Matter Management Best Practices for

the Corporate Legal Department

LDPG5

August 30, 2012

Speakers

• Lisa Girmscheid

– Legal Project Manager, Law Department Manager, a “Generalist”

– More than 25 years experience in legal field

– 17 years managing law departments

• Julie Richer

– Legal Technology Program Manager, American Electric Power

– 12 years in IT and 4 years in the legal department with legal operations, ediscovery and litigation support experience

• Rebecca Thorkildsen

– Senior Director, HBR Consulting (formerly Hildebrandt Baker Robbins)

– More than 15 years consulting to the legal industry on topics including law department management, operations and technology

Session Assumptions

• There are a large number of matter

management best practices

• Believe the current audience to be relatively

sophisticated users of matter management

• We have focused on best practices for using

the MMS to support department objectives

• The MMS can do more than track costs – it

can demonstrate value

Polling Question

• What types of reports do you routinely run from

your matter management system?

– Financial (costs, budgets)

– Inventory (matter count, workload)

– Status

– Efficiency and Effectiveness (cycle times, outcomes)

– Trend

– Risk

– Value (recoveries, savings, value delivered)

Session Agenda

• MMS – the realm of possibilities

• Using the MMS to demonstrate more than

just costs

– Maximizing value of external spend

– Demonstrating value of internal services

Polling Question

• Have you extended reporting beyond the canned reports offered by your matter management vendor?

• Which of the following types of information do you collect about your matters?

– Matter budget

– Risk or significance rating

– Status

– Time spent working on matters (in house)

– Favorability

– Costs associated with case outcomes (judgments,

settlements, payments)

– Lessons learned

Best Practice Law Department

Technology Framework

Matter

management

functions

within the

broad context

of all

technology

supporting the

business of law

Best Practice Use of Matter

Management

Departments that evolve a wide variety of financial, operational and performance management reports maximize the return on investment of their system.

Matter Mgmt

E-Billing

Document Mgmt

Office Apps

Practice Tools

• Run Significant Matter Status Reports

• Identify new, high risk matters

• Analyze cost data

• Conduct trend analysis

• Measure cycle time, performance

• Monitor compliance with internal processes

• Customized and ad-hoc docketing and status reports

• Benchmark

Cost & OC Management

Purpose: Ensure that legal team is following cost containment policies

and monitor results of cost containment approaches

Risk & Performance

Purpose: Monitor high risk / complexity / cost matters and associated

performance

Workload & Effectiveness

Purpose: Identify spikes in number or complexity of matters for a particular

matter type and use to identify legal resource requirements

Value & Quality Service Purpose: Ascertain if outsourced legal work is delivered for comparable

cost and quality

Matters Outsourced Report From 01 December 2011 To 31 December 2011

Matter Type = Employment - HR; Matter Sub Type = Discrimination Suit

Average In-House Matter Cost For Last Year: $185,000

Matter #/Name Case Owner

Open / Close Dates

Total Matter

Cost

Amount Over In- House

Average Favorable? Vendor Reason Outsourced

HR – 2011-56 Jones, C Carol Miller

7/18/10 / 8/11/11 $210,000 $25,000 Y Firm 1 Needed Special Expertise

HR – 2011-65

Marshall, P Carol Miller 1/23/11 / 9/30/11 $300,000 $115,000 N Firm 2 Required by In House Client

HR – 2011-81

Murphy, L Ehab Shourky 1/25/11 / 3/15/11 $54,000 -$131,000 Y Firm 1 High Risk of Reputational Damage

HR – 2011-90

Allister, A Jim Heilander 3/2/11 / 11/2/11 $97,000 -$88,000 N Firm 3 Needed Special Expertise

COLOR KEY

Red Cost Exceeds Internal Average and Matter was Unfavorable

Yellow

Cost Exceeds Internal Average and Matter was Favorable Cost Below Internal Average and Matter was Unfavorable

Green Cost Below Internal Average and Matter was Favorable

Types of Data Points Required

Matter management fields required to support similar types of reports as part of an overall performance management and metric plan.

Session Agenda

• MMS – the realm of possibilities

• Using the MMS to demonstrate more than

just costs

– Maximizing value of external spend

– Demonstrating value of internal services

Polling Question

• Do you perform outside counsel evaluations

at close of a matter?

• Do you perform annual law firm reviews?

We get a bad rap

Common perception: we are a cost center, never a profit center

We have one client:

The Company

We know money doesn’t grow on trees

We use technology to help us manage costs:

Use e-billing to control outside counsel costs

Provide business managers with accurate budgets and forecasts

Use data from the past to make strategic decisions in the future

Benchmark regularly to determine the best inside:outside counsel ratio

We earn our keep

Pursue collections that are “tricky”

Constant purveyors of risk avoidance solutions

Find creative solutions to collect fees for services provided by the law

department to external parties

Demand value from our providers

• System audits

• Meet diversity and other company goals

• Handle matters appropriately and with fiscal responsibility

• Law firm reviews: measure and regularly audit value from

our firms

Law Firm Review

Examples of Reports

Partner

19%

Paralegal

13% Associate

68% L240

Motions 14%

L210

Pleadings 6%

L120

Analysis & Strategy

25%

L190 Other

Case Assess.

24%

L140

Doc/File Mgmt

31%

E124 Other

21%

E110 Out of

town travel

20%

E112 Court

fees

12%

E115 Depo

transcripts

18%

E111

Meals

14%

E114

Witness

Fees

4%

E106

Online

Research

11%

Session Agenda

• MMS – the realm of possibilities

• Using the MMS to demonstrate more than

just costs

– Maximizing value of external spend

– Demonstrating value of internal services

Polling Question

• Are you formally tracking or reporting on the

value or quality of inside legal services?

Finding measures to add value

may not be so easy to find

Internal Hours

• Legal

• HR

• IT

Shipping

Copying/Scanning

Limitations

Subpoenas

Where does the cost go for subpoena response at your

company?

Budgets How to improve forecasting

1.Who is entering

budget?

2.Benchmarks?

3.What is being

tracked?

4.What if budget

goes over?

5.Are budgets

checked upon

matter closure?

• Cycle Time

• Initial Demand

• Final

Settlement/Payment

• Total cost of matter

– Outside counsel and

vendors

– Internal time spent

• Vendor Evaluations

Closing Matters

• Make fields in your matter management

system required to ensure you will get your

data.

• Teach your legal department why it is

important to accurately fill out the fields. If it

is personal, they will support it more.

• Validate the information that is being

gathered early.

How To Get The Data