When law firms think about client service, they often focus on the in-house lawyers they work with.
But what about other professionals in a corporate law department?
There may be no better place to address this question than the CLOC Global Institute, the largest U.S. legal operations event, which took place last week in Chicago.
In a conversation held last Wednesday, Emma Stedman, a Husch Blackwell partner and host of “The Grace Period” podcast, led a community discussion on the subject.
Here are what conference attendees, including legal ops pros and in-house lawyers, had to say about their relationships with outside counsel.
Question: What do you wish outside counsel knew about legal operations?
• “That they exist.”
From a Biglaw perspective, legal ops oversees many of the elements that can be critical to a successful engagement — things like budget, scope, timelines.
As one attendee noted, client companies are sure to focus on these areas. Legal ops can work with a law firm to ensure they’re all executed to the client’s satisfaction.
• “That they should be engaged in your matters.”
As a follow-up to the first response, one attendee noted that law firms should proactively ask in-house lawyers to also engage their legal operations team in a given matter.
There are strong incentives: Law firms that do so will get paid faster, and they’ll have a lot more efficiency in finding the proper company stakeholders to involve throughout a representation.
What does outside counsel get wrong in dealing with legal ops? What are your pet peeves?
• Inefficient use of internal resources.
One attendee provided a disclaimer: “I don’t want to open the debate about the billable hour.”
Still, she said, “inefficient use of internal resources” is a pet peeve. If law firms can use lower-cost resources on a matter, they should — and failure to do so will be noticed.
• Constant upselling.
For a law department, reaching out to their law firm in the first place can be a painful experience, according to one attendee. It’s made worse when a lawyer responds to a question with a plan that will make the engagement even more expensive.
What can outside counsel do that wins your approval?
• Involve the pricing committee
When lawyers decide to handle pricing personally, they can turn themselves into a bottleneck. A law firm pricing committee can relieve this pressure.
“Involve your pricing committee instead of trying to do it all yourself,” one attendee advised.
• Be punctual with estimates
Accurate and timely accrual statements will win the love of legal ops, one attendee noted. Law firms will win her favor if they “get them right the first time” and are punctual with submitting them.
• Tailor RFP responses
When a law firm responds to an RFP with “300 pages” of bios and other information that was not requested, this makes the process “harder, not easier,” an attendee noted.
Instead, firms score points with legal ops by sending representative experience that’s directly on-point with the request.
Firms should also communicate their assumptions behind their price estimates transparently.
The same goes for format. If a firm gets a PDF in a request for a proposal, it should respond with a PDF.
• Make the legal ops connection
Many law firms, of course, have their own legal ops teams.
As one participant noted, “some of the best collaboration happens” when firms facilitate the connection of these professionals on both sides.
Jeremy Barker is the director of content marketing for Breaking Media. Feel free to email him with questions or comments and to connect on LinkedIn.