Peer to Peer Magazine

44 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | FALL 2016 FEATURES The Evolving Business of Law services or those requiring company-specific knowledge are the best to handle in-house. Common examples include compliance, internal investigations, legal technology and e-discovery, intellectual property and some recurring litigation maers (e.g., employment and benefits issues). Investing in internal resources to solve legal problems makes sense when you can perform a task at the same or beer skill level as an outside provider at a lower cost (or if you can turn legal services into a profit center through aggressive litigation like the legal teams at Home Depot and Coca Cola). Geing an accurate view of your ability to perform tasks effectively and efficiently requires seing measures for success and assessing the true costs of providing those services internally. Looking at e-discovery (my area of expertise), many corporations have made significant investments in people, process and technology to add value and save expenses for these services. Corporations that have successfully brought e-discovery-related services in-house: » Track and analyze expenses to establish return on investment, best use case and both initial and on-going savings » Understand that no single technology solution will solve all problems » Appreciate the need to hire people and develop processes to leverage legal and technology solutions » Invest in training to keep people current on legal and technology issues » Develop repeatable processes that are adaptable to unique situations » Invest in upgrades to technology and processes » Know when the internal solution is insufficient for the needs of a maer » Use dedicated and qualified staff who perform specific tasks and handle similar issues repeatedly » Develop protocols for ensuring successful hand- off to outside counsel when required » Cooperate effectively with stakeholders Companies that decide to invest in internal legal services usually determine that recurring and repeatable services or those requiring company-specific knowledge are the best to handle in-house. Applying tools from the Lean/Six Sigma disciplines can lead to the elimination of obvious waste and immediate efficiency gains. Take time to map out current workflow and have the task performers identify bottlenecks. Legal operations staff can help working groups fully understand their work streams at a component level. Once all the inputs and outputs are understood, ensure that the voice of the customer plays a part in what is being done: What are they requesting, and what metrics exist to monitor the health of the process? It is easy to become bogged down in data reporting without real consideration for actionable metrics. Leverage the data to support continuous improvement and make sure what is delivered is exactly what the client asked for –– no more, no less –– on time and within budget. P2P The Importance of Process Mapping by Mike Russell

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