SAVE A FORTUNE ON LITIGATION FEES!
1. At
least 25% of your litigation fees are due to inefficiencies!
The more people there are
working on your litigation, the more inherent inefficiencies there are.
Law firms are focused on the
end result of the service they provide you.
As you well know, often times they are not even aware of how many people
were involved, how many hours it took, or the process of how the work was
done. They are concerned with the
quality of their work product and do not necessarily associate a cost with the
work product. It is a different way to
run a business for sure, but they do provide a service you need.
Even though it seems
self-serving that law firms do not operate more efficiently, they do not know
how or they would be more profitable on alternative fee cases (“AFAs”). They think they are being efficient, but
they don’t know what they don’t know. As
long as billable hours are the core of their business structure and they
continue to use billable hours as criteria for advancement and bonuses, they
will not have the proper incentive to change.
It is ingrained in their core and a part of their culture, so it stands
to reason that it will likely be a while before there is a paradigm shift.
What can you do about it?
2. Designate someone to focus on increasing efficiencies to reduce fees and costs on your cases
Implementing more efficient
procedures, practices and creative solutions for the most consuming time drains
will save you more in fees than anything else you can do. The results are measurable and significant
savings are realized in a matter of weeks.
Law firms might have
practice group managers, project managers, pricing analyst, case managers, etc., but they do not have someone dedicated to improving efficiencies and reducing
your fees.
My experience has been that
in-house counsel are able to remedy some inefficiencies but given the magnitude
of their responsibilities they do not have the capacity to work hands-on with
the firms and vendors on a granular level.
Improving efficiencies is a way for you to reduce tens of millions of
dollars a year per litigation. It deserves a
dedicated person skilled in litigation and law firm operations in order to
maximize your results.
When law firms did not
comply with client demands to reduce e-discovery costs, corporations had to
step in and either do it in-house or outsource the work. Increasing operational efficiencies within
your own litigation is the next big cost control frontier because there is so
much at stake.
3. Multi-layer your approach to reducing fees
You know more than anyone
how large of a problem litigation fees are.
The best solution might be to have a multi-layered approach from several
different angles. Consider incentivizing
your in-house teams to keep an open mind and continue implementing additional
cost saving measures that would provide the most value.
Many of you are already
handling e-discovery in-house or are using e-discovery vendors. Other cost saving measures being used are
Legal Process Outsourcing, legal department advisors, initiatives, continually
discounting rates, budgets, AFAs, legal spend and matter management software,
limiting the number of law firms, utilizing “virtual” law firms and litigation
efficiency/operations experts. The methods that save the most, cost the least and are the least time
consuming for your team to implement, use and maintain need to be identified and managed. When is enough enough? When your litigation fees and expenses are at
an acceptable level.
Summary
- Designate someone to specifically increase law firm efficiencies to:
- reduce fees and costs significantly without sacrificing the quality of the litigation
- provide you with the highest
value for your litigation fees
- enable your law firms to
work more efficiently, getting cases better prepared, increasing the likelihood
of better outcomes.
- Multi-layer approaches are most effective. Incentivize your team to implement additional cost saving measures.
- Methods that save the most, cost the least and would be the least time consuming to implement, use and maintain need to be identified and managed.
Improving efficiencies is a way for you to reduce tens of millions of dollars a year per litigation. It deserves a dedicated person skilled in litigation and law firm operations in order to maximize your results.
- reduce fees and costs significantly without sacrificing the quality of the litigation
- provide you with the highest value for your litigation fees
- enable your law firms to work more efficiently, getting cases better prepared, increasing the likelihood of better outcomes.
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