Law Department Management Blog
One of your law firms might volunteer to analyze the bills you have paid and bring to bear more talent than you have available. KMWorld, Feb. 2012, at 11, brought the possibility to mind as it describes how Byran Cave has a Practice Economics Group. The firm created the Group “to develop tools and techniques to improve the firm’s ability to price projects accurately and competitively and to manage those projects to completion on budget and on schedule.” The capabilities of the Group, and similar staff in other large firms, could extend to poring over your matter management system’s data and presenting the results. Even better, if a firm could combine your data, anonymized and secured of course, with data from other clients and from their own matters handled, the empirical insights would improve even more.
An innovative law firm with reach in a defined area of representation could amass data, hone analytic and presentation skills, and develop an offering for the market with formidable competitive advantages. Meanwhile, law departments who make their information available will approach alternative fee arrangements and budgets more confidently.