Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50891
in the company of where we are in the process of whatever it is we're trying to achieve. SIMON FISH: Project management is an effective tool for implementing projects and getting work done where you're response-constrained either in terms of time or the number of people or costs. So it's not only the obvious examples of volume or perhaps your litigation or discovery processes, but we use it in particular in relation to imple- mentation of these huge trans programs that we're constantly having to adopt. [As] new pieces of legislation come out, we have to go through a process of analysis, application, monitoring, and reporting, so putting in place the vari- ous tools and processes and policies to get things done is important. INHOUSE: What types of billing arrangements have you been able to negotiate that work best or are at least an improvement over purely billable hours? Is it useful to have tools like the ACC Value Index? KREBS: Everyone's been forced by the economy to look and see how you do business. We started our Value Chal- lenge initiative before the economy went into its downturn. Initially, our thought was that we were going to have to per- suade folks to consider these things. Given the way the economy went, we quickly moved with persuasion to try- ing to talk about . . . [implementation] — to share results as to what people are 18 • AUGUST 2010 doing and how they're doing it. So it's I guess persuasion and implementa- tion. . . . People are looking at what they do, and how they do it and they're also looking at how they get value out of their legal spent. One of the things that has happened is a recognition that value is not necessarily achieved. . . . Looking at different value billing mech- anisms . . . you see a lot of fixed-fee type of arrangements being proposed. We also see things like just coming up with INHOUSE budgets and living with budgets. The other aspect of the initiative and one that has received a lot of attention is what we call our Value Index, and that's the opportunity for our members to do a quick evaluation of their law firms with a series of criteria and give them a rating or an evaluation. The good part about that is that this essentially allows our members to use technology to do what they already do. DESJARDINS: It is time for a change.… We are the customers of those firms.… And, some firms have good answers, and some don't. When I do business with a law firm, I expect the partner that takes care of us should have at least once a year, if not twice a year, meet- ings with the managing partner of that firm. We need to have a sense that my issue, my business, my requirements are important. . . . [W]hen I talk to the managing partners, I say, look at what you're spending, your marketing dollar for example, and is this the best use? . . . I say is it better to save that partner or that young associate's cost, let's say $150,000. Why don't you second [him or her] for free to your best customer instead of just counting that $150,000 on that glossy marketing material that we don't even look at. . . . He's going to