Workloads and Workflows in the Legal Department

Author: Richard Stock
CCCA Magazine (Vol 2, No 3, Fall 2008) and ACLA Journal (Vol 18, No 3 Sept 2008)

None of the industry surveys asking about workloads differentiate the responses according to how many years lawyers have practised and how many of those years have been in-house. One hypothesis is that less experienced counsel carry a greater proportion of operational support work than do their more senior colleagues, since they have not had enough time to build working relationships and fine-tune their practice management skills.

Demonstrating the value of legal departments is not a challenge when expressed in financial terms. Legal work costs 40% of what it would were it to be purchased from a law firm. However, a great deal of the time spent by corporate counsel is not “legal work” as such. Some of it is business advisory, operational support, training, special projects and strategic work which would never be purchased from a law firm. It is diverse, interesting, and a contribution that recipients of these services openly appreciate. It is also the type of work which corporate counsel do not want to give up.

There are a number of structural and operating facts of life that, if not addressed, can add 20% to the workload of a legal department. The first deals with the demand for legal services. When interviewed, few counsel are able to detail the extent of the backlog and the future demand for their services. They are always busy, never “caught up” and constantly under pressure to satisfy their “clients” at all times.

But further analysis reveals that if no new files, phone calls or e-mail come in, there would be nothing to do in less than two weeks. Of course, this never happens, since the challenge is more about relentless demand (workflow) than it is about backlogs and workloads.

Saveria Dimasi, Head of Legal at the University of Melbourne, says her team of 12 lawyers uses a detailed matter management system to allocate work, track files, measure productivity and streamline resources. They have also adopted monthly, full-day file review meetings that involve everyone and that create a sense of team, build morale, celebrate successes, raise standards, share knowledge, and improve consistency of advice and practice.

Dimasi says that a highly motivated team that supports each other is key to getting the work done. Managing a group of “sole practitioners” may be easier, but ultimately it's counter-productive. She has put a lot of effort into shaping internal client behaviour by pushing “non-legal” work back to users, getting users to brief the legal team through a standardized instruction form and offering an extensive seminar program aimed at making key users better informed and able to support themselves.

At Pacific Hydro, a leading renewable energy provider with wind farms in Australia, Chile and Brazil, one of General Counsel Markus Ziemer's major challenges is supporting and servicing a business with a wide geographical spread. One of his critical strategies is ensuring the team's active involvement in the business and project planning processes to better anticipate demand for legal services.

Pacific Hydro's law department has worked hard to develop a set of precedents on which users are trained to rely. Ziemer says the company is experimenting with a “wiki”, through which people can add to certain legal documents with suitable editorial control. This approach secures more user engagement and interest in things legal - an on-line legal community - and ultimately improves the quality and comprehensiveness of the documents.

Vanguard Investments Australia General Counsel Kathryn Watt believes that being part of the company's executive team is pivotal in managing workflow and workload. Having a “seat at the table” gives her a good understanding of emerging strategic initiatives and projects that will require legal input. Getting involved early in the development of strategies enables her to pre-empt legal issues and minimize re-work, providing users with a realistic indication of turnaround times and possible workflow issues.

Watt schedules regular “catch-ups” with each key business unit manager, gets feedback on service performance, and identifies opportunities to improve. Vanguard has elected to have only one major external legal service provider. This in-depth relationship has reduced transaction costs and has allowed for better integration and use of resources to meet demands.

Paul Rogerson leads a team of 24 lawyers at Australia's fifth-largest financial institution, St. George Bank . He convenes a bi-weekly “load balancing” meeting with each sub-group within the larger legal team to assess each individual's work-in-progress and workload. In recent times, the team has worked to clarify what it does, what it does not do, and how it adds value. This “positioning” has helped shape when the department gets involved and when it does not.

Substantial increases in workloads invariably occur as the business grows or changes. Petro-Canada VP and General Counsel Rusty Miller and AXA Canada General Counsel Sylvain Hétu both use contract lawyers to supplement their regular teams, to keep work in-house and to handle time-sensitive work. Contract lawyers are integrated into the legal team and aligned with key business units across the company. The challenge is to keep workloads within bounds for contract lawyers, since many prefer part-time arrangements.

Changes to legal department structures, policies and operating practices must be combined to influence the type of work and the timing of its entry into the legal department. These include:

	service level agreements
	time management practices
	the number of law firms
	a capable legal assistant
	pushing back non-legal work
	precedents, document management, legal research capabilities
	contract lawyers
	user seminars
	a legal “wiki”
	regular meetings with users
	a seat at the executive table
	" load-balancing meetings in the legal department
	" dedicated resources for professional and administrative managemen

Managing workflow with the right combination of these techniques will take care of the workload issues.