies to their matters. Show that you are a great partner for their company.
82
