Surveys of Law Departments show that cost containment continues to be a top priority for department and corporate leadership.  In the spirit of cost containment, Law Departments have installed systems, strategized which services to bring in house and which to outsource and negotiated with legal vendors.  Yet, leadership wonders if there are still opportunities to reduce costs without sacrificing quality of work and ability to protect the organization.

Legal Cost Containment May Take Many Forms

Organizations tackle the cost containment mandate in a variety of ways.  These methods often vary based on industry, law department size and work profile.  Some areas of consideration include:

·    Outside Counsel and Legal Vendor Selection and Convergence

·    Legal Vendor Retention Guidelines

·    Pricing Strategies Including Alternative Fee Arrangements

·    Legal Invoice Review and Audit

·    Legal and Department Budgeting

·    Business Intelligence, Metrics & Reporting

·    Process Improvement

·    Technology Tools

Our Expertise

Baker Robbins & Company in partnership with Hildebrandt has reviewed and recommended changes to dozens of legal cost containment initiatives over more than 20 years of consulting and client service.  Our consultants each have more than 10 years experience advising the legal industry.

We provide great value in assessments and planning because we can combine technical knowledge with a deep understanding of law department business processes and strategy.  Working closely with Hildebrandt, we are able to closely align strategic initiatives and technology, leveraging our collective knowledge of applications, best practices and key operational benchmarks.

Legal Cost Containment Assessment

For organizations interested in evaluating the effectiveness of their cost containment strategies, Baker Robbins offers a flat fee assessment.  During this brief engagement, we will:

·    Learn about the organization’s critical goals and initiatives related to legal cost containment

·    Review and analyze usage of existing systems

·    Analyze policies and procedures related to cost containment

·    Examine department budgets and annual cost data

·    Evaluate a subset of matter cost and performance data

·    Explore staffing and outsourcing decisions

·    Provide an objective assessment describing how the department compares to other departments and best practices as well as opportunities for improvement with regard to legal cost containment practices

·    Develop a road map to suggest how the department might tackle cost containment improvement opportunities