Let’s continue the conversation from the January 29th CLOC Huddle. Legal Ops Professional members are invited to join this community huddle scheduled in response to the Community Connect post exploring strategies for reviewing and negotiating outside counsel rates. Attendance at the first huddle not required to take advantage of this continued conversation.

Please note: CLOC’s Legal Project Management Committee is also hosting a similar huddle on this topic later this month. Their huddle will be open to all ecosystem members. For continuing the conversation and hearing additional perspectives, please register here.

*This community thread is in the Legal Operations Professionals Forum and is restricted to this member type. This huddle is exclusive to Legal Operations Professional Members.

Introduction – Why is a discussion around outside counsel billing guidelines (OCGs) needed? OCGs are a “hot button” issue for today’s legal department, as having a well-defined OCG can enforce alignment with corporate values and compliance with internal policies as well as aide in cost control of legal expenses, transparency and consistency in billing process, and efficiency in invoice review and payment. 

Question #1: How do clients manage compliance with outside counsel guidelines?

• What is the process for circulating guidelines to outside counsel?
• Can in-house attorneys deviate from guidelines?
• Manual bill review v. ebilling vendors?
• Do clients require cost recovery for ebilling? (qualify that needs to be general and not specific)
• Externally accessible matter management systems?
• Are there penalties for non-compliance?
• Are rate increase requests tied to compliance? 

Question #2: How do law firms manage compliance with outside counsel guidelines?

• Outside Counsel Guideline training / summaries
• Time entry guidance 
• Pre-bill evaluation manual v. automated

Question #3: How can clients / law firms collaborate to improve compliance?

• How can outside counsel improve compliance?
• How can clients help improve compliance? 

This is meant to be a highly interactive discussion where everyone may interact via smaller breakout rooms. At the conclusion of the huddle, we will poll participants to determine the need for follow up sessions on this topic (general v. advanced). The discussion and its outcome will also be used as a basis for a future article. 

This huddle is open to all Ecosystem members.

A CLOC Huddle has been scheduled in response to the Community Connect post* exploring strategies and home grown solutions for reviewing and negotiating outside counsel rates. 

Please note: CLOC’s Legal Project Management Committee is also hosting a similar huddle on this topic in February. Their huddle will be open to all ecosystem members. For continuing the conversation and hearing additional perspectives, please register here.

*This community thread is in the Legal Operations Professionals Forum and is restricted to this member type. This huddle is exclusive to Legal Operations Professional Members.

This CLOC Huddle has been setup to connect and further explore Ironclad, as discussed in this active community thread.* If you are a current user, or considering Ironclad for your legal department, join this conversation to gain community insights. This huddle is exclusive to legal ops professionals.

*This community thread is in the Legal Operations Professionals Forum and is restricted to this member type.

CLOC Huddles are live, virtual roundtables initiated from active discussion threads in Community Connect.

Calling all Ironclad users. A CLOC Huddle has been scheduled to explore Ironclad’s AI features in response to this Community Connect discussion thread.

Please join peer members as they share their experiences and gather insights from each other on this topic.

CLOC Huddles are live, virtual roundtables initiated from active discussion threads in Community Connect.