The group recently concluded its 2023 GLOC Global Institute
The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (GLOC) has published some of the highlights of the panel session hosted at the 2023 GLOC Global Institute (GCI), an event where legal professionals gathered to discuss key strategies and best practices for legal operations.
During the event, GLOC hosted a panel session, “Reaching the Summit on Legal Spend.” The esteemed panel featured Ryan O’Leary, research director of privacy and legal technology at the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and Stacy Lettie chief of staff, to the general counsel and director of strategic planning at Organon. These experts shared their insights on billing guidelines, vendor management, and artificial intelligence (AI) in legal operations. GLOC shared on its website some of the highlights of this panel session.
Billing guideline enforcement
The panel discussed that billing guidelines are essential for legal departments seeking to control costs and maximize outside counsel value. Industry experts stressed the importance of benchmarking guidelines against industry standards to improve enforcement, allowing legal teams to identify areas where policies may be lacking and make necessary improvements.
Furthermore, the panel cautioned legal organizations to carefully evaluate historical invoices to truly understand what outside counsel firms have been billing for and how well that conforms to the guidelines. The output of this analysis will also help open a dialogue with law firms about their level of guideline compliance and where they should focus on improving it.
Effective Vendor Management
The speakers highlighted the need for a well-structured vendor management program to maintain positive relationships with law firms and effectively manage legal expenditures. Two primary strategies were highlighted during the event—law firm panels and vendor scorecards.
AI Adoption in Legal Operations
The speakers at the event acknowledged the potential benefits of artificial intelligence in legal operations but emphasized the importance of a well-considered approach. While generative AI can be advantageous for certain legal professionals, caution should be exercised when entering sensitive data into large language models like ChatGPT, as service providers cannot guarantee the security of such data.
Instead of indiscriminately applying AI across all areas of the legal department, experts recommend identifying specific opportunities where AI can enhance existing processes and programs. Conducting a gap analysis allows organizations to identify areas that offer the most significant potential for improvement with a modest investment.
The 2023 GLOC Global Institute was held in Las Vegas last May 15 to 18.
