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LEGAL DEPARTMENTS
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Legal Department Positioning & StrategyEffectiveness is the ultimate test of the legal department. Getting the plan right is the first step. There are roles ranging from operational support to strategic contributor which can be carried out. Our offerings include
For further information on positioning the legal department and executing business strategy, contact Richard Stock at rstock@catalystlegal.com or (416)367-4447.
Articles on Positioning & Strategy
"Re-Calibrating for Business Now" Borrowing from a study of Canadian corporate and institutional clients, the article suggests only 40% of professional service providers expected better results than in 2009 and 2008. Clients remain cautious in retaining external expertise, partially to contribute to reductions in corporate legal spending. Discussions take longer or are postponed. "Efficiency, Partnering and Value" The article highlights a presentation made by the general counsel of 4 airlines in March. Efficiency includes the annual re-alignment of legal resources with business plans, and doing so with a view to reducing operational support and the increasing strategic contributions.Four trends were identified in the selection of law firms: invitational tenders to stabilize legal teams, prices and workflows; assignment of all levels (routine to complex) cost-effectively to full-service firms; shifting work to less expensive firms; and an accelerated program to alternative fee arrangements. The panel concluded that the best way for a legal department to show its value is by delivering results without compromising service levels.
"Shaping Strategy and Metrics for the Legal Department" Microsoft's strategic framework for its legal department contains 30 indicators across seven categories, all geared toward impact and effectiveness. There is external reporting of performance against the indicators. The department also relies on "foundational metrics" for its internal management. These include client satisfaction, budget performance, and employee satisfaction and organizational health.
"Designing the Smaller Legal Department" Five operating principles are suggested for use in the design of smaller legal departments. Best practices are advanced to sustain the department as a center of expertise. "Why Strategy Doesn't Work in Law Departments" Five factors which inhibit the execution of strategy are applied to law departments. They are executive leadership that is not mobilized, strategy that is not translated into operational terms, poor alignment with business units, strategy execution that is relegated to being someone else's job, and poor direction and communication on strategic goals.
"Re-evaluating Cost and Value" Workloads and pressured schedules inhibit many legal departments from addressing service delivery challenges posed by their business units. Few departments have introduced formal protocols to triage and turn back work from primary internal users, preferring instead to lengthen the queue and cater to unrealistic expectations for service from the legal department. CLOs must become more adept at collaborative budgeting of legal matters, communications, and volume management with their law firms. The article invites corporate counsel to intervene around three elements of the law firm business model: attrition, leverage and hourly billing.
"The Value Challenge" The components of the Value Challenge launched by the Association of Corporate Counsel in 2008 are discussed. The article suggests six elements essential to a sustainable relationship with law firms: 3-year demand forecasting for legal services, a new balance of in-sourced and referred work, non-financial expectations for law firms, formal requests for proposals (be they sole-sourced or competitive) from law firms, multi-year commitments for work volume and type to law firms, and the need for rigorous project and matter budgeting processes applied to legal work.
"SMART Rewards: the Contribution of the Law Department to Corporate Priorities" Performance management programs patterned on a balanced scorecard architecture can be a valuable tool for a corporation and its legal department. The article suggests fives sets of inputs General Counsel should use to construct their department's performance plan: the corporate strategic plan, a critical success factor framework or checklist, a SMART test, specific initiatives, outcomes / targets and measures / indicators, and a program to develop the department's intellectual capital.
"Drawn and Quartered: The Municipal Law Department" Municipal mergers and population growth have generated more legal work for law firms. They have also created 5 challenges for municipal law departments: broad-based poorly defined roles and responsibilities, unclear accountability to political and administrative masters, a growing demand for commercial skill sets, failure to leverage long-term partnering arrangements with fewer law firms, and failure to use key performance
indicators which matter.
"Redefining Expectations" For those departments that wish to show how to add value, the steps are defining a role and mandate within the organization, harnessing expertise to uncover new value, adopting a client service orientation and establishing benchmarks to measure success.
"Alignment for Effectiveness" High performance law departments are effective and not only efficient. They have four types of alignment targets: corporate priorities, CEO objectives, key business units, the priorities of the company's strategic business partners. Examples of targets for each of these are presented.
"Five Alignment Strategies for Insurance Clients" Law firms use five techniques to become better aligned with their insurance clients: law firm goals that are measureable for the insurer, communication initiatives, delegation, rigorous case planning and budgeting, and non-hourly based billing. |
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