Two days, 30 speakers, sold-out attendance, here's what went down.
We are winding down from what was the great energy at the Legal Procurement Conference, North America in NYC. What great presentations! What actionable insights! What fabulous networking! But don't take my word for it, I wasn't there.
Since your editor couldn't make it this year, we asked two attendees to share their insights, impressions and take-aways, and isn't that more interesting anyway?
Brad Blickstein is Principal at Blickstein Group and presented: Decoding a Decade of Data to Map the LDO (Law Department Operations) Journey. Take it away Brad!
"I was honored to present at last week’s Buying Legal Council North America. It was my first time at this event, and I was impressed by the group’s passion and engagement. These people were on an educational mission. And I’m sure it was mission accomplished.
"The sessions were fascinating and very artfully presented by outstanding speakers from all different parts of the industry. I did not see even one of the dreaded “bullet slide” and no one just read their slides. One highlight was Catherine Krow’s “Snowflake” talk, where she explained that while it may seem that no two legal projects are alike (like snowflakes), there are actually patterns to be found (also like snowflakes). Others were Ari Kaplan’s benchmarking discussion and Hugh Simons’ keynote challenging clients to take work away from law firms.
"My own educational mission was to try to understand the relationship between legal procurement and law department operations professionals, and, as far as I could tell, the two groups are sort of circling around each other. My sense was that, while procurement professionals do not necessarily view LDOs the same way they do lawyers, they do see them as protective of the law department’s sacrosanct role in selecting counsel.
"Meanwhile, LDOs perceive legal procurement professionals almost as an enemy. Because as much as they want to get more value from outside counsel, they still too often believe that legal services are too 'different' for professionals to help. Working with procurement is typically considered something to avoid at all costs.
Which is a shame, because their objectives are in perfect alignment.
"According to last year’s Annual Law Department Operations Survey, published by the Blickstein Group in cooperation with Consilio, all of the top five key performance indicators listed by LDOs are cost related. Yet only 29 percent rate themselves as 'very effective' on outside counsel management. So some help from the experts would not hurt.
"My advice to LDOs: It’s true that legal services are somewhat different, but so are a lot of the things that procurement professionals buy—some of which are honestly a lot more critical to your company than legal services. They might not know everything about legal, but they can help. Let them.
"My advice to legal procurement professionals: Make sure that your LDOs know that the relationship you want is collaborative. You are not trying to jam the lowest bidder down their throat. I’ve heard LDOs say that 'buying legal is not the same as buying pencils.' Of course you know that; don’t let them think you don’t. Make it clear that just because you are not a legal expert does not mean that there is nothing to be gained from your particular skills.
"And my advice to all: Please make sure yours is one of the hundreds of companies that take the 2018 Law Department Operations Survey at www.LDOSurvey.com, which is live through September 28. It only takes about 20 minutes and there is no cost. But the value is tremendous: You’ll get back more than 300 data points, in areas ranging from legal spend to outside counsel management to technology to alternative fee arrangements—against which you can benchmark your own operations. You don’t need to be a procurement professional to know that’s a good deal."
Brad Blickstein is principal of the Blickstein Group, a consultancy serving the corporate legal community. He specializes in corporate law departments–often focusing on the relationship between them and their outside service providers. Learn more at http://blicksteingroup.com/.
Next up is Ari Kaplan, principal at Ari Kaplan Advisors and presented: Beyond the Numbers: What Pricing Professionals Can Learn From a Decade of Legal Industry Benchmarking.
"Six years ago, I wrote an article for Law.com called: Procurement Process Embraces Legal Services and concluded that “procurement professionals have become much more active and influential within their corporate legal departments because the general counsel is under tremendous pressure to reduce costs in the economic downturn.” While chief legal officers still bear that weight, the conversation around law department management is a much richer one as evidenced by the themes of innovation, value, client service, and transparency, which the Buying Legal Council’s 2018 Legal Procurement Conference showcased on September 5th and 6th.
Innovation and Transparency
"Software AG general counsel, Dr. Benno Quade, captivated the audience with his discussion of designing his own dashboard for tracking and evaluating legal spend. “Lawyers are born coders because we are taught to work with yes and no questions,” he advised. Despite the challenge of internally managing 400,000 lines of code, he noted that “Transparency is critical and data-driven discussions of invoices are far more productive.” At his company, legal is perceived as one of the organization’s most innovative groups. “Lawyers and procurement leaders should be interested in coding because it is part of the future of work,” he remarked.
Client Service
"Justin Ergler, the director of alternative fee intelligence and analytics at GlaxoSmithKline (winner of the Buying Legal Council’s 2018 award for innovation) and Keith Maziarek, the director of pricing and legal project management at Katten Muchin Rosenman, offered an insightful presentation on empowering the relationship between legal departments and their outside counsel. “Law firms should present their new technology and describe how it benefits the client’s work,” the duo suggested in discussing the alignment of communication and transparency. “Law firms should also provide a value report to their clients,” they added.
Value
"International legal pricing consultant, Richard Burcher, the founder and managing director of Validatum, highlighted the inherent challenge of procurement. “There is a very real disconnect between price and value,” he said. “Understanding the pricing of risk is critical,” he added.
“Procurement is Switzerland; we focus on managing the process, providing decision-grade data, and staying in our lane,” -Marty Harlow
"The need for collaboration in harmonizing these factors was the focus of a panel discussion moderated by Rebekah Mintzer, an editor at American Lawyer Media. “Legal services procurement should be part of a broader approach,” advised Marty Harlow, the procurement director for global legal services at GlaxoSmithKline. “Procurement is Switzerland; we focus on managing the process, providing decision-grade data, and staying in our lane,” he added. In terms of getting started, “court reporting and labor and employment outside counsel spend are the easiest areas in which to begin applying procurement to legal services,” noted Vandana Dhamija, the founder and CEO of Legal Operations Consulting. Despite the variety of ways to apply procurement, it is critical to focus on where the organization will realize the greatest benefit. “There are challenges to swinging for the fences in procurement,” said Alan Bryan, the senior associate general counsel for legal operations and outside counsel management at Walmart, who encouraged coordination and a balanced approach with the legal department.
“I think it’s the reality that in-house counsel – working closely with procurement professionals – are quickly becoming the ‘lawyer as general contractor,’ assembling the right mix of legal service providers, outside counsel, and in-house resources to handle their legal needs efficiently and cost-effectively,” says Christopher Schultz, the general counsel of Level 2 Legal Solutions, a provider of managed review services and signature sponsor of the conference for the second consecutive year. “Law firms that are focused on offering to their clients defensible, repeatable processes with robust quality and cost-control built in are the firms of the future.”
"While the thesis of my six-year-old article remains as current today as it was in 2012, there has been a remarkable alignment of procurement and the provision of legal services that is fueling a robust conversation about innovation, value, client service, and transparency. In fact, “The conference was another illustration of the significant progress the BLC community is making in shifting from supplier-driven to buyer-centric in the legal services space,” concluded attendee, Jim Delkousis, the founder and CEO of Persuit, a software platform designed to streamline the procurement process for corporate legal and procurement teams and their law firms.
"Attorney and legal industry analyst Ari Kaplan is an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree, serves as the principal researcher for a variety of widely distributed market research reports, and has been the keynote speaker for events worldwide. Learn more at http://www.AriKaplanAdvisors.com.
Congratulations to the 2018 LEGAL PROCUREMENT AWARD WINNERS!
We also announced the 2018 Legal Procurement Award Winners at the conference. Look out for our special edition next Tuesday highlighting each of the winners, so please stay tuned!
For now, here is the list of awards and winners:
INNOVATION
Winner: GSK
Runner-up: BT & Elevate Services
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
Winner: Alan Bryan (Walmart)
Runner-up: GSK
COLLABORATION
Winner: General Mills & BanyanRFP
Runner-up: Turkcell
BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY
Winner: DXC Technologies & UnitedLex
Runner-up: Jaguar Land Rover N.A. & Onit
TEAMWORK
Winner: Netapp, Mitratech & KYL
Runner-up: CLEP (UK National Police) & Proxima
LEGAL PROCUREMENT BEST PRACTICES CALLS
We regularly hold members-only calls for buyers of legal services. Our calls focus on practical information and solutions. We cover issues you face in your daily work, best practices, and the latest trends in buying legal services.
Our next call is: Wed, September 19, 2018 | Getting Better at Matter Management Reporting & Document Management with Paul Roy (Charter/Time Warner Cable)
DIAL IN TO DIALOGUE
To ensure that you have a clear understanding of what legal procurement is all about, dial into our Legal Procurement Dialogue calls. They are "open mic" sessions where you can ask a seasoned legal procurement professional anything you ever wanted to know about legal procurement.
Our next call is: October 10 | Laura Alexandra Buliga Manager, Group Procurement/Legal (adidas)
To join our calls, become a Friend of the Buying Legal Council. Click here to join.
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