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CCCA_V7No3_Dept-Performance-FIN_CCCA 13-09-23 2:51 PM Page 9 Performance in the Law Department Essential performance data By Richard G. Stock department within six challenge is two-fold: ensuring that months. And one need enough complex, strategic, and / or proj- not introduce time- ect work is assigned to the lawyers, and keeping to achieve changing client expectations about the such a result. role and services of the legal department Begin assembling in the future. the raw ingredients by Extensive interviews with in-house asking each lawyer to: counsel reveal that they have the same dif- art 1 of this article called on · allocate their time by client and by ficulty as external counsel in estimating PGeneral Counsel to systematically area of law for the last year; the amount of time that a matter or proj- rely on data to manage the perform- · estimate the number of matters per year ect will require if that amount is expected ance of the legal department to its full which require 0 – 5 hours, 6 – 25 hours to be greater than five hours. In part, this potential. CCCA’s In-House Counsel and more than 25 hours; and the pro- is because they do not have timekeeping Barometer reports that most General portion of their practice that each of systems. But it is mostly due to the lack of Counsel believe the Key Performance these three categories represents. This is experience with legal project manage- Indicators (KPIs) applied to their the complexity profile described in the ment and budgets. General Counsel department to be ill-fitting. They fail to first article; would be well advised to require project capture the value of the legal depart- · determine the number of different plans and budgets from all members of the ment, especially its strategic and devel- individual clients in their practice legal department for matters in excess of opmental contributions. categorized by the amount of work 10 hours. A somewhat higher threshold of Our first article proposed three metrics: they require in a week or a month; 25 hours should be applied to law firms. the proportion of strategic vs. operational and finally, Budgeting matters by phase and task with support legal work; the relative complex- · estimate the daily number of e-mails accompanying planning assumptions for ity of work; and the result / effectiveness received, sent and copied as well as discussion and approval by the General of the legal department. This article dis- phone calls and visits. Counsel will make each member of the cusses the three remaining metrics: effi- With this information, a General legal department more conscious of limit- ciency, user satisfaction, and costs. Counsel can introduce a combination of ed resources. For larger projects and mat- measures to limit the number of occasion- ters, these plans and estimates can support Efficiency al users of the legal department, curtail the a “value for money” conversation with Simply defined, efficiency, or productivity, occurrence of e-mail traffic where counsel external counsel. Robust legal project means generating the greatest amount of is copied, and limit the amount of time management will yield productivity output with the least amount of input. lost in unproductive meetings. Generating improvements of five per cent to 10 per When applied to, say, a five-lawyer depart- capacity for a legal department will also cent for matters of medium to significant ment, that means getting the most from call for greater self-sufficiency by clients, complexity in the department. with much less hand-holding activity from roughly 10,000 hours of availability. With ISTOCKPHOTO.COM good data and the right combination of the legal department. We estimate that Cost of Legal Services When the costs of legal services increase by measures, it is possible to generate 15 per 90 minutes per day, or 300 hours per year, more than 10 per cent per year, it is very can be recovered for each lawyer. The cent or greater productivity from the same AUTOMNE 2013 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 9