Law Department Management Blog
In Law Practice, July/August 2012 at 14, a law firm consultant describes a “client scorecard.” With it, your law firms might rate you on five categories: “level of cooperation”; “how enjoyable your work is”; how profitable your work is; your relative ability to pay the firm’s fees; and one category one about referrals that is irrelevant to law departments.
Just because your department buys legal services does not mean you can act miserably and niggardly toward the law firms you retain. The evaluations go to this. The first two boil down to “nice to work with.” The next two go to economics. Since companies that sustain a law department can pay legal fees, “ability to pay” has little meaning. Thus, these five categories really boil down to whether your lawyers are for likable, your work is interesting, and your services needed make the firm money. A sensible assessment by firms and a sensible objective for your department.