An Overview of The ACC Value Challenge Reconnecting
- Slides: 20
An Overview of The ACC Value Challenge Reconnecting Cost with Value Susan Hackett, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, ACC (for more info on the ACC Value Challenge or a copy of this slide deck: www. acc. com/valuechallenge)
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) • Largest bar association exclusively serving in-house counsel in the world • More than 25, 000 members, representing more than 10, 000 corporate entity employers • Members in more than 75 countries, and growing! • Full service bar: chapters, committees, educational programming, legal resources and benchmarking, etc. • Unique value in open collaboration between members: the most powerful network in the legal profession.
The ACC Value Challenge • With such diversity in our membership, what is shared by every in-house counsel? The imperative to: – work within a defined budget • control costs while delivering value – provide excellent client service • Both keep the company out of trouble and make it stronger – decide how to get work done • Address challenges/opportunities of using outside counsel
All three imperatives under stress: - The legal department as a cost center: doing more with less, unpredictable/unmanageable legal spend - Companies under close scrutiny: new challenges to compliance / enterprise risk management - Outside counsel who don’t get it: inefficient business models that don’t align with corporate priorities
ACC creates The ACC Value Challenge to help: - in-house counsel to drive better value and management of the legal function - outside counsel to redesign their business / service models to offer value - collaboration between the two to reconnect the cost of legal services to their value
How did we get here? If this has been a problem firms and clients have struggled with for decades, why is a solution possible now?
Over the past ten years, costs to U. S. companies went up 20%. . . except legal costs, which went up 75%.
Do clients really mean it this time? • Decades of escalating legal costs w/o improved efficiency – corporate management won’t take it anymore • Changing economic pressures for both clients and firms – now emphasized by the downturn: The Tipping Point. • Is the focus really on value and making institutional changes or on surviving a short-term crisis? • Many clients still don’t reward value, but revert to a shortterm focus on discounts – not re-addressing the model. • Not a matter of blame; both sides need to change and have different responsibilities when driving value
What does alignment entail? What does controlled cost mean? • Lower/predictable costs for clients ≠ lower profitability for firms, unless the firm is inefficient or indistinguishable. • Clients aren’t looking for “cheap, ” they want “value, ” but we are all ill-equipped to implement sustainable/radical change. • If the value focus is here to stay – then how will we prepare now for longer-term, sustainable practices? • If value is subjective, what practices drive business models toward the alignment required for each matter/client?
If we are jumping out of the frying pan … … What are we jumping toward? Common themes emerge in ACC VC sessions …
Defining what clients want Themes from the regional sessions (2008 -9) 1. Better management; lean efficiency (two-way) 2. Certainty / Predictability (up-front budgets/scopes that stick) 3. Focus on outcomes and results, not just on process and analysis: driven by metrics 4. Costs that equate with value received 5. Outside counsel and firms whose motivations and business model are aligned with the client’s Common Theme: Communication/Trust/Alignment are Key
This suggests that firms might consider… • Value-based alternative billing and relationship structures • Fixed fees: for entire matters or stages as a starting point – TRANSPARENCY will be key to establishing trust and success • Bid for whole portfolios of services–old fashioned retainers • Setting budgets and goals, then managing to them • Leaner staffing with greater continuity • Better training and mentoring of junior lawyers • Don’t reinvent the wheel; KM the firm’s legal expertise Common Theme: Get a handle on costs/lean efficiency
This suggests that clients might consider … • Better articulation of expectations and scope of appropriate budget up-front • A return to long-term trust and continuity (versus default reliance on RFPs, audits, etc. ) TRANSPARENCY - again is crucial to trust and success • Reward firms that demonstrate value/innovate/align • Support firms by re-considering the in-house mantra: “Hire the lawyer and not the firm. ” In order for firms to institutionalize change, they need client loyalty that extends beyond an individual. Common Theme: Dating stinks; let’s get married.
Just for a moment … Stop thinking like a lawyer, and start thinking like a businessperson.
Moving from theory to process: Value/Success Practices • There are hundreds of ways to drive value: find more success practices at www. acc. com/valuechallenge. • There is no one silver bullet “value” or success practice, and no “one size fits all. ” Value is in the eye of the beholder and must be shaped by each client/matter. • Consider what will help you take concrete first steps to drive value. Choose pieces and focus on them: make change manageable and sustainable.
Large departments may take a lead or get more attention … • … But value practices are just as important (maybe more important) for smaller departments & the firms serving them. • Small department ≠ small company or small client. • Small law departments tend to be “better” clients – longer term/personal relationships, less bidding, more stability. • Many larger department and firm techniques are scalable for smaller/mid-tier department and firm use.
“Yes, you can!” • ACC offers samples of many practices to consider – there’s little in these practices that you don’t recognize/understand – no rocket science: just plain common sense combined with a decision to get value done. Take small steps first. • What is it that you need to move from intellectual agreement with theory to practical applications you can implement? And will sustain? • Transformational change can be both radical and incremental – it can be planned and non-disruptive. • But you will be unprepared to compete if you do nothing.
Practices focusing on value… - Alternative or Value-based fees - Success, Contingency, Incentive fees - Staffing – which horses for which courses? - outsourcing, in-sourcing, team deployment - Talent development: associates/partners/staff - Performance Metrics: evaluation and comp - Knowledge Management: business and legal
Unique Opportunities… … For firms that are early adapters – demonstrating their savvy in managing their own business. (Helping clients who don’t have the time/capacity to re-invent the firm for them. ) … For firms with a clearly defined value proposition and transparency with clients – facilitates risk sharing. … For regional, mid-tier, value-firms, as well as boutiques: reasonable rates, lower fixed costs, greater flexibility, nimbleness … For clients that previously did not have the leverage of the Fortune 50 in driving innovative terms with firms … For in-house counsel who want to drive better mgmt.
In the end, it’s all about value. Contact me at: hackett@acc. com
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