How in-house counsel in CEE select and retain their external counsel

1. How in-house counsel in CEE select and retain their external counsel By Jeffrey Forbes, Executive Director, Forbes Institute Presentation at CIS Local Counsel Forum Kiev, 24.06.2009

2. Download a free copy of this survey at: www.martindale-hubbell.co.uk (upper right hand corner of the page) Continue this discussion online at: www.martindale.com/connected

3. What this presentation will cover • Demographics • Selecting external counsel • Retaining external counsel • Removing external counsel • Client service • Summary • Action steps

4. CEE countries that participated in this survey (Table 1)

5. Industry sectors represented in this survey (Table 2)

6. Where companies operate geographically (Table 3)

7. Number of employees (Table 5)

8. Size of legal departments - full-time employees (Table 7)

9. Number of law firms employed (Table 10)

10. External law firms’ share of the wallet (Table 11)

11. Preferred billing terms (Table 16) “The trend is away from the billable hour. Our CFO need to know the total cost. So we try for a fixed rate and if this is not possible then we negotiate a cap. This is common even for litigation.”

12. Working with foreign or local law firms (Table 17)

13. Hiring foreign instead of local law firms (Table 19)

14. Hiring local instead of foreign law firms (Table 20)

15. Law firm panels (Table 21)

16. Criteria for selecting external counsel (Table 22) “A legal technician reviews a contract and says if it ok from a legal point of view. But a trusted advisor knows how to protect our company regarding its strategy and business interests.”

17. Key factors for retaining external counsel (Table 24) “I don’t like external counsel who are too cautious and don’t want to take any risk by just confirming an opinion created by my internal team.”

18. Removing a law firm from a preferred provider list (Table 25) “Legal mistakes are made and you deal with that. But non-legal mistakes such as missing deadlines or not communicating properly, I don’t really need this.”

19. Uncovering client needs (Table 27) “Lawyers do not approach their practice as a business. When they act like they are in an ivory tower they lose out. I would welcome them to come up with new ideas for cooperation.”

20. Conducting client satisfaction surveys (Table 28) “You are the first person (speaking to the author of this survey) that has actually come to my office to talk to me about these matters.”

21. Participating in client satisfaction surveys (Table 29) “It would be great for our law firm to have someone talk to me about our relationship but no one has done that yet. This is strange because we consider customer information vital to our business.”

22. Internal satisfaction surveys regarding external counsel (Table 26) “On an annual basis our headquarters asks us if we are satisfied with our external counsel. And even small warnings can build up over time and the firm gets removed from our list.”

23. Summary • CEE legal market like USA 20 years ago • Clients are saying: “Where is the ‘service’ from legal service providers? • Very little ‘best practice’ in terms of client service • In-house counsel more business-minded • Opportunities for law firms willing to take action • Challenges for law firms unwilling to change

24. Actions that will give you a competitive advantage • Measure client satisfaction (set up formal program) • Review strategy and plans based on feedback • Provide training/coaching for service/bd skills

25. Download a free copy of this survey at: www.martindale-hubbell.co.uk (upper right hand corner of the page) Continue this discussion online at: www.martindale.com/connected Information about Jeffrey Forbes’ services: www.forbesinstitute.com

26. Thank you for your attention. CIS Local Counsel Forum Kiev, 24.06.2009