Market Areas > Practice Management > General Counsel

Giving General Counsel What They Want: Maximizing Firm Profits with Value-Based Service

Course Description:

According to the 2009 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey, controlling outside counsel spending has returned as the No. 1 priority for in-house counsel.

This means that legal departments are comparison-shopping much more seriously for innovative, value-driven firms.  In fact, the need to drive efficiency is leading to more value-based policies to reduce overall legal spend, including:

1. Requiring Minimum Levels of Associate Experience
2. Implementing Convergence (reducing the number of outside firms engaged)
3. Competitive Bidding and RFPs
4. Value-Based Suggestions for Law Firms
5. Termination of Outside Counsel
6. Use of Alternative Fee Structures

Today, responsiveness is the key deliverable expected of outside counsel.  Law firm leaders can reap benefits and win more business in the months ahead... but to do so, you must carefully evaluate what in-house counsel wants and create policies and procedures that deliver top-notch legal services built with value in mind. 

Discover what criteria in-house counsel want met when picking outside counsel in this information-packed CCM audio conference.  Our expert faculty will help you:

• Fine-tune your approach to building and maintaining client/counsel relationships,
• Reconnect the cost of legal service with value and better align the interests of your clients with the firm’s,
• Demonstrate your value and minimize the risk clients might feel about switching to a firm whose product they do not know, and
• How to identify and avoid the root causes of in-house counsel dissatisfaction.

During this need-to-know program, you’ll also learn:

• Which value-based services in-house counsel want most, including:
• use of case plans,
• tracking budgets,
• periodic status updates,
• more efficient staffing levels,
• better training of associates,
• more use of technology, and
• improved management of other vendors.
• How to best anticipate client expectations and build loyalty
• Methods for re-evaluating client relationships and enhancing communications
• Ways to actively partner with in-house counsel
• How to create and implement client satisfaction surveys
• Why and how to take initiative in building a relationship and generate repeat business
• How technology is changing the ways that in-house counsel choose firms and collaborate with outside counsel

Featured Faculty:

Pamela H. Woldow, Principal, Altman Weil, Inc.

Pamela H. Woldow is a principal of Altman Weil, Inc. She works on areas of strategic and operational importance to both legal departments and law firms, focusing on improving the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective legal services, selecting and managing outside counsel, convergence programs, litigation management, and all aspects of the counsel-client relationship. Prior to joining Altman Weil, she was a partner and the National Practice Leader for Litigation Services for Smart and Associates, a national accounting and consulting firm. Her career has also included positions as Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance, Deputy General Counsel of Pennsylvania, and Associate General Counsel and Director of Risk Management and Litigation Management for a $2 billion public financial services corporation. Earlier, she handled complex commercial and environmental litigation with Duane Morris and Manko, Gold & Katcher.

Martha Cusick Eddy, Marketing Evolutions LLP

Martha helps companies build sustainable customer/client relationships and carve out defensible market positions that offer long-term competitive advantages. In her 17 year career, Martha has worked with architects, accountants and lawyers to research and define their markets, identify powerful market and sales positions, and create sales and marketing initiatives that achieve results.

With a background in market research, Martha can capture client and customer requirements, needs and wants and translate those into sales and marketing strategies that build business.

Martha has worked with many market leading firms in professional services including Hogan & Hartson, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, BBC Research & Consulting and RNL Design.

Active in the community, Martha currently serves on the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Marketing Advisory Council, an invitation-only position, and is a member of the DDP’s membership committee.

Additionally, she was president of both the American Marketing Association, Colorado Chapter, and the Rocky Mountain Legal Marketing Association. In 2003, she was named to the Denver Business Journal’s prestigious 40 Under Forty class. She is also a U.S. patent holder.

Martha earned an M.A. in marketing communications from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE:

Pricing:

Unable to Attend? Order the CD!

Your CD recording includes the complete audio conference presentation, audience Q&A and presentation materials.

CLE:

CCM provides audio conference attendees with CLE credit processing services. To expedite CCM processing your CLE request, please complete and submit the evaluation form available from CCM at the conclusion of the audio conference. It will be necessary to enter the following information: name of each attorney requesting CLEs with full contact information, including e-mail address, bar number, and the state in which the attorney wants credits. Each attorney requesting credits must submit an evaluation.

Please be advised CCM audio conferences are subject to approval from each CLE issuing organization and approval is not guaranteed (state bar associations in Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania do not grant CLE credits for audio conferences). The approval process takes approximately 6 - 8 weeks for most organizations but can take as long as 3 - 4 months. You will be notified via e-mail with the final status of your CLE application.

Any person applying for CLE credits must attend the audio conference from start to finish (attendance will be taken for compliance reasons). Requests for CLE credits must be received no later than two weeks following the conclusion of the audio conference or live conference. CLE credits are not available for CD recordings.

If you have any questions regarding CLE credits, contact Jill Adler at 631.368.2082 x 21 or jill.adler@meeting-matters.com.

Each CCM event presents a variety of information and is presented for each organization to develop its own approach and methodology.