As the economy continues
to soften, businesses
of all stripes are
being forced to cut costs
and find ways to ensure
their stability and
growth. No department
is immune. This article
focuses on the innovative
ways some corporate
law departments
are slashing expenses,
improving efficiencies
and using technology
to rewrite the way they
do business.
Senior corporate
counsel attendees at a
recent Association of Corporate Counsel
event ranked the increasing cost of outside
counsel, the economic downturn and globalization
as their most-pressing concerns. You
may think you know all the tricks for cutting
costs, but several in-house counsel have
found new ways to reduce expenses, some of
which did not even exist just a few years ago.
These include developing high-tech solutions
for paper-intensive and time-consuming
transactions, adopting digital invoices,
auditing the legal department’s services and
implementing alternative billing procedures
for all outside counsel.
Find common ground
As more pressure is put on law firms to
increase their billables and law departments
are simultaneously challenged to curb
expenses, working on projects as a team can
end up benefiting both. For instance, how
about turning a technology problem over to
your outside counsel? Law firms generally
have more leeway when it comes to paying
for high-tech improvements and upgrades,
so why not ask them to design and/or purchase
systems that will streamline some of
your key procedures?
MarkChandler,Cisco’s senior vice president
and general counsel, did just that when he
asked Orrick to build a corporate secretarial
tool. He told Orrick if they could reduce the
amount he was spending on corporate secretarial
fees by 20 percent, they could have all the
work. The caveat: The system had to be automated
and designed in such away that it could
be utilized by other companies and law firms.
Cisco provided the corporate requirements
and collaborated with Orrick’s information
technology and business departments. “The
application is used to track Cisco’s corporate
registrations and other governance activities
related to the legal entities in Cisco’s global
family,” explains Steve Harmon, Cisco’s
director of legal services. “The ability to use a
single interface to monitor our obligations,
produce reports and seamlessly obtain
approvals fromall related internal parties creates
material operational efficiencies, eliminates
payments for registrations that are no
longer necessary and ensures the timely payment
of fees.”
Automation is your friend
Cisco took a proactive approach when it
came to increasing the efficiency of document
management, too. Under Chandler’s
watch, the company has automated the handling
of non-disclosure agreements, contract
renewals, press release approvals and patent
applications. Launched in 2005, the self-service
NDA tool enables Cisco clients to create
NDAs with minimal involvement from
legal. The company’s NDA repository now
contains more than 20,000 records, with a
run-rate of more than 200 new NDAs a
month. “We have saved money and
processed thousands of NDAs via this tool
that otherwise would have had to be done
manually,” notes Chandler.
The company’s electronic contract renewal
tool (a.k.a. Click Accept) has eliminated
the need for physical signatures on all standard
contracts. In fiscal year 2005, only 3 percent
of the company’s annual contract
renewals with its 500 system integrator partners
were completed electronically; today
the rate is more than 81 percent. Chandler
says this has helped free up the legal team’s
time for more important tasks.
Volvo Group North America is also taking
advantage of automation. Outside law firms
are encouraged to communicate with and
invoice Volvo digitally.
