“Client-side” legal consulting
There are many kinds of legal consultants. The overwhelming majority of them, however work for lawyers. They are management consultants who specialize in the business of law firms, marketers who specialize in helping law firms get your business, jury consultants, and the whole host of expert witnesses on everything from friction coefficients to life expectancy tables. Only a handful of legal consultants work with clients, and most of them are accountants and other financial people who audit legal bills for reasonableness and padding in order to lay the groundwork for a fee arbitration or a malpractice claim.
I am a management consultant who helps organizations take control of, and transform, their relationship with counsel. It is a specialized form of vendor, change, and strategic management, done without reducing this important relationship to a procurement commodity. Yes, cost controls are a critical part of what I do, but the attorney client relationship is, or should be, about so much more than fees. I believe in a holistic approach that transforms the attorney-client relationship by aligning a company’s legal strategy with its core business strategies and values, and in the process transforming outside counsel into a strategic partner. And this can be done without sacrificing quality.
If an organization has General Counsel on staff, then managing relations with outside counsel takes up a big part of his or her job description. But even if the GC wants to change the relationship, he or she may lack the time and staff resources to implement such a project. If the organization has no General Counsel, then in all likelihood they aren’t even aware there are options for managing, and improving, their legal relationships.
My approach is to try to get the relationship right: the first time, if you are bringing in new counsel; or mid stream, if you want to change the way you work with the attorneys you have now. And if you ultimately determine you need to change representation, making sure that happens in a smooth, professional, and ethical fashion. We must address the entirety of the relationship, first by clarifying with you exactly what you want from your legal team, and how that aligns with your existing business vision and values so that, for example, you don’t surrender your long term relationships with various stakeholders to a short term legal strategy. I will do the work of crafting RFPs, sorting the information, and ranking the firms. You go about the normal running of your business, and only spend your time meeting with the lawyers who really come close to what you need. And only you make the final decision.