To Avoid Being Caught Red-Handed

One of my favorite characters on TV is Bart Simpson. He’s the quintessential 90’s bad boy who thinks he can get away with anything. One of my favorite scenes is from a season 2 episode when Bart is caught literally red-handed after spray-painting an unflattering depiction of Principal Skinner on the wall. It’s a funny scene because even though Bart’s “misbehavior” is patently evident and disciplinary measures should be taken by Principal Skinner in a “normal” manner, the plot develops and Skinner opts to avoid normal disciplinary measures and, instead, sends Bart to a school for gifted students on the theory that Bart’s history of bad behavior stems from intellectual boredom causing a lack of interest in his schoolwork.

We have been studying the general counsel surveys for years now, and if there is one aspect of legal engagements we’ve internalized from them, it’s that legal departments often embrace the Skinner-like approach with their law firms when it comes to matters of disengagement or confrontation with firms about pricing and bills that are not up to their standards as memorialized in outside counsel billing guidelines (OCGs). Often, this looks like quiet compromises between general counsel and law firms where the metaphorical “Bart Simpson red hands” is smattered all over a legal bill (non-compliance with OCGs) but the legal department ignores the noncompliance or pays the bill on the promise that the same billing misalignments won’t happen again. 

According to the inaugural Legal Pricing and Project Management Survey results, 95% of outside counsel respondents do not think they have ever been fired for bad adherence to OCGs. In today’s ultra-competitive environment, any firm behavior that does not align well with client interests will be more scrutinized, resulting in firms not being awarded future engagements.

Usually, legal departments award the most complicated and resource intensive legal tasks to legal service providers who can give them the most consistent and reliable service. As legal technology gets more mature, companies looking to spend considerable resources on their legal services will also have the tools to analyze which outside counsel and legal service providers to engage sustainably. In an age where bills are closely audited and the paper trail can span miles long, adherence to OCGs is table stakes for engagement and continued engagement. It is also one of the most obvious indicators that a firm is not providing the quality of service they were hired for.

With the newest class of sophisticated software tools and especially savvy invoice reviewers, it is easier than ever to identify OCG (non)compliance.  At Legal Decoder, we have created tools that can help outside counsel deliver best value services and see matters with the same perspectives as the general counsel that engage them. If you would like to learn more about our technology, contact us.