Increasing the value of external legal advice for energy companies

Legal departments in the energy industry are faced with a complex mix of legal issues that require specific industry knowledge. They often span many state and international jurisdictions and involve regulations of varying complexity. It is therefore not surprising that a significant portion of energy companies’ legal budgets are spent on engaging outside counsel with expertise in these legal issues.

If your Corporate Legal Department (CLD) uses a large number of legal service providers and makes significant financial investments in them, getting the most value depends on good monitoring and management of those service providers. However, many energy companies lack the necessary visibility into their legal spend to ensure they are selecting the right forms and getting good value for money.

That’s concerning considering that outside counsel are some of your most important partners. Engaging the right law firm on the right case can yield significant benefits, including faster case turnaround times, faster resolutions, improved quality, and lower settlement amounts. But questions remain:

• How can you get the most out of the law firms you hire?
• How do you provide appropriate feedback and resources to increase value in the future?
• How can you be sure that you choose the right law firms for your needs?

Your CLD may not have a clear view of spending trends at your individual law firms and may be missing out on cost-saving opportunities. Fortunately, there is a solution.

The role of enterprise legal management technology in managing outside counsel

Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) technology includes a variety of tools to help CLDs manage matters, contracts and legal spend more effectively. ELM technology uses detailed analytics to provide business intelligence that enables data-driven decisions that help CLDs get the most value from their outside legal counsel.

An ELM solution collects and tracks data throughout the management of cases and invoices to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. Such a solution can also help improve the performance of your legal department by streamlining workflows, improving collaboration, and allowing in-house attorneys to focus on the most valuable work.

Our new white paper, How energy companies can effectively manage outside counsel using enterprise legal management technologiesprovides a detailed guide for energy industry legal departments looking to get the most out of their legal service providers. In this white paper, you will learn how to:

1. Use data to improve company selection. Strategies such as panel management, law firm RFPs, and case evaluations are useful. Panel management groups law firms based on characteristics such as practice area, work area, and geographic location. RFPs set rates and fees up front, while case evaluations estimate how much time and money will be required to work on a case.
2. Manage budgets and monitor billing policies to achieve cost savings. An ELM solution can automatically compare budget to actual spend and alert you when a company reaches its limit on an issue. Additionally, it can review invoices against billing policies using custom business rules and provide rate benchmarks to determine if a proposed rate is reasonable.
3. Gain insight into law firms’ performance and diversity ratings. Law firm scorecards measure the effectiveness of outside counsel by integrating subjective employee questionnaire responses with objective data points. Research has also shown that firms that employ a diverse group of lawyers perform better. An ELM solution can also capture diversity information.

These are just a few of the points covered in the full white paper. Use it as a guide to better manage outside counsel costs, improve relationships with your law firms, and select the right firms for the right matters.

Download the white paper today to learn more.