While the days of unilaterally choosing hearing dates (and settling disputes according to a lawyer`s desired schedule) may be over, some of the best (or at least better) practices have emerged for in-house and external counsel trying to manage litigation in the context of a cluttered court calendar. Efficiency seems to be the top priority for many in-house lawyers. In the same survey, they cited cost pressures and doing more for less as their biggest efficiency challenges. Other challenges such as managing the company`s digitization and technology initiatives, improving operational efficiency and streamlining work processes were also mentioned. „Corporate legal departments are under tremendous pressure to change. The firm has higher expectations than before, and legal departments need to do more riskier legal and compliance work,“ said Jason Heinrich, a partner in Bain & Company`s Chicago office and a leader in performance improvement and legal and compliance operations. When it comes to alternative fee arrangements, the best things don`t come to those who wait. „The question we should ask ourselves is, `How do you run this group like a businessman would lead theirs? “ said Tim Murphy, General Counsel at MasterCard. Now working as a GC, Murphy has a decade of leadership experience at MasterCard – an understanding he can use to lead his legal team with an inherent understanding of what senior management requires of them.
At the same time, legal departments are under increasing pressure to balance costs and outcomes, to control costs and deliver results, despite changing regulatory and compliance environments that increase their workload. When it comes to obtaining legal services internally, externally and automatically, we recommend a strategic approach – again, based on tasks and risks. The best structure for the legal function varies greatly by company and industry, and should focus not only on the tasks, but also on the risks and opportunities facing the organization as a whole. This broader context should influence structural decisions such as the size of the legal team, how and where lawyers are deployed, and whether to open or close local legal services in specific locations. It is also essential to define the right governance and controls to ensure that the business model works as intended. This mentality is one that Heinrich says is common in the best internal departments he`s come across. GC sits down with members of the GC Powerlist: France Legal 500 to get an overview of the French economy and the legal market. A final challenge in designing the target operating model is defining the right actions to evaluate and manage the performance of the legal team. Legal functions often lack the transparency and data they need to track the real value they bring.
Investopedia defines servant leadership as a philosophy in which an individual interacts with others, whether in a management or employee role, with the goal of gaining authority rather than power. The main objective of the incumbent leader is to serve the people instead of dictating to the people what to do. This type of leadership applies to both official heads of the legal department and lawyers who do not have a formal leadership role within departments. The ultimate goal of Servant Leadership for General Counsel is to recognize and meet the needs of in-house legal services for clients. When a General Counsel leads by serving the company, team members, clients and the Board of Directors, he or she can effectively perform his or her duties. With all the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, it is important to serve the client with empathy and compassion. When communicating with customers about the company`s actions during the pandemic, it`s important to show empathy and compassion and express the company`s collective support for customers. The Advocate General must use an assignable tone. For each of the various responsibilities of the legal department, determining the right suppliers involves considering the following: Emphasizing clarity of goals, proactive communication, and reporting can go a long way toward aligning the department`s goals with business goals. The objectives of the legal department as a strategic business partner must be goal-oriented, future-oriented, achievable and measurable.
You can track certain metrics, such as actual spending compared to the initial budget, the number of law firms used, the number of legal issues handled by each law firm, and the fees paid to each firm. This information can help in-house legal teams make informed decisions about assigning work to specific law firms in the future. „He is more focused on becoming a trusted strategic business advisor, especially as the companies they serve are under increasing pressure from disruptive forces. The GC needs to gain the trust of the CEO and board while finding a way to influence the legal and business situation more strategically,“ Heinrich said. „Objectives and legal measures should be directly linked to the company`s objectives and have an impact on departments. For example, if a company`s strategic goal is to increase the rate of adoption of new products, the legal department should have a set of departmental objectives and measures related to partnering with research and development to accelerate legal support for patent and licensing requirements,“ says Heinrich. „The focus is on improving processes across the company, how we can lean down, improve everything we do in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, and the methodology to achieve that. In our legal department, we review all the activities and outcomes that are expected of us, mapping them step by step – all the processes that underpin those activities and services; We identify all the steps that add value; And we eliminate all the steps for which we cannot identify any value or convincing justification for accomplishing the task.
It forces people to think of their legal work as process-driven, and ultimately it helps us become more effective and efficient,“ says Marclay. As legal departments look for new ways to better manage costs; The challenge is to reduce costs without trading short-term cost reductions for a riskier or worse service. With that in mind, here are some examples of the most common goals that forward-thinking legal services aspire to: It may seem obvious, but it`s the way to find legal providers at a lower cost. Legal departments at companies with extensive litigation, employment issues, intellectual property (IP) issues, or mergers and acquisitions (M&A) may consider hiring outside of the legal hot spots of New York, Los Angeles, or London. Instead, much of the work — with no significant change in the quality of work — can be done by lower-cost regional law firms in cheaper parts of the United States, such as Kansas City, Missouri, Nashville, Tennessee, or Denver. In addition, the Centurion Plus model presents clients with an agile and personalized legal and advisory offering that brings together a team of experienced lawyers for each transaction on a project basis. Like any new law model, Centurion Plus allows you to minimize your legal fees because you don`t pay for overhead, health services, or employee assistance you don`t need. You only pay for the actual services of your lawyers. Not only that, you`ll improve for less because your legal team isn`t under pressure to meet a quota of billable hours.
With Centurion Plus, you gain efficiency because your team`s only responsibility is the work you give them, allowing them to work with minimal disruption and complete projects faster. The flexibility of the template also gives you control over your projects. Becoming a new in-house counsel can be intimidating. The 24 tips and things to keep in mind for new in-house lawyers will hopefully give some perspective on the new role they will play for their business. While the process may require a change in mindset and take many GCs out of their comfort zone, Marclay emphasized that it is a valuable process for any internal department. The COVID pandemic has strained most companies` budgets as these internal teams need to ensure that they try to minimize costs while reducing the work pressure on their teams. In-house counsel can minimize the costs of withholding outside lawyers through a variety of approaches, such as hiring NewLaw firms instead of traditional large law firms that use the traditional billable hourly model. Unlike traditional law firms, NewLaw firms are moving away from billable hours and focusing on other billing arrangements that charge on a project or fixed fee basis. This model is not only cheaper, but also more flexible and provides more efficient services to internal services. This strategy could mean tapping into legal talent in other countries, such as India, where employees or contractors can perform the most routine type of legal work, such as reviewing contracts and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), due diligence on M&A transactions, or other high-volume, low-risk tasks.
„In terms of performance management, effective dashboards serve a variety of functions: they help set the context; translating corporate strategy into operational terms for the legal function; act as an accelerator of change; support data-driven decision-making; promoting an appropriate allocation of resources; and provide trend data to measure progress over time,“ says Heinrich. Process – Streamline core processes to achieve key legal objectives In the past, many legal teams focused on defining and standardizing their support processes. This helps the organization`s lawyers maintain consistent records and documents that match the types of issues they deal with (e.g., mergers and acquisitions, litigation, tax matters).
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