Configuring Outside Counsel Surveys
Configuring Outside Counsel Surveys
Outside counsel evaluation surveys are used to gather feedback from in-house attorneys about their experience with the law firms. For example, surveys help you evaluate the firm's overall activity or performance on matters. You can customize outside counsel evaluation surveys to cover the performance measures most relevant to your business.
In-house attorneys see the pending evaluations as action items and can respond at their convenience, so that evaluations are separate from the invoice review process so that they do not interfere with the invoice review process.
To analyze which in-house attorneys should receive the evaluation requests, Tracker looks through the firm’s active matters, where the firm posted invoices within a predefined time frame called the billing activity period.
Each question is connected to a theme or performance measure, to allow standardization for future data aggregation. In addition to adding new questions, you can arrange questions on the survey as necessary, and make questions required or optional. Responses can be exported to a .csv spreadsheet.
Required role | Company System Administrators
Configuring the Survey
You can edit the survey introductory text. We recommend you maintain the same wording for the 1-5 scale (such as unsatisfactory, improvement needed, meets expectations, etc.), because these terms cannot be edited on the survey itself.
In addition to adding new questions, you can you can arrange questions on the survey as necessary, and make questions required or optional, or remove questions from the survey.
To configure the outside counsel survey:
- SelectSettingsin the left navigation.
- In theFirm/Vendor Settingssection, selectOutside Counsel Evaluations.
- On the toolbar, selectEdit survey.
- In theIntroductionsection, enter instructions for users, such as a description of what each number on the scale means. The scale of 1 through 5 cannot be changed. Some default text is provided and we recommend using similar rating choices as the default.
- Configure your survey questions as necessary:ActionDescriptionTo change the order of survey questionsSelectMove UporMove Downnext to the question you want to move.To add a survey questionScroll to the bottom and select theAdd new questionbutton.You can add multiple scale 1-5 questions for most themes.Select a theme or performance measure for each questionFor each question, use theThemedropdown to select the question's theme.Performance measure to evaluate
- In theQuestionfield, enter the name of the performance measure as you want it to appear on the survey.
- In theInfofield, type a description of the performance measure.
Question requirementNext toRequired, check a button to indicate whether the user is required to answer the question before continuing. - On the toolbar, selectSave & preview.
Themes
Theme number | Theme name | What we’re looking to evaluate | Rating / Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Understanding business objectives & expectations | Strategic approach taken by outside counsel aligns with your business objectives and expectations regarding risk and overall cost. | 1 - 5 scale |
2 | Shared values & diversity | Outside counsel demonstrates commitment to diversity and inclusion that aligns with your values, including pro bono and community service projects. | 1 - 5 scale |
3 | Expertise & quality of work product | Outside counsel demonstrates mastery of the subject matter and provides actionable legal opinions enabling solutions to business problems. Work product is high quality with pro-active early strategies to resolve the matter that align with our business objectives. Throughout the matter, lead outside counsel consistently staff the matter appropriately with talent and subject matter expertise required. | 1 - 5 scale |
4 | Responsiveness, timeliness & overall communications | Outside counsel provides timely and concise communications, including proactive updates and highly responsive, thorough answers to questions. Outside counsel is available when needed. | 1 - 5 scale |
5 | Results & outcomes | Outcomes aligned with our company objectives regarding time to resolve, cost, settlement, etc. | 1 - 5 scale |
6 | Cost effectiveness | Outside counsel accurately forecasted costs at the initiation of the matter, including realistic and detailed budgets. Staffing (e.g., partner time) was appropriate to the size, risk and complexity of the matter. Outside counsel effectively used tools and technology to reduce cost and included value-added services like CLE, discounted secondments where appropriate. | 1 – 5 scale |
7 | Billing accuracy & process management | Invoices submitted complied with billing guidelines (timely invoice submission, complied with timekeeper rate and expense audits, etc.); few, if any, exceptions. | 1 - 5 scale |
8 | Likeliness to recommend | Likeliness to recommend that you continue using the outside counsel on future matters. The answers to this question are used to calculate the firm’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). | 1 - 10 scale |
9 | Additional feedback | You can use this theme for additional comments, or other 1-5 scale type of questions for performance areas not covered by the themes listed here. | 1 - 5 scale, or Free Text |
note
Themes 1 to 8 allow only one question per theme. You can add multiple questions linked to the Additional feedback theme (theme 9).
Matter-Centric Evaluations
The requirement to complete an outside counsel evaluation for a matter can be set up as part of the invoice approval workflow. When defining the matter type template, you can set the periodic requirement for surveys on the Matter-type Template page (
Settings
> Matters setup
> Matter Type-Templates & matter setup
). When you add the new template, you will be able to define survey requirements in the Outside Counsel Evaluation Options
section. If you define a periodic requirement, the evaluations are due after the number of months in the setting have passed (beginning with the date the periodic evaluation setting was enabled), or the last evaluation date, whichever is the latest. Evaluation requests are created and sent to the lead in-house attorneys on the respective matters.Firm-Centric Evaluations
Company system administrators can select the firms to evaluate on the firm profile (
Firms
> Our firms
from the left navigation). On the firm's Profile tab, in the Info About Firm section, the option to require evaluations can be set to Able to be required (configurable within matter templates)
or Never required
. Evaluation requests are created and sent to the lead or participant firms with invoices posted during the last interval. Periodic evaluations are due from the date when the setting Able to be required (configurable within matter templates)
was enabled on the firm profile, or the last evaluation date, whichever is the latest.Billing Activity Period
To determine which in-house attorneys should receive the evaluation requests, Tracker analyzes the firm’s active matters where the firm has posted invoices within a predefined time frame (called billing activity period). The default billing activity period is the last 12 months. To change the billing activity period, select the
Edit
button.In addition to the default you can select the current fiscal year or a custom range. Use the calendar icon to select the beginning date of the date range.