Canadian Lawyer InHouse

INHOUSE EDITOR'S BOX By Jennifer Brown www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse Group Publisher: Karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Editorial Director: Gail J. Cohen gail.cohen@thomsonreuters.com Editor: Jennifer Brown jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com Staff Writer: Michael McKiernan michael.mckiernan@thomsonreuters.com Copy Editor: Katia Caporiccio Art Director: Bill Hunter Account Co-ordinator: Catherine Giles Advertising Sales Representatives Legal Suppliers: Kimberlee Pascoe Tel: (416) 649-8875 E-mail: kimberlee.pascoe@thomsonreuters.com Law Firms: Karen Lorimer Tel: (416) 649-9411 E-mail: karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Grace So Tel: (416) 609-5838 E-mail: grace.so@thomsonreuters.com Sales Co-ordinator: Sandy Shutt Tel: (416) 649-8864 E-mail: sandra.shutt@thomsonreuters.com Canadian Lawyer InHouse is published 6 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd., One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto ON. M1T 3V4 (416) 298-5141. 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Registration #R121349799 To subscribe or change addresses Call (416) 649-9926 Fax (416) 649-7870 or e-mail Ellen Alstein at ellen.alstein@thomsonreuters.com RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto ON. M1T 3V4 Indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index INHOUSE WWW.CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2012 • 3 Can you afford not to? pressures followed by internal cues from the executive offices to cut costs and better manage spending. The recession has hit retail hard. A spike in litigation across the U.S. also turned up the heat to control legal spend, but Target didn't want to deteriorate the legal work it was getting done externally. In telling the company's story to a recent Association of Corporate Counsel Ontario chapter meeting, Target Canada's director and assistant general counsel, employee rela- W hen Target comes to Canada this summer, the retailer's legal department is bringing with it rigorous practices regarding fixed fee arrangements and use of billing and matter-management software. Target' s desire to control spending came from external industry tions Eric Sjoding had the undivided attention of about 65 ACC members as he casually, but succinctly, laid out how things get done and measured at the retail powerhouse. Law firms working for Target are held to a strict retainer agreement and measured annually on a variety of metrics. If they don't measure up, there are consequences. The company also makes use of a billing and matter-management tool that illustrates how the budget is progressing on certain matters and where costs might be escalating. Sjoding admits that putting all of that in place did take time. Towards the end of his presentation, an ACC member raised her hand to ask Sjoding U.S., and not much time to do anything but fight fires. Understandable, but more and more in-house departments won't have the luxury of blindly OK'ing a bill, when costs are more than they expected. When asked how many in the audience were getting budgets on their major legal about the time and resources required to roll out and maintain such a system, indicat- ing she had a small in-house department compared to Target' s 100-member team in the projects, about 15 per cent of the audience raised their hands. When asked how many meet at least once a year with their primary firms to tell them how they're doing, about one-third raised their hands. One would think those numbers would be higher. I've heard several general counsel admit they just don't have the time or desire to stop during a busy day, pick up the phone, and call their external partners to have that awkward conversation about what they're being charged. But for how long can they afford not to? For Sjoding it' thing that comes across as a violation of Target's retention guidelines with outside firms s a regular part of the bill-review process. When he gets a new bill any- pops up in the software as an audit item. He must then go in and approve every excep- tion to the guidelines. He can monitor everything from whether there is a constant spin of associates on one of his files to what he' 20 cents, and he keeps an eye on that). "The fees and costs add up quickly and it truly brings great clarity to what those things are," says Sjoding. "Those $500 or $2,000 charges add up. We are able to use those metrics and show we were able to save a ton of money for our legal spend." Why wouldn't a legal department want to have a billing-tracking system in place? One of the main outcomes for Target, says Sjoding, is "not only a reduction in fees but more so, predictability." Wouldn't that be nice? Send your news and story ideas to jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com s being charged for photocopies (10 cents, not

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