How CLOs and General Counsel can do more with less

Nov 24, 2020

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Efficiency and resource allocation are top of mind for CLOs and General Counsel right now. So how can CLOs and General Counsel do more with less?

According to the 2020 Chief Legal Officer Survey by Altman Weil, 33% of law departments asked for additional discounts from law firms this year, with a 10% median discount on standard hourly billing rates.

On top of that, 77% of CLOs expect that remote or flexible working arrangements implemented during the pandemic will become permanent. 

“Increase in remote work increases need for streamlined matter, contract and outside counsel management.”

Altman Weil, 2020

In-house law departments have always been under pressure to do more with less, but perhaps now more than ever. With the unique challenges the current pandemic has created, managing workloads and resources, including budget for outside counsel, is more important than ever.  

The 2020 study also reports that CLOs are reporting an ever increasing workload, compounding the pressure to stretch limited resources.

So how can CLOs manage workload and spend more effectively?

“Our customers have found that having one central, cloud-based platform for managing intake, matters, contracts and e-billing has been invaluable for their remote legal teams.” Sam Kidd, CEO, LawVu

Efficiency & collaboration 

With LawVu’s Matter and Contract products, legal teams can seamlessly manage matters, documents, workflow and more, while collaborating more easily with the rest of the legal team. Being a cloud based platform with a mobile app, LawVu also enables remote legal teams to work effectively and efficiently. 

Connections with the rest of the business are also stronger for LawVu users, where they can easily request assistance, create basic contracts and track the status of their issue within the system. 

Most importantly, GCs and their teams using LawVU have more time to spend on the issues that matter most and make a bigger contribution to key business outcomes. 

“All of the people in my team work flexibly and remotely, and that will remain the case. Technology is a central part of that. [My legal software of choice is] LawVu – that goes without saying.  From a management perspective I can track work without being in the same location as someone.”

New Zealand’s In-House Lawyer of the Year nominee Katie Bhreatnach, General Counsel and GM of Customer and Regulatory Partnerships at Airways

 

Spend management

CLOs are also under pressure to reduce spend, and that’s where a system for managing e-billing and RFPs with outside counsel is crucial. 

LawVu enables the CLO to drive better business outcomes, through offering a more transparent model of outside counsel management

“Ultimately, we’re seeing in-house teams move from a cost centre department to a value adding, powerful function.”

Tim Boyne, CSO, LawVu

Legal spend is reduced by agreeing a scope of work and budget in advance of outsourcing and enforcing billing guidelines. The data gathered from e-billing tools is critical to developing insights to inform fundamental spend management decisions in the future too.

In fact, industry reports suggest internal legal teams can save between 10-40% on external legal spend by implementing eBilling, driven by:

1)      Scope management and better collaboration

2)      The sentinel effect of invoices being checked

3)      Automated review of line items

 

If you’re looking for ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your legal team, get in touch with the LawVu team here.

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