One out of five large departments does not assess outside counsel

In 2005, Bottomline Technologies surveyed the Fortune 1000 companies and AM Best 200 insurers. Of the 1,892 individuals sent e-mail invitations to participate, 200 responded (See my posts about the survey of November 15, 2005 on law firm performance data; November 15, 2005 on rating law department evaluations of firms; and November 16, 2005 on performance management tools.).

The survey defined “performance measurement” as “an assessment of whether outside counsel are effectively serving the company.” As the survey results are reported in the ACC Docket, May 2006 at 64, performance measurement is being used by 78% of the law departments. If taken literally, that finding convicts one out of five large law departments of not evaluating the contribution of their outside counsel!