Huron Consulting Group Releases 2011 IMPACT® Benchmarking Survey Addressing Legal Spend and Key Concerns for General Counsel

Huron Legal Survey Demonstrates Value of Law Department Operational Efficiency Programs

CHICAGO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Huron Consulting Group, a leading provider of business consulting services, today released results from its Huron Legal 2011 IMPACT® Benchmarking Survey. Huron Legal, in conjunction with The General Counsel Forum, developed the 2011 IMPACT Benchmarking Survey to focus on law department operations and the bottom line impact of various efficiency and cost-savings measures – in other words, what, why, when, who, and how legal services should be delivered.

“This survey was designed to address areas of greatest interest to our members and provides a deeper, more useful level of information about the tactics and operational processes that successful departments are using, and what is working for them.”

“The past few years have ushered in a large amount of change for the office of the general counsel who are increasingly focused on operational process improvement, legal service delivery, and key drivers of spending,” said Joy Saphla, managing director, Huron Legal. “The findings of the 2011 IMPACT Benchmarking Survey demonstrate that structured operational efficiency programs help reduce external legal spend. Corporate law departments that establish purposeful, data-driven outside counsel sourcing and management programs, closely monitor budgets, and utilize legal technology consistently achieve lower spending ratios than those that continue to conduct business as usual.”

Based on the survey responses, which represent a broad cross-section of industries, revenue bands, and external legal spending amounts, Huron Legal examined the relationship between respondents’ normalized levels of legal spending and various operational best practices. Law departments that engaged in activities geared toward operational efficiency had lower proportionate legal spend than those that did not. Specifically, the following activities and programs yielded favorable results:

• Law Firm Sourcing – formalized selection of outside counsel, including guidelines on when to use outside counsel, who to use and why, as well as utilization of law firm concentration or consolidation models.
• Alternative Service Providers – addressing who should do the work, including service providers in areas such as document review/discovery support, temporary legal services (contract lawyers, temps, etc.), and contract management.
• Alternative Fee Arrangements – how outside firms are compensated – non-hourly fee arrangements such as contingency payments, fixed fees, flat fees, monthly retention payments, and success bonuses.
• Budgeting – controlling how resources are used through the use of matter-level budgets to manage costs proactively.
• Legal Technology Tools – improving how services are delivered using technology tools such as electronic billing.

“Our members are often approached to respond to one-size-fits-all surveys that ask for and lay out raw data benchmarks in a vacuum,” said Lee Emery, chief executive officer, The General Counsel Forum. “This survey was designed to address areas of greatest interest to our members and provides a deeper, more useful level of information about the tactics and operational processes that successful departments are using, and what is working for them.”

“We are always striving to improve how we deliver our legal services. The IMPACT Survey results will allow us to see how we stack up to our peers with respect to cost drivers that can impact the bottom line. That’s helpful information as we continue to maximize our law department’s efficiency and cost effectiveness,” said Danette Gallatin, legal business manager, Williams Companies.

Huron Legal’s 2011 IMPACT Benchmarking Survey indicates that the bottom line is that law departments that are not affirmatively and proactively managing operational efficiency are leaving money on the table. Those that have evaluated their operations and implemented well-planned efficiency programs are more effectively controlling their external costs.

To speak with one of Huron Legal’s experts about cost pressures or other issues that general counsel are facing or to receive a copy of the 2011 IMPACT Benchmarking Survey executive summary, please contact:

Jennifer Frost Hennagir

312-880-3260

[e-mail]

Jenna Nichols

312-880-5693

[e-mail]

About Huron Legal

Huron Legal provides advisory and business services to assist law departments and law firms to enhance organizational effectiveness and reduce legal spend. Huron Legal advises on and implements strategy, organizational design and development, outside counsel management, operational efficiency, and discovery solutions, and provides services relating to the management of matters, contracts, documents, records, digital evidence and e-discovery.

Learn more about: Huron’s IMPACT® solution, which delivers sustainable cost reductions ranging from 15 to 40 percent; R3con® solution, a cost-effective forensic investigation solution to protect enterprise data; Sp3ctrum™ solution, a managed services discovery solution; and V3locity® solution, offering a streamlined e-discovery process that results in predictable discovery costs.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, resolve disputes, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including leading academic institutions, healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.