Legal Management Insights

Legal expense management can seem like a daunting task with the massive amounts of data generated in the modern world.  Last year, more than 205 billion emails were sent each day by a world population of just 7.2 billion.  While the Information Age presents challenges for corporate legal departments in terms of litigation, e-discovery, and concerns over information security and data breaches, the types and amounts of data now available are valuable tools for managing the cost of litigation and claims.

Within a single billing increment lurks a tricky truth that many who deal with lawyers and their billing practices are unaware.  Lawyers’ billing practices have long been criticized for their tendency to be exaggerated, “guesstimated,” and sometimes blatantly padded.  The lay client must rely on its lawyer not only to accurately document his or her time spent on a particular task, but to perform only those tasks that are actually necessary or helpful to the matter at hand.

If you surveyed a group of people from corporate legal and risk departments and asked them evaluate their outside counsel, the majority would probably think they were up for the task. However, if asked to outline the criteria they use, fewer would be able to do so. 

We all know it is important to have standards that gauge outside counsel’s management of your claims, but do you know why or how to accomplish this?