Survey your primary law firms for benchmark data

Every year DuPont’s law department surveys its 38 or so Primary Law Firms. According to Met. Corp. Counsel, Feb. 2006 at 49, the survey has in the past gathered data or thoughts on topics such as diversity, invocation of ADR, and contributions to various initiatives. In 2006 DuPont sought feedback on about 10 objective measurements.

For any law department, a survey of its key law firms can generate informative data. Many potential questions come to mind, such as about cost savings measures other law departments have explored, internal training policies, software that might help the law department, and even questions about the performance of the law department (See my post of March 30, 2006 on whether the feedback would be candid.).