One suggested role for an internal auditor of a legal department involves reviewing and monitoring legal invoices. A recent article from Compliance Week (July 7, 2010) by José Tabuena, senior vice president of governance and compliance with PhyServe Physician Services, recommends that the auditor consider “basic controls,” such as billing software, law firm guidelines, and competitive bids. It was Tabuena’s final idea that threw me: “periodically rotating the use of law firms to ensure efficient and effective representation.”
I reluctantly wrote about forced ranking law firms (See my post of June 30, 2010: drop the least effective law firms.), but “rotating firms” – presumably based on time in representation rather than merit – stinks.