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CCCA_V7No1_Dept-LawDeptMgmt-FIN_CCCA_V6No4 2/12/13 4:18 PM Page 17 account. Sales and account management aircraft and then using the same underly- client needs and demands. It’s tough to Law Department Management ing job rate to pump it with gas. see the parallel with legal industry merg- professionals are more attuned to the needs In other industries, the buy-side has ers and consolidation today where there of clients and could relay this information long ago exerted its force such that com- appears to be few if any cost synergies back to management more effectively. petition, technology and productivity that benefit corporate counsel clients and Lawyers, if they did not have to worry drive DECREASES in costs about these tangential functions, the continued than times. One industry expert,Tony“ Perhaps the best evidence increasing their productivity and rather could then work on more files, increases that have characterized of the perpetuating top-down improving firm efficiency and legal services even in recent having that come at the expense Williams of Jomati Consultants approach is the uncontradicted profitability without necessarily LLP, recently summarized: maxim that services should be of the client. If law firms better emulated charged based on the person “[The legal industry has operated] the structure of other businesses, in stark contrast to most other doing the work rather than the corporate counsel would begin parts of the economy where compa- work itself. to see improvement in the way nies have been under huge pressure legal and related customer rela- not only to continually invent and ” tions services are priced and offer new, innovative products, as well as no new/better services available to clients delivered. However, the converse is also keep improving the quality of their prod- than were previously available. Clients are true — continued intransigence and inef- ucts, but to reduce the cost to the client begging for outside legal services to get ficiency in the legal services market too... For these sectors such an approach leaner and closer to their business, not inevitably affects the reputation of our has been the norm for at least the last bigger and further away. entire industry,in-house counsel included. 10 years.” On a micro level, firms continue to Change will not happen on its own. have lawyers spread themselves thin In-house counsel who are now empow- To be clear, and without going into between doing the work, managing the ered with leadership roles both within another topic, the limited fixed-fee billing firm, conducting business development their own organization and in the broad- that exists does not change any of this and performing account management. er legal services market need to assert and, for the most part, simply involves It’s tough to find another well-run busi- themselves and be more proactive and applying the same inefficient variable ness that operates this way.Business devel- responsible in ensuring that meaningful pricing calculations to a pre-estimated opment should be conducted by special- changes occur. Their stakeholders, number of hours with ample contingency ists in that area, just as an IT licence including their companies, shareholders factored in. agreement or a corporate acquisition and legal department peers, are depend- Two other areas where the traditional should be carried out by someone who ing on it. law firm and modernized business does that work day in and day out. diverge, and which arguably have an Contrary to what many seem to think, Joe Milstone is important impact on corporate counsel, proper sales and account management co-founder of concern corporate structure and alloca- don’t cheapen the profession — they pro- Cognition LLP, an tion/specialization of roles. In other fessionalize it. I know many corporate innovative alterna- industries,mergers usually are pursued for counsel that would relish having these tive law firm that the purpose of adding lines of business, important client-facing roles being under- provides corporate creating efficiencies through scale and taken by true specialists rather than the counsel services to rationalization or addressing pressing lawyers providing legal services on the businesses and legal departments. PRINTEMPS 2013 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 17