Practical Tips for Using Outside Counsel Guidelines
The cornerstone of a productive client and outside counsel relationship starts by setting clear and consistent expectations for the legal department at the outset of the client engagement, says Kelly Spratt-Szarzynski, senior strategic consultant on the LexisNexis® CounselLink team.
This involves developing an outside counsel guidelines document that formally communicates the legal department expectations. These guidelines apply to all external legal vendors and helps hold all parties accountable to the same set of standards related to billing, matter management and corporate policies.
According to Spratt-Szarzynski, outside counsel guidelines generally contain information broken into the following three categories: Processes and procedures, requirements, and policies.
