Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 38 INHOUSE L a w D e p a r t m e n t M a n a g e m e n t GOING THROUGH a request for proposal or law firm panel review can involve a lot of pain and agony, leaving the winning parties with a sense they have made it through the marathon and now the rewards — in the form of work — will come naturally. But many in-house counsel have observed that once a law firm panel review or RFP for legal services is complete, there is a tendancy for complacency to set in. Firms get on the approved list and there is an assumption the work will flow without any further care and feeding on their part. That's not always the case. It seesm there is much room to grow on both sides of the table when it comes to how law firms and in-house work together in the process of procuring legal services. According to Nancey Watson of NL Watson Consulting Inc., law firms are responding to "more and more RFPs" and the complexity of RFPs is getting more difficult for firms to respond to. At a recent Legal Marketing Association conference held in Toronto, Watson led a discussion panel with in-house counsel and procurement professionals who help manage external counsel. She asked them about how their organizations are handling fee arrangements and RFPs. What was clear was that much like any other kind of relationship it's the care over time that counts. And in a legal market where new players are entering the play - ing field all the time, no one can assume the work will just flow. "There's always some- one inventing a better mousetrap," says Richard Brzakala, director, external legal services, CIBC. "We don't want to be in just a transactional relationship with our firms — we look to them to expand the relation - ships and help us in other areas." Brzakala is responsible for management of external counsel for CIBC, which in- cludes about 175 firms globally. There are about 50 in-house lawyers at the bank in Canada. "We're in a very hyper legal marketplace," says Brzakala. "We have worked with inter - nal procurement specialists and customized our legal RFP model and it works very ef- fectively and efficiently." But CIBC is not just focused on working with traditional law firms. "We're comfort- able with the providers we have right now, but the legal marketplace is changing and becoming more innovative and we're always open to looking at new firms and ideas. We don't look to our law firms as vendors — we look to our law firms as being an extension of our legal group — they are trusted legal advisers and we try to treat them like that." He says the system CIBC has in place al - lows the legal department to launch legal RFPs quickly and aggregate the informa- tion that comes back. "It can be very tar- geted and can be for specific matters or a book of business. Right now, it is in an Excel model and we're looking to automate that. The feedback from the firms is that it's very expeditious and simple to complete. It tar - gets quantifiable and empirical data we can take in and go through. Most of the firms who get those RFPs with us are approved counsel, so we're dealing with a panel of about 150-175 firms." Nick Cerminaro, director of legal ser - vices at Bombardier, says a lot of it comes down to client satisfaction issues that often aren't addressed in RFPs. "Some are things such as returning phone calls and delivering on deadline. The quality of the work itself is their ticket in the door — you're expecting them to give you quality work," he said. "We also expect firms to invest in return in terms of CLE [continuing legal educa - tion], secondees and understanding parts of our business. If an injunction hits, you want to call somebody and get that level of knowledge required," he said. For Lisa Conway of InnVest Hotels LP, what's important is project management from the law firm. InnVest has 100 hotels across Canada. "When we're on a deal, we Beyond the RFPs and AFAs Law firms are responding to more RFPs and requests for alternative or appropriate fee arrangements than ever before, but are legal departments getting what they need from these approaches? BY JENNIFER BROWN

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