Mar 2017, 5 Tips to Negotiate for Better Legal Service

Thomson Reuters’ recent white paper, Transform Your Legal Department in Six Months, helps in-house counsel to create more efficient and analytical legal departments. One of the key recommendations of this paper is to assess your relationship with 

outside counsel and how work is allocated to them.

Most corporations and law firms focus on price when they negotiate contracts for firms to join external legal panels. Yet 

despite the growing use of capped and fixed fees, legal fees continue to rise year on year while service quality rarely improves.

What if you instead focus your negotiations on service? Here are five things GCs should ask for when negotiating this year’s 

corporate legal retainer contracts.

1 Clear KPIs

Demand that firms set and deliver key performance indicators (KPI). Agree on measurable service deliverables appropriate to 

the type of work you are sending out, for example, average time to resolve queries or litigation win rates.

2 Data Meet Ups

Schedule regular meetings to review the performance metrics collected. Ask them to interpret the data and bring 

recommendations for improvement.

3 Document Automation

Request law firms to automate regular and routine documentation for a smoother workflow. Using modern tools such as 

Contract Express, drafting even complex contracts can be automated and documents can be created quickly and cheaply.

Read more in the report.

4 Communication Protocol

Set clear expectations for communication and insist on them. Reward firms that provide good service by keeping you up to date

5 Billing Transparency

Demand greater transparency and accountability over fee structures. Much of this can be automated using tools such as Legal Tracker, which also lets your law firms share the burden of monitoring. Monitoring billing also generates metrics that make it 

easy to demonstrate to the business the value your department adds.

Demanding a better service from law firms is a key part of creating more efficient and analytical legal departments. Find out 

more in our white paper, Transform Your Legal Department in Six Months.

Peter Davies,

Legal Solutions — a Thomson Reuters Business