Get the Most Out of Outside Counsel with a Simple Checklist

Late this summer, Exterro conducted a survey of law firm professionals to better understand how they were working with their corporate clients. While many organizations conduct more e-discovery in-house now—almost 70% in our 2018 In-House Legal Benchmarking Survey—nonetheless they still likely have relationships with outside counsel and possibly alternative legal support providers who play key roles in the e-discovery and litigation process.

But how can organizations maximize the value they are receiving from their external partners? The survey data in the 2018 Law Firm Benchmarking Survey provides some answers. The answer starts with where law firms can contribute the most value in the e-discovery services they do offer. 

The responses are not surprising. The primary reason behind the rise of ALSPs and in-house e-discovery  is the cost of retaining law firms for e-discovery purposes. Their contribution is in their familiarity with their clients’ needs (78%) and their ability to link e-discovery to the requirements of the legal strategy being used in the matter (68%). (It’s also a little surprising that 5% admitted there was no real difference between their services and ALSPs, but perhaps the anonymity of the survey brought out honest responses.)

How then can organizations get the most value for their money when they do opt to work with law firms? The survey responses here were also illuminating.

The highest two ranked ways were common sense. Clearly defining case goals/strategy (cited by 70%) feeds into less wasted time and effort, and implementing best practices for preservation and collection (mentioned by 64%) reduce the potential risk of missing out on critical ESI—something in-house teams should already be doing. In third place with 42%, though, is an interesting idea that may not be top of mind (or straightforward) for in-house legal teams: educating their partners on their IT infrastructure.

Outside counsel (and ALSPs) can benefit from understanding their clients’ IT infrastructure. It allows them to develop the most efficient means of collecting ESI, and importantly, to negotiate effectively during pre-trial e-discovery meet and confers. Unfortunately, legal professionals don’t necessarily have a handle on the depth and breadth of their organization’s IT infrastructure, so details may be missed or law firms may have to consult with multiple people on a piecemeal basis, increasing costs.

Fortunately, Exterro’s IT Infrastructure Playbook can make this task much easier. In collaboration with their partners in IT, legal professionals can gather all the information their outside counsel needs to understand and be conversant on their clients’ IT infrastructure and the policies and processes in place to preserve ESI—all in one place.