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Can We See What They See? A Preview of Law Department Analytics Tools and Metrics
Can We See What They See?
A Preview of Law Department
Analytics Tools and Metrics
by Pratik Patel of Elevate Services
In 2015, Altman Weil conducted a "Chief Legal Officer Survey,"
which concluded that one of the top three priorities for increasing law
department efficiency and service delivery lies in the collection and
analysis of metrics. While this typically ranks high on the "wish list,"
the recent rise of lawyer-friendly analytics tools and the addition of
legal analytics gurus to in-house legal operations teams have enabled
general counsel to benefit from an "ask and you shall receive" approach
to data intelligence.
What Are Law Departments Measuring?
Historically, law department measurements and tracking have
been focused on spend. Information-tracking has typically been
decentralized to numerous tools; the most connected information
is usually contained within the maer management and e-billing
solution. Mounting pressure on cost control and accessibility to spend
data through e-billing systems led to spend metrics becoming the
benchmark for metrics sophistication.
Law departments now face increased pressure to identify
departmental strengths and weaknesses, beyond spend alone. They
are discovering their ability to measure and track several metrics that
demonstrate overall value of legal service delivery. As a result, law
departments are taking a more balanced approach to performance. The
following metrics now serve as a rising benchmark for measurement
and tracking sophistication:
ยป Demand: Measuring what comes in and out of the law department
in terms of requests, by type, by whom, cycle time, etc.
