Departments with Comprehensive Management Programs Thrive

A benchmarking study of legal departments first measured outside legal spend as a percentage of company revenue, then looked at what the same departments did or did not have in place as part of a “comprehensive management program.” The elements of a comprehensive management program for purposes of the study included such things as defined panels/pre-approved lists for sourcing; matter management and e-billing technology; detailed matter-level budgets (phase and/or task level); alternative fee arrangements; and evaluation of outside counsel adherence to billing guidelines. The study found that law departments with comprehensive management programs had a 46 percent lower external legal spend as a percent of company revenue than those without them.