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Mar 29
4 min

Priorities and Backlogs

By Richard G. Stock This is the twenty fifth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations.. Inside counsel always have more than enough work to do. In contrast to how law firms arrange the distribution of work to associates and paralegals, corporate counsel usually do more than 90 % of the work on a given matter, regardless of its complexity and regardless of the experi

Author Contribution

Feb 10
4 min

Allocate Time Strategically in 2021

By Richard G. Stock This is the twenty fourth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. Six years ago, the December 20th issue of The Economist featured a piece that asked the question “Why is Everyone So Busy?”, sub-titled in search of lost time. The article was thoughtful yet frustrating because it did not offer any real solution. There is no path to balance, it s

Author Contribution

Dec 24, 2020
4 min

Adaptable and Resilient Law Departments Add Value

By Richard G. Stock This is the twenty third in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. In October, I had the opportunity to interview six Chief Legal Officers about the current state of their law departments and about the outlook for the next six months. Approximately 70% of non-government law departments in Canada have 5 or fewer lawyers. So, I chose from this cros

Author Contribution

Nov 30, 2020
4 min

Thoughts on Pricing Legal Services

By Richard G. Stock This is the twenty-second in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) released a comprehensive report benchmarking legal operations in March 2020. The law department maturity model uses three stages to survey 15 functions, with one of these being External Resources Management. The findings were telling. On

Author Contribution

Oct 29, 2020
5 min

Critical Preparations

By Richard G. Stock This is the twenty-first in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. My first article for Legal Business World was “Negotiating with Law Firms” in early 2018. For the most part, it reported the findings of Altman Weil’s Chief Legal Officer survey (2017). At the time, I concluded that “fair and informed negotiation of operating and financial arrang

Author Contribution

Sep 28, 2020
4 min

Three Principles for Work Intake Post Covid-19

By Richard G. Stock This is the twentieth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. Some years ago, I attended a series of conferences to meet individually with US chief legal officers. As a legal management consultant, my goal was to identify the primary management challenges faced by each CLO. My last set of meetings in Tucson covered a broad range of industry se

Author Contribution

Aug 27, 2020
4 min

Three Basic Competencies for Corporate Counsel

By Richard Stock. This is the nineteenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. We are all so busy that enough time is seldom taken to perfect the competencies to manage a legal practice within a law department. For that matter, not enough time is invested by senior corporate counsel to acquire the administrative, professional and management competencies to lead

By Richard G. Stock

May 25, 2020
6 min

The Critical Elements of Non-Hourly Pricing

This is the eighteenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. Companies have managed legal sourcing processes for more than 20 years. A great deal has been achieved. There is less improvisation about who gets the work. There is more predictability in pricing. And in many instances, convergence in the number of firms has come along nicely – to the point that some

By Richard G. Stock

Mar 19, 2020
4 min

Budgeting Complex Legal Work

This is the seventeenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to their organizations. Very few lawyers enjoy budgeting for complex legal matters. This is equally true for inside counsel and partners in law firms. I recently had the opportunity to review 50 budgets from 20 law firms. Some were for commercial agreements, but most were for complex litigation. At the low end, the smallest

By Richard G. Stock

Feb 5, 2020
5 min

Why a Productivity Improvement Fee Arrangement?

This is the sixteenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. Law firms always respond positively when asked about their experience with and their appetite for Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs). Some are enthusiastic for broad application, while most firms prefer to apply AFAs to individual matters only. General Counsel must insist on AFAs because law firms will n

By Richard G. Stock

Jan 20, 2020
4 min

Managing the Legal Supply Chain

This is the fifteenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. It has been 27 years since the DuPont Legal Model was inaugurated. DuPont recently published its fifth version of an 85-page handbook explaining the model. The model is premised on four elements: strategic partnerships where the parties invest in each other’s financial success; technology utilization to d

By Richard G. Stock

Sep 26, 2019
5 min

The Effective Law Department

This is the fourteenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. General Counsel and their Directors of Legal Operations should spend more of their time managing legal services than they do today. Doing so is a pre-requisite for law departments that are more effective and are strategic contributors. Productivity, efficiency and the cost of counsel are important, but i

By Richard G. Stock

Aug 28, 2019
4 min

Influencing the Demand for Legal Services

This is the thirteenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. Gone are the days when conference programs featured sessions on the value of the law department. General counsel explained why business units should be encouraged to call on their lawyers more regularly, and definitely earlier, in the conduct of business. Law departments have expanded in size over the la

By Richard G. Stock

Aug 6, 2019
4 min

The Five Pillars of Performance for the Legal Department

This is the twelfth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. After absorbing years of trade literature and attending inside counsel conferences disccuing value, doing more with less, scorecards, metrics and key performance indicators, the time has come to distill the ingredients into five basic elements. I term these the pillars of performance for the legal departmen

By Richard G. Stock

May 27, 2019
3 min

Getting Traction for Innovation in the Legal Department

This is the eleventh in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. I recently attended the National Conference of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association. Unsurprisingly, there were several sessions that dealt with some aspect of innovation in legal services. Titles like “Innovation Reality Check: Measuring What is Real and Important to Your Organization”, “Innovation

By Richard G. Stock

May 3, 2019
4 min

Beyond the Basics

This is the tenth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. Most legal software companies and specialty consulting firms populating the legal services universe will release white papers from time to time to raise their profiles and to announce new products and services. Quovant (formerly Legal Bill) is a Nashville-based company offering software solutions, data analyt

By Richard G. Stock

Apr 1, 2019
4 min

Seven Critical Steps for a New Deal

This is the ninth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. As the incoming CEO of an established company, what would you do with a division or department which had very little data, aside from total fees, number of items purchased for the last two years, their variety and complexity, and the relative effectiveness of each item or service purchased? What would you do

By Richard G. Stock

Feb 25, 2019
4 min

The Global Legal Organization in the Future

This is the eighth in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations I recently re-read Ben Heineman’s The Inside Counsel Revolution. As the former General Counsel for General Electric, and a prolific writer, he covered a lot of ground in his book. One section concerned “The Global Legal Organization of the Future”. The chapter on “Law Firms and Alternatives” is of particular

By Richard G. Stock and Richard Burcher

Feb 18, 2019
3 min

Buying Legal Council Presents EMEA PRICING WORKSHOP Arriving at a Fair Price for External Legal Serv

In today’s economy, everyone is under greater pressure to do more with less. In the same economy, law firms are determined to increase their prices and profitability. While most procurement and legal departments agree that there must be a better way to manage and pay for external legal services, only a few are truly innovating. Some 85% of legal work is still purchased with a variation of hourly fees. Go to Buying Legal Workshop - click image Join Validatum’s Richard Burcher

By Richard G. Stock

Feb 5, 2019
4 min

Doing Metrics Right

This is the seventh in a series of articles about how corporate and government law departments can improve their performance and add measurable value to the organizations. Some of the trade literature has been featuring metrics and performance for law departments over the last 6 years -about as long as there have been awards for innovation in law department innovation. Nevertheless, fewer than 10% of departments have sufficient and solid data that can be analyzed in a useful

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ARTICLES

Priorities and Backlogs

Allocate Time Strategically in 2021

Adaptable and Resilient Law Departments Add Value

Thoughts on Pricing Legal Services

Critical Preparations

Three Principles for Work Intake Post Covid-19

Three Basic Competencies for Corporate Counsel

The Critical Elements of Non-Hourly Pricing

Budgeting Complex Legal Work

Why a Productivity Improvement Fee Arrangement?

Managing the Legal Supply Chain

The Effective Law Department

Influencing the Demand for Legal Services

The Five Pillars of Performance for the Legal Department

Getting Traction for Innovation in the Legal Department

Beyond the Basics

Seven Critical Steps for a New Deal

The Global Legal Organization in the Future

Buying Legal Council Presents EMEA PRICING WORKSHOP Arriving at a Fair Price for External Legal Serv

Doing Metrics Right

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