It is too easy to adorn RFPs with questions that do not in the crunch make a palpable difference to the in-house counsel who evaluate the RFPs and choose firms. Experience, depth of talent, subjective impressions of quality, and cost structure easily and consistently push other considerations out of the ring.
Even so, as I read in the ABA J., Sept. 2010 at 27, about threats to the network security of law firms, the possibility came to me that law departments will start to ask about defensive measures taken by firms. A question to firms that receive RFPs about steps they have taken to protect the client’s data from hacker attacks might provide a basis at the margin for choosing one firm over another.