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Outside Counsel Evaluations | Overview

Outside Counsel Evaluations | Overview

Outside counsel evaluations are important because they help your company identify the firms that provide the highest level of service and best results. Companies can evaluate a firm's overall activity, or activity related to matters. Survey responses can be exported to a spreadsheet.
note
Firms and vendors do not have access to their evaluations.
The evaluation process is independent of the invoice review process, and attorneys see their pending evaluations as action items. Company users can evaluate outside counsel at any time during the course of a matter or engagement.
note
Outside counsel evaluations can only be submitted for firms or vendors working on external matters. Outside counsel evaluations are created for each participating firm.

Process Summary

Configure
  • Set up in Settings:
    Settings
    Firm/Vendor Settings
    Outside Counsel Evaluations
  • Enable in the firm profile:
    Firms
    Our Firms
  • Define the requirement in the matter type template:
    Settings
    Matter Type-Templates & Matter Setup
Request
  • Select firms for evaluation:
    Firms
    Our Firms
Evaluate
  • Action items link to pending evaluations:
    Home
    Action items

Configuring the Survey

The outside counsel evaluation survey can be configured to cover the firm performance categories that are most important to your legal department and align with your unique set of values.

Defining the Outside Counsel Evaluation Survey Requirement

The requirement for outside counsel evaluations can be defined in the matter template or at the firm level.
Matter-Centric Evaluations
You can collect feedback from lead in-house attorneys about firm performance on individual matters by enabling the evaluation requirement at the matter-type level. To avoid overwhelming your attorneys with many firm evaluations, we recommend using this option for matter types where you have fewer matters, that are high visibility and/or high spend.
The option to require evaluations is on the Matter Type-Templates & matter setup page (
Settings
 >
Matters Setup
 >
Matter Type-Templates & Matter Setup
). After selecting the matter sub-type to configure, you can find the option to set up the requirement for evaluations in the
Setup Options
 collapsible section under
Outside Counsel Evaluation Options
.
Tip | Company System Administrators can use the Bulk Update feature to change the evaluation requirement setting for multiple firms and vendors at once.
Firm Level Evaluations
The requirement for outside counsel evaluations can also be set at the firm level. Firm-level evaluations offer the ability to collect feedback from in-house attorneys on their overall experience working with a firm. Company system administrators select the firms to evaluate on the Our firms page (
Firms
 >
Our firms
 in the left navigation), then select evaluation requests on the New Firm Evaluation Requests page.
note
Evaluation requests can only be created for a firm if the setting is enabled on the firm's profile. The setting can also be enabled using the Bulk Update feature.
Tools for tracking outside counsel performance
Matter Outcome Predictions The lead outside attorney is required to provide estimates about the likely resolution of a matter. For litigated matters these include the estimated settlement amounts and phase of litigation in which the matter will be resolved. The estimated date of resolution is tracked in all matters.
Matter Resolution Report The matter resolution report lets you identify which outside counsel are achieving the best results.
Monthly or Quarterly Status Reports You can require your lead outside attorney to provide a monthly or quarterly status report for your matter. Using status can help you better monitor the status of a case, and provide early material change alerts of significant developments in your matters.
Budget Management You can require your lead outside attorney to provide a monthly or phase-based budget for your matter. Using budgets can help you better control spending, and provide early warning if the spending on a matter is getting out of control.
Invoice Review When you review an invoice, you can compare the invoiced amounts to the budgeted amount, both for the month, year-to-date, and for the life of a matter. Tracker can also audit your LEDES invoices to notify you if (1) there are new timekeepers working on a matter, (2) any timekeeper has changed his or her hourly rates, or (3) the invoice has exceed your billing guidelines with respect to expenses.
Attorney Evaluations You can submit attorney evaluations, a report card of your outside counsel performance. By filing the evaluations frequently, you will develop an important evaluation performance tool over time.

Pending Evaluations

A link from Action Items opens the Pending Evaluations page, where survey responders manage evaluations.

Outside Counsel Evaluations Report

The Outside Counsel Evaluations report currently available in the Reports module was not modified to work with the new configurable survey infrastructure and will be retired.
Company System Administrators can export as a .csv file evaluations that were submitted within a particular date range from the list of firms.

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: Legal Tracker
  • Audiences: Company