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CCCA_V7No4_Dept-Performance-FIN_CCCA 13-11-25 12:04 PM Page 8 Performance in the Law Department Selective, strategic, and successful legal departments By Richard G. Stock gain this fall, I was able to lead the The effect is that this type of accessibility, is to claim strategic territory. Admittedly, ACCCA-Catalyst Consulting semi- combined with excellent service, drives up expressing a desire to be strategic does not nar series — this time titled “Are Y ou demand. Very few legal departments have make it so. We ask legal departments to Under-Valuing Y our Legal Department?” formal working protocols in place to make present us with their annual business plans. It is the type of topic that covers strate- their clients more self-sufficient and to fur- The institutional and government sectors gic projects, legal costs, KPIs/metrics and ther reduce the number of calls. have required the preparation of detailed client relationships. The sessions were Second, the proliferation of requests for plans, with priorities, projects and measura- intended to cover three aspects of the service makes it impossible to separate the ble objectives on hand. But more than 75 “value proposition” for legal depart- wheat from the chaff of legal work. A crit- per cent of all legal departments cannot ments: defining and describing the value ical analysis of the type and complexity of produce a written statement of their annu- added by legal departments; how best to matters handled by legal departments al objectives aligned with the company’s measure the diversity of the contribu- reveals that there is a significant misalign- strategic business plan. tions; and how to then change the prior- ment between the large amount of routine, There is a gap between individual objec- ities and resources of the department in non-complex work that lawyers plow tives (almost everyone has these) and cor- order to live up to its full potential. through and the experience levels of the porate plans. That gap should be filled with lawyers doing this type of work. Up to 40 a legal department business plan that Defining and describing value per cent of a lawyer’s year is spent on rou- extends beyond an activity statement to Legal professionals are craftsmen when it tine matters and another 30 per cent on include a spectrum of special projects and comes to collectively defining and com- matters requiring fewer than 20 hours to high-profile initiatives developed in tandem municating their contributions as a legal complete by counsel with more than 10 with business units. The legal department’s department. Their preference is to let the years of experience. Otherwise put: as legal “value proposition” should be structured art speak for itself. And their modus operan- department demographics keep shifting, and evident in its annual business plan. The di is to respond as promptly as possible to inside counsel find themselves “punching next generation of such plans, and the most all requests from all sectors of the organi- below their weight” three days out of five. progressive ones, are results-focused with zation. However, it is no longer enough This type of workflow is difficult to clarity about the contribution to planned for legal departments to operate as captive address because adding headcount outcomes. They are also heavily weighted law firms where working hard and main- (juniors) is rarely an option; finding the toward projects and activities that have a taining good “client” relationships are time to train clients to be more self-reliant higher risk/reward profile. their own rewards. Three factors suggest appears impossible; and introducing new why and why not. “rules” to restrict access is counter-intu- Measuring the value First, there are not enough hours in the itive. However, failure to control and There is now more of an appetite to meas- day to be all things to all people. In struc- reduce such routine legal work means that ure the contribution of legal departments tured surveys of in-house counsel, we ask there is a much higher proportion of non- than there was five years ago. Doing this is for estimates of how many individuals from challenging work that is always urgent but almost never initiated by the legal depart- within the company typically call a lawyer not important. What results is a busy but ment. Instead, companies require their sup- to request work. T oo often, the response not cost-effective legal department. port departments — HR, Finance, IT and ISTOCKPHOTO.COM exceeds 150 individuals calling on a single The third reason for defining and Legal — to participate in corporate plan- lawyer, many of them for routine matters. describing the “value” of a legal department ning processes apart from budget planning, 8 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association WINTER 2013