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CCCA_V6No4_Dept-Performance-FIN_CCCA_V6No4 11/26/12 6:13 PM Page 8 Performance in the Law Department No Time to Think! By Richard G. Stock ver the last two years, the annual Osurvey of inside counsel conduct- ed by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association has reported the number one challenge to be day-to-day work- loads. There is no time for big picture thinking. Even counsel with more than 10 years of experience will say that the approach to work is just-in-time inven- tory management. The side effects are many. Business to manage the expectations of business specific. In fact, they are more similar to units complain of poor turnaround times, units for legal services. One of 17 critical multi-year partnering agreements that knowing full well that their own requests factors for a successful legal department some firms conclude with their main for service are too often last minute and suggested by a group of Fortune 100 clients. A good agreement will set out the that documentation is often incomplete. General Counsel a decade ago is an effec- scope of services defining the area of law, The same business units readily admit that tive strategy to integrate lawyers with the number of matters, the required their lawyers are overworked and agreed client management teams. Individual resources, and the relationship of the that the quality of work is not at issue. lawyers are so swamped with work that lawyer and team to the business unit. Lawyers who are “run off their feet” have they do not make the time for business- Good agreements also identify who is no time for special projects, no time for unit integration that can help predict and entitled to call on the legal department, mentoring and for their own professional manage demand. with the objective of developing the busi- development, and too little time to devel- There are four elements for the effective ness unit into an “informed purchaser” of op and offer training to business units. integration of lawyers: significant business services and of reducing the amount of The essential always gets done on time. unit teams should include a lawyer as a communication traffic with legal. Finally, There is constant pressure to satisfy users. participating member; lawyers should have a service level agreement is best accompa- The essential always gets done but no one a formal role in the development of new nied by a protocol that defines when legal is ever caught up. products or services offered by the compa- must be consulted and when it may be There is a clear correlation between ny; lawyers should review and contribute called upon. The best agreements include workloads and workflows for in-house to annual business unit plans; and the law standards for turnaround and for report- counsel. Structural issues and operating department should review major policy ing on urgent and regular matters. practices in legal departments easily use decisions before they are announced. Our A recent survey of a 4-lawyer depart- up 20 per cent of its capacity. For instance, assessment of the profile of many legal ment was designed to assemble its practice recent studies show that only 50 per cent departments is that they resemble a captive profile by estimating the number of mat- of legal departments have written proto- law firm on call to lend operational sup- ters handled in a year by each lawyer cols to guide business units’ use of legal port role and are rarely a strategic contrib- which required less than five hours to resources. Only 20 per cent have explicit utor that adds value. complete, the number requiring between service standards. And there is little evi- Service level agreements between the five and 25 hours and the number requir- JIM TONIC/ILLUSTRATION SOURCE dence of increasing self-sufficiency for legal department and its principle users ing in excess of 25 hours. Each lawyer was certain legal reviews by the business units. are somewhat like law firms’ term of asked to estimate the proportion of the The first step in managing workflows is engagement, except they are not matter- year given to each of the three categories. 8 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association WINTER 2012