Author: Onit

3 Things to Consider When Signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement

Posted on August 11, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) establish a confidential relationship between parties who share sensitive information. A well-drafted NDA can protect sensitive information from being shared with others without your consent. Without NDAs, any information shared can be taken advantage of or publicly disclosed.

Following are some tips when creating and/or signing an NDA to ensure that you protect your best interests:

Q: What is the Scope of Confidentiality?

Make sure the purpose of the agreement is clearly understood and defined. Consider what the permitted use of information is and how long you are expected to keep it secret. Otherwise, the other party could use your information for their own benefit, or you could be expected to keep the information private for years, etc.

Q: What is the Definition of Confidentiality?

It is important to specify the kinds of information you want to protect or exclude from protection under this agreement and make sure to include that in your definition of confidentiality. If you don’t get specific, your discussions may not be legally protected or you may risk accidentally breaching the agreement.

Q: What Happens if There is a Breach of the Agreement?

Pay attention to the consequences of breaching the agreement and avoid any extreme penalties, such as liquidated damages or indemnities. Otherwise you may be facing an expensive legal bill.

Being informed empowers you to make smarter legal decisions now and in the future.

Review your next NDA agreement with ReviewAI. Try out the Confidentiality Skillset to find core issues quickly when protecting your confidential information, and further your understanding and obligations of confidentiality.

 

Onit Leaders to Discuss Automation for Financial Services and Insurance Legal Operations

Posted on August 11, 2020 by - Company News and Events

Onit’s Hans Bengard, enterprise sales director, and Paige Edwards, director of customer experience, will present tomorrow at the Consero Legal Operations For Financial Services & Insurance Virtual KnowledgeBridge™.

The event, scheduled from 1-3 p.m. ET on August 12, connects leading legal leaders from companies such as American Express, AIG and CIBC as they discuss legal operations management priorities and enhancements.

The session featuring Bengard and Edwards, titled Automating Legal and Compliance Processes: How, When, Why,” will center on automating legal and compliance processes and best practices gathered over years of work with Fortune 500 corporate legal departments. The session will cover:

  • Identifying processes to automate and executing a plan
  • Building a business case around implementing automation
  • Managing the change around user behavior
  • Tracking and using process data to make decisions

The session begins at 1:40 p.m. ET tomorrow.

The Consero Legal Operations for Financial Services and Insurance Virtual KnowledgeBridge offers engaging discussions between corporate legal department leaders from large corporations. Other sessions for the three-hour virtual event include:

  • Issues for legal operations leaders to work through in the new business normal
  • Technologies and processes to improve legal department efficiencies
  • Enhancing legal operations

If you’d like to learn more, here are some useful links.

Handling Law Firms’ Pushback to Rate Negotiations

Posted on August 11, 2020 by - Legal Operations

As companies continue to grapple with the economic distress presented by COVID and think more strategically about their operations, many are turning to their outside counsel for rate relief.

If you’ve taken the step to negotiate discounts or rate freezes with your law firms, it’s likely you’ve been met with some pushback leaving you to ask – now what?

Negotiations can be prolonged and intimidating conversations if you’re not prepared. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the other end of the negotiation table?

Well, you’re in luck!

The Council of Luminaries, a group of law firm pricing thought leaders, offered its law firm pricing representatives the following commentary and guidance on dodging client discount requests:

  • “Clients have begun to talk about legal services as if it’s health care, where there’s some moral obligation toward affordability. But we are under no obligation to provide services at any price we did not set.”
  • “The Luminaries expressed dismay that the client perspective seems to be that firms should have to pay a penance for prospering in good financial times, that they ‘make too much money.’”
  • “Clients that prioritize diversity should realize that unilateral demands for low rates can negatively impact it, because it can inhibit promotion of diverse attorneys, or incentivize firms to staff them on other matters where the financial impact to the firm and professional development opportunities for the lawyers will be more advantageous.”
  • “Conversations around value are better if the GC is at the table and can talk about what’s really going on with the company and the firm’s work for it; we can negotiate a give-and-take more effectively in that context.”
  • “It seems most GCs are more concerned about selecting the best firm for each job than they are about the costs associated with it. There’s not much actual incentive to choose a lower tier firm. It fails a risk vs. reward analysis. The trick is making the optimal selection of those providers within the constraints of the allocated budget.”
  • “It remains critical to protect premium brands and offerings as reducing price on best-in-class services, particularly ones that are experiencing demand and deliver high value to the client, can have a lasting negative effect on firm brand positioning.”

When initiating rate discount conversations with your law firms, it’s critical to keep this in mind in order to yield the best results for your company.

To help you further navigate your negotiations and conversations with your law firms, Bodhala has compiled a set of common law firm objections and suggested responses that will assist you in asserting a value-driven conversation that leads to positive results for your business.

Law Firm Objection/Assertion #1: Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve had our top tier partners and associates handling your urgent legal matters. We’ve provided you with our best minds and have proven our sincere commitment to your business during these challenging times.

Client Response #1: While we appreciate your commitment and your top attorneys, we are under significant pressure to contain costs and cannot justify paying these premium rates during such economic turmoil. We are expecting all of our business partners to share in the economic burden Covid has presented.

Law Firm Objection/Assertion #2: If our rates were truly too high, we’d be receiving discount requests from far more clients. Our clients have realized that they need our help more than ever during these difficult times. Because of this, they have accepted the rates we have charged – in fact, those rates are higher than yours.

Client Response #2: Certain clients may be willing to pay above-market rates, but we cannot do so as we look to contain costs during this economic crisis. Each business is different and how some clients handle the burden Covid has presented is not a catch-all solution for the rest of your clients.

Law Firm Objection/Assertion #3: Your business is already getting a good deal on your rates as our realization rate with you is low versus our other clients. We understand the economic stress Covid has presented, but we simply cannot justify reducing your rates even further. It would be detrimental for us to do so.

Client Response #3: Your firm has been a critical partner for our business for several years and we value the relationship, but how you handle the relationship during our most significant time of need also matters to us. If our CFO and GC thought our business was truly getting a good deal, we would not be asking this of you. We agreed to pay the rates you are referencing during a time of economic stability, but due to Covid, that is no longer the case and we are asking you to realize that.

Law Firm Objection/Assertion #4: Our law firm has struggled throughout the pandemic as well as we’ve had to deal with the challenges of remote work, furloughs, court closures, and more. The rates we are charging your business are within the market.

Client Response #4: We understand that Covid has presented challenges for all businesses, but we are also aware that in past crises, law firms have remained stable, even experiencing profits while other industries struggle. We are asking you to share in our economic pain as there is no reason for above-inflation rate increases – especially during this period of distress. We are aware of similar clients in the market that have been granted rate freezes and discounts by their law firms. As a valued business partner of ours, we are expecting the same from your firm.

As you optimize your spend and drive value from your outside counsel relationships, Bodhala is here to offer real transparency, real accountability, and real control.

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.

Onit Releases Newest, Cutting-Edge Version of the Apptitude Process Automation Platform

Posted on August 6, 2020 by - Company News and Events

Great things are happening at Onit! We’re excited to announce the new version of our workflow and process automation platform, Apptitude. Packed with unprecedented new muscle, Onit built this latest version of Apptitude to bridge the gap between technical and business users and designed it to simplify the creation of new workflows. Apptitude’s new visual interface, Process Builder, allows all users to build and manage business logic and workflows using a drag-and-drop interface.

“One of our primary goals with this release is to support our community of App builders and accelerate new workflow creation and execution across the enterprise,” explained John Gilman, vice president of product strategy at Onit. “Using the new visual drag-and-drop workflow builder, technical and business analysts are empowered to build Apps faster and more efficiently, enabling better connections and collaboration with key stakeholders and knowledge workers. The reaction I got from customers is that Process Builder is a game-changer. The App Builder can instantly visualize the process, and the sponsor can demonstrate in real-time the work of the project team to internal stakeholders.”

Onit Process Builder

Process Builder provides a visual interface for building workflows. Builders configure business logic by dragging and dropping actions and groups of actions exactly where they need to go. Building new workflows is intuitive and only takes minutes for experienced builders to learn. More importantly, Process Builder works with existing Apptitude configurations, and no migration or changes are required to get started. The new release also makes it easy to “show your work” to other stakeholders in an agile build process so that internal customers can quickly and easily give their input. This helps shorten the time to value in Onit implementations, which often take weeks – not months.

The Onit Nation

The latest version of Apptitude has best practices from 400+ global companies that have built workflow solutions for more than a decade. Customers, employees and Onit’s technology and consulting partners have configured more than 5,500 Apps, comprised of 160 bespoke legal-focused workflow solutions with deployment in 120 countries. Onit has certified nearly 300 employees, partners and customers in more than 80 training sessions with 686 certification levels granted.

Here’s how to learn more about Onit Apptitude:

Virtual Court from a Judge’s Perspective

Posted on August 4, 2020 by - Business Process Management

Welcome to virtual court. The judge is in.

Many lawyers and legal professionals have faced the COVID-19 shift, moving from workplaces to home offices. As a result, it’s redefined how law firms and corporate legal departments operate. It also impacts court proceedings. Court systems have faced a far more advanced challenge: how to hold sessions virtually and accommodate counsel, witnesses and legal considerations.

In this blog post, Judge Tanya Garrison of the Harris County Civil Court discusses virtual court, its potential long-term effects and how attorneys can excel in Zoom hearings.

Q: How has your court system handled going virtual?

Judge Garrison: We all got Zoom accounts instantly. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Texas Supreme Court has issued numerous emergency orders to give judges the authority to do what needs to be done during this time. For example, it allowed courts to conduct hearings remotely and court deadlines to be extended as necessary.

One of the concerns we had involved the Open Courts Provision in the Texas Constitution. The hearings have to be open so that anyone can watch. In the early days of COVID and Zoom, it wasn’t ideal to publicly post meeting links. The Harris County Civil Court experimented with multiple approaches like YouTube live streaming. I opted for phone hearings for the first month. That way, I could put the call-in number on the internet to comply with an open court. Finally, the court found a hybrid solution that involves judges and counsel connecting on Zoom and then live streaming the session so the public can see it.

Q: How have you found the change?

Judge Garrison: Everything takes a little bit longer now. We all have to have more patience. I do miss the human interaction and lawyers debating in a courtroom. It’s a hard adjustment but a necessary one.

Q: Has the change affected how your court runs?

Judge Garrison: Trials are all postponed, so most of my work is overseeing pretrial activities, discovery and mediation. I’ve moved more submissions to written ones rather than oral hearings. If I need explanations, I’ll have a call with counsel afterward.

Q: How have attorneys responded to virtual court?

Judge Garrison: The legal profession is filled with a variety of people with a range of talents and abilities. Some lawyers are excellent with technology, and some are learning. While being good with technology is a perceived advantage, that isn’t what I care about. I rule on merit. 

We’re asking lawyers to adapt really quickly to technology. I’m impressed with how well the legal profession has responded. A year ago, an online videoconference would have been implausible. Now, it’s not a big deal.

Q: Do you see virtual court having positive changes for the legal system?

Judge Garrison: The legal profession may realize that we can operate this way and we don’t have to be in the courthouse to do it. We’ll have more efficient hearings. If we continue to connect virtually, clients may end up saving money. A bill for a court hearing may reflect 15 minutes instead of three hours.

It’d have a positive impact on settlement hearings for minors. Moms and dads usually have to take a day off of work to testify. Now, they can give their testimony on Zoom, and it takes minutes instead of an entire day. It saves them time, hassle and frustration. Virtual also allows for depositions over longer distances. It can accommodate someone if they’re out of town.

On the other hand, it may take away educational opportunities for younger lawyers. When I was a young lawyer, I would sit on a docket and watch the cases in front of me. You can learn a lot that way. Now, you join at your time and drop off when done.

Q: What advice do you have for lawyers in virtual court?

Judge Garrison: A good Zoom hearing is similar to a good Zoom meeting. You have to frame yourself effectively with the camera. For example, don’t sit in front of a window. You have to be more patient with the other people on the video hearing and make sure you’re paying attention to nonverbal cues.

The biggest tip I have – for live or online – is to write better. I read motions before the hearing. Write a concise, clean motion and articulate why you are entitled to what you need. If you write a bad motion, I don’t fully understand and can’t give you what you want.

Q: What are the limitations of virtual hearings?

Judge Garrison: Unfortunately, online hearings don’t allow for two key parts of the legal structure: presenting physical evidence and witness transparency. You’re not going to have a Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men” cross-examination moment in a virtual conference. If you’re on a Zoom hearing with a witness in front of the computer screen, it’s hard to know who is sitting behind it. Is there a lawyer feeding the witness answers? That’s an extreme example, though.

Q: What do you see happening when it’s safe to go back to court?

Judge Garrison: I will probably conduct mostly in-person hearings again when the courts can reconvene. However, the positive changes that can come from virtual hearings will hopefully lead me to have more virtual dockets in the future, if possible.

Thank you to Judge Garrison for sharing her virtual court experience.

About Judge Tanya N. Garrison

Judge Garrison was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1997, where she met her husband. After graduation, the Garrisons moved to Houston, where Judge Garrison attended the University of Houston for law school, graduating in 2000 with honors in both oral advocacy and academics.

During law school, Judge Garrison began working at the law firm of Weycer, Kaplan, Pulaski & Zuber, P.C., where she practiced law until being elected judge of the 157th in 2018. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Garrison’s law practice consisted of entirely civil litigation with an emphasis on appellate law. She is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and a proud member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Five Crucial Components of Enterprise Legal Management Solutions

Posted on July 31, 2020 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

The most meaningful enterprise solutions help grow a business.

Enterprise legal management solutions are no exception.

With robust enterprise legal management technology, corporate legal departments can generate gains in efficiency, productivity, business insight and cost savings – all valuable commodities when priorities are quickly shifting.

In this blog post, we’ll run down five of the most valuable parts of enterprise legal management solutions. But first, let’s talk about data vs. process.

Data vs. Process

At the beginning of legal operations management, lawyers and legal professionals relied on tools like spreadsheets, emails and documents to manage information. As corporate legal departments grew in size and complexity, they turned to traditional enterprise legal management vendors that provided a database-centric approach to handling legal operations. Their technology platforms worked as systems of record that only tracked or measured data put into it.

However, and this cannot be over-emphasized, your competitive legal department needs a system of engagement – a system that supports the highly collaborative nature of legal work.

An app-based focus addresses process problems and offers a workflow-based approach. It provides the power of comprehensive enterprise legal management broken into individual task-based solutions and processes, conforming more closely to how people work. Users can also extend their collaborative reach with other corporate departments by incorporating capabilities and components of broader company-wide systems as needed.

Working faster and smarter

When exploring enterprise legal management solutions, ensure that the prospective system can be built around the way teams work. After all, you’re trying to streamline your operations and avoid the old standards of relying on email and spreadsheets to get the job done. In today’s fast-paced legal settings, lawyers need to be able to work faster, smarter and more efficiently. The best way to do it is by automating legal department processes.

There are quite a few benefits of a cutting-edge enterprise legal management solution, including cost savings,  flexibility and robust reporting capabilities. Equally important are the numerous crucial processes that it can help your team with – especially since you’re working towards improving processes.

Here are five of the top components to look for in an enterprise legal management solution:

  1. A single platform for collaboration that captures notes, documents, attachments and email communications in one secure location. With all your processes centralized in a single, robust platform, operations are streamlined and optimized to the fullest.
  1. Improved collaboration and knowledge sharing that provides more transparency to your operations. Legal departments of any size can reap the benefits of a technology platform that supports the highly integrated, collaborative legal work that reinforces an enterprise’s business goals.
  1. Workflow capabilities that match your business requirements and are simple to change, alter or adjust. Different work types, such as matters related to employment, litigation, or mergers, have unique processes. Workflows must be able to evolve quickly as corporate legal departments grow and re-prioritize.
  1. Seamless integration with vital systems and the ability to be highly configurable. Corporate legal departments have a wide variety of systems in their technology ecosystems, including document management, intellectual property management, accounts payable and other back-end systems. This allows information to flow and populate as needed automatically across technologies.
  1. Reporting and dashboard views that make it easy to analyze invoices, evaluate performance against budget and see trends across your matter portfolio. Intuitive interfaces allow legal professionals to focus on the process and results instead of how the application works. Little or no training is required, which dramatically reduces the time and cost of solution deployment.

With an average cost savings of 4-7% of outside counsel spend, process-oriented enterprise legal management solutions also represent a new paradigm that drastically improves the delivery of legal services. Process-driven solutions integrate workflow and collaboration and allow you to explore and define the legal business processes critical to your organization.

Are you interested in learning more? Here are three steps to help.

  1. Explore what other leading corporate departments are accomplishing with a platform and process approach to enterprise legal management. For example, Corteva used technology provided by Onit and our partner PERSUIT to build a global panel of law firms. As a result, its legal operations leader helped the company significantly reduce average prices across vendors – by up to 60% in some cases – and increase outside counsel engagement
  2. Join Lean into Legal Ops. The comprehensive thought leadership initiative, offered at no charge, provides legal and business professionals masterclasses, case studies and discussions with industry thought leaders and innovators. For the U.S., join here. For Europe, join here.
  3. Learn about building better workflows and how they can help you build a better business by asking for a demonstration of Onit Enterprise Legal Management Solutions.

 

The NDA FAQ: Ask These 6 Questions Before Signing that Nondisclosure Agreement

Posted on July 31, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management

If you work in an office environment, chances are you’ve signed or sent a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) — perhaps without reading through all of the terms and conditions. On both sides of the equation, the importance of a well-written NDA is often overlooked. A poorly written agreement can lead to some gnarly (yet very avoidable) headaches, such as accidentally waiving your rights to sue for intellectual property infringement, costly indemnities or information leaks.

Before you pick up that pen, ask these questions about the important legal clauses in an NDA to understand your obligations of confidentiality and save yourself and/or your company future trouble.

Q: What is an NDA?

It’s important to first examine what a non-disclosure agreement is and is not. NDAs are used to protect sensitive information from being shared with others and to build trust between parties who have sensitive discussions. Without NDAs, any information shared can be taken advantage of or publicly disclosed, resulting in good ideas being stolen.

Q: What is the Purpose of the Agreement?

When you sign an NDA, you agree to share information for only a specific, stated purpose. This purpose needs to be thoroughly and clearly provided in the confidentiality agreement so that either party can easily identify incorrect usage of the information, if necessary, down the road. If the purpose(s) provided is vague, it can become a lot harder to prove or disprove that a party broke the terms of the NDA.

Q: What Information Falls under the Definition of Confidentiality?

NDAs are all about protecting confidential information, so it will be important for you and the other party to understand what kinds of information you both consider to be “confidential” and what information is excluded. State the type of information you want to protect or exclude from protection under this agreement (i.e., financial information, specific sets of data, unique processes, etc.) and include in your definition of confidentiality.

Q: What are the Remedies for Breach of Confidentiality?

The damage caused by breaching the agreement can vary by the kind of information involved and how serious the breach is. Equitable remedies — special legal help from a court — focus on preventing irreparable harm caused by the breach. It is important to state the kinds of equitable remedies you want to be able to access in case things go wrong, including specific performance, injunction and restitution.

Q: What is the Duration of Confidentiality?

Keeping a secret can be hard; keeping a secret for a long time can be even harder! This clause sets out the length of time you have to keep information confidential. It is important to know how long you need to protect information under this agreement so that you can set up business practices appropriately.

Q: What Happens When Confidential Discussions End?

What will you do with confidential information once discussions are over and the agreement has ended? What do you want the other person to do with your information? It is generally good practice to include in the agreement the obligation to return or destroy confidential information. The less information you hang onto, the less likely you are to accidentally disclose the information!

Being informed about the various legal clauses in an NDA empowers you to make smarter legal decisions now and in the future.

To learn about artificial intelligence helps you quickly draft, review, redline and edit all types of contract, visit here.

Leveraging Data to Drive Legal Department Initiatives

Posted on July 31, 2020 by - Legal Operations

Whether to optimize legal spend or drive diversity efforts, legal operations professionals are leaning on data to accelerate their department’s key initiatives. 

Without data, legal operations teams are left at a standstill, unable to make strategic decisions that create meaningful impact, such as:

  • Reallocating spend to optimize savings and meet departmental priorities, like diversity initiatives
  • Identifying and controlling the above-inflation growth of rate cards
  • Initiating empowered negotiations and conversations with law firms

The need for clean, actionable data has never been more significant as companies grapple to get a hold of their spend after the economic distress Covid has caused and the urgency of diversity initiatives in the vitally important era of Black Lives Matter. 

Bodhala CEO, Raj Goyle, led legal operations professionals from Fortune 500 companies through insightful discussions on the power of data this afternoon during Consero’s Virtual KnowledgeBridge.

Data’s Impact on Spend Management

In-house teams need to allocate their resources towards significant value-drivers. 

That means no more surprise invoices, no more paying A-team prices for C-team legal talent, and no more hiring firms that do not deliver the quality of work or expertise your legal matters need. 

As we heard from attendees, there’s a burning desire to eliminate these issues, but they struggle to wrangle clean data needed to make this a reality. 

One attendee shared that they are hard-pressed to get any data that can help inform decision making.

Though other professionals need to meet certain standards to get a raise in pay, it seems that companies have no choice but to shell out more and more money each year to compensate their legal counsel.

But legal operations professionals are looking to change that.

They want to leverage the power of data to drive law firm negotiations, instead of being idle price takers that are subjected to consistent rate increases. 

Moving the Needle on Diversity with Data

Companies are holding a magnifying glass towards the diversity of their external partners as a result of the overdue and important conversation on racial injustices in America. 

In-house legal departments are looking for concrete data on timekeepers and allocation or origination credit from their law firms that demonstrates their true, honest commitment to diversity and inclusion. 

But it’s not an easy road to obtain this information.

Due to the limitations of their tech stacks, legal operations professionals must rely on their law firms to provide their diversity data — a request that’s almost always refuted.

This leaves legal operations teams struggling to control law firm behaviors and set specific guidelines on outside counsel diversity. 

Data-Backed Insights

With unparalleled data-backed insights, Bodhala can be a critical partner in guiding your legal department’s key initiatives — from diversity to spend optimization, law firm management, enhanced reporting, and more.

As the leading legal technology platform, Bodhala is built on data – and how we develop it, how we utilize it and how we analyze it for the benefit of our customers sets us apart.

Bodhala’s legal market intelligence arms legal departments with the ability to: initiate data-driven negotiations with outside counsel, set outside counsel guidelines that align with the businesses’ core values, benchmark their law firm rates to understand what they’re paying compared to peers in the market, and search data categorized by firmographics.

The combination of our analytics and legal market intelligence has made us experts in diversity spend data. As a result, we’ve helped our clients direct spend to diverse attorneys, monitor origination credit and relationship partner data, and identify diverse counsel for individual matters.

Real transparency, real accountability, real control — that’s what Bodhala is all about.

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.

Diversity Management: How Legal Departments are Using Data to Improve the Diversity of their Outside Counsel

Posted on July 29, 2020 by - Legal Operations

In recent months, companies have accelerated their diversity and inclusion initiatives as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and the overdue conversation on racial injustices in America.

While companies have realized the work must start from within, they’re also holding critical external partners – including law firms – to higher standards.

This afternoon Bodhala CEO, Raj Goyle, led General Counsels and Chief Legal Officers across multiple industries through insightful conversations on the critical role data plays in driving diversity initiatives during Consero’s Virtual KnowledgeBridge.

As the leading legal technology platform, Bodhala is built on data – and how we develop it, how we utilize it and how we analyze it for the benefit of our customers sets us apart.

Our analytics and market intelligence have made us experts in diversity spend data as we have helped clients:

  • Identify and source diverse counsel for individual matters and panels
  • Direct spend to diverse attorneys on the partnership path
  • Monitor origination credit and relationship partner data

Here’s What We Heard

Throughout this afternoon’s discussions, Consero attendees expressed their desire to get beyond the virtue signaling and window dressing that law firms so often display when it comes to diversity. 

Though legal departments are at various stages in their innovation journeys, attendees shared the following actions their legal departments have taken:

  • Identification of diverse attorneys at the associate level that can be supported through the partnership track
  • Request of diversity metrics during the RFP process
  • Implementation of technology that can improve data visualization in order to better track diversity
  • Utilization of boutique law firms that employ more diverse lawyers

Bodhala’s Insights

Law firms will not change their antics unless they are held accountable by their clients. Companies can no longer rely on obsolete numbers in a survey or empty law firm promises when it comes to diversity. After all, you cannot manage what you don’t measure.

To ensure accountability, companies must leverage data and monitor origination credit. Origination credit determines who at the law firm gets a significant percentage of money for a client’s work. No progress can be made on diversity initiatives without the client’s understanding of the critical role origination credit plays in diverse lawyers achieving equity partner status within their firms. 

Is your organization equipped with the data you need to initiate change and tip the scale on critical diversity efforts?

Bodhala is your partner for generating data-backed insights that can accelerate your company’s diversity journey.

With over $15 billion in legal invoices from over 235,000 timekeepers spread across over 30,000 law firms, Bodhala equips you with the data needed to hire the right lawyer at the right law firm at the right price.

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.

CLOC Survey Pinpoints Worldwide Trends for Legal Operations Professionals

Posted on July 28, 2020 by - Company News and Events, Enterprise Legal Management

Legal operations professionals value the experience of their peers. They turn to each other to share best practices, overcome challenges, and enhance the performance of their corporate legal departments.

Now, they can access the collective feedback from legal ops professionals representing 140 companies in 30 industries and 17 countries, thanks to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). The powerhouse industry organization – which the founders affectionately called “the book club” – has released its Third Annual State of the Industry Survey.

The State of Legal Operations

According to the survey participants, corporate legal departments experienced growth in demand for legal services and continued to focus on various means to control costs. Many grew their legal operations teams and continued to invest in technology.

The survey found that 52% of companies kept the ratio of work between in-house and external firms the same, but this differed by size. Sixty-seven percent of large companies reported their ratio remained the same, while only 49% of medium and 30% of small companies said the same. Forty-one percent of small companies reported moving more work in-house and 30% reported outsourcing more legal work. Thirty-one percent of medium companies moved more work in- house and 20% outsourced more legal work.

Costs have shot up, with the survey finding that 61 cents of every dollar spent on legal costs was spent on external legal costs – a 15-cent increase from 2018.

Return on Investment

The survey also revealed that corporate legal departments had achieved even higher ROIs from increasing technology resources. The implementation of technology has helped reduce the number of staff each legal operations FTE is supporting by 7 compared to 2019, enabling teams to provide more granular support to all practice areas.

Leading Legal Ops Technology  

What’s the most commonly implemented technology for corporate legal departments? According to the survey results, eBilling systems take the lead at 76%. The use of e-Signature technologies increased by 27% and document management increased by 12% this year compared to last year.

Rating Maturity Levels and Stating Priorities  

CLOC asked survey participants to rate their legal departments’ overall level of experience with technology from “emerging” to “leading.” This year’s survey indicates that 17% of respondents feel their technology is in the “leading” stage, while 34% feel theirs is somewhere between “developing” and “leading.” The remaining 49% believe their technology is in the developing or lesser stages.

When asked about priorities, legal ops professionals had a tie for the top 2020 priority. Implementing new technology solutions came in at 71%, the same as automating legal processes. Low priorities included implementing an intern program (82%) and increasing legal ops headcount (66%).

The future looks exceptionally bright for this field, and we should continue to see even greater reliance on legal operations. Legal operations professionals continue to evolve, segment and specialize to meet business demands. Innovation and technology are expected to not only contribute but spearhead this evolution.