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LITIGATION AND PRACTICE SUPPORT
How Ediscovery, Cybersecurity and Privacy Certifications Can Differentiate your Firm and Win Work
related questions for their panel counsel. ACC's publicly available
"Unless You Ask" playbook gives insight into why law departments ask
firms questions designed to ensure that law department professionals
are "able to identify how your primary providers are measurably
improving their delivery of legal services to you."
On certifications, the "Unless You Ask" playbook says:
[T]echnology and the operating environment have made
delegation trickier. The Dictaphone-wielding lawyer knew that her
secretary had a comparative advantage as a typist. It is less obvious
whether the person to whom modern legal work is delegated has a
comparative advantage with word processing, spreadsheets, research,
or discovery soware. Sometimes, the lawyer is right that they will
be beer off doing it themselves. Much of the time, however, the
lawyer is more wrong than they know. Their ignorance of the process
or technology associated with completing the task correctly leads
them to drastically underestimate the advantages of delegation—if
the task is delegated to the right person. Certifications prove the
competence and reduce the risk of this happening. (p. 44).
The "Unless You Ask" playbook suggests legal operations
personnel could choose from a menu-style set of questions to give
the instruction:
Please provide a one-page summary, and whatever backup
materials you deem appropriate, explaining how you ensure
that the personnel handling client's work are properly
trained on the technology tools you provide them. Items the
summary might address include:
» Supply a chart of timekeepers and staff working on
client's maers with an indication of what technology
training they have completed. Include details about
the form and length of each training with emphasis
on whether any competence-based testing was done to
ensure skill acquisition.
» Describe your screening mechanisms for potential
employees. How do you determine whether applicants
have the requisite technology skills for their position?
How do you determine what the requisite technology
skills for a position are?
Copyright © 2016 Association of Corporate Counsel, All rights reserved.
Unless You Ask
A Guide For Law Departments To Get More
From
External Relationships
By D. Casey Flaherty
Sponsored by ACC Legal Ops External Resources Interest Group:
Diana Barlow, Voya Financial
Vincent Cordo, Jr., Shell Oil
Stephanie Corey, Flextronics
Kurt Grasinger, Marsh McLennan Companies Inc.
Aaron Katzel, American International Group
Lynette Lupia, Abbvie
Nicole Rahimzadeh, Abbott Laboratories
Nicole Rahimzadeh, Abbott
C L I C K H E R E T O D O W N L O A D
Unless You Ask is a practical guide to structured
dialogue. It provides specific guidance on the kinds
of data-driven conversations that law firms and law
departments should be having and how to go about
them. The menu is divided into three sections: Value-
Plus, Value-Enablement, and Why.
