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Welcome

Blickstein Group Law Department Operations Survey - 2019

The Law Department Operations Survey, presented by the Blickstein Group, in alliance with Morae Global, provides law departmentswith a consistent platform to benchmark themselves against their counterparts and industry peers. We’re asking for your help byparticipating in this year’s survey, which we estimate will take no more than 20-25 minutes to complete. For your convenience, you candownload a PDF copy of this survey here if you'd like to review and familiarize yourself with the questions prior to taking it.

We understand your time is valuable. You can always start the survey and finish up at another time if you need to by clicking again onthe same link. The final deadline is Friday, October 4, 2019.

We look forward to sending the complete results to you once we've compiled them. Thank you for your participation.

http://www.blicksteingroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LDO Survey Questionnaire 2018.pdf

Opening


This survey is intended for the TOP person in your legal ops organization.

Please answer all questions as they relate to your role in Law Department Operations. Questions without asterisks are notrequired and may be skipped, if not applicable.

If you participated in this survey last year, you request last year's results by contacting us at [email protected]

Name (First & Last)

Company

Business Title

E-mail

1. Company/Respondent Information:*

2. Name of Person Completing This Survey (If Different Than Above):

3. Has your company participated in the Law Department Operations Survey before?*

Yes

No, this is our first year

Previous Years Participated


4. Please check all previous years you participated in our survey:*

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Demographics


5. What industry is your company in?*

6. How many employees does your company have?*

1 - 50

50 - 250

251 - 500

501 - 1000

1001 - 10000

10001 - 100000

100000+

7. What is your company's annual global revenue?*

Less than 1$ Billion

1 - 4.9$ Billion

5 - 9.9$ Billion

10 -19.9$ Billion

20 - 29.9$ Billion

30 - 39.9$ Billion

40 - 49.9$ Billion

50$ Billion +

Demographics


0 1-19 20-49 50-99 100-199 200+

In the United States?

In Asia-Pacific?

In Europe, Middle East and Africa?

In Central/South America

8. How many full-time attorneys are in your law department?

0 1-19 20-49 50-99 100-199 200+


In Asia-Pacific?



9. How many full-time equivalent paralegals / legal assistants are in your law department?

0 1-19 20-49 50-99 100-199 200+


In Asia-Pacific?



10. How many full-time equivalent administrative assistants are in your law department?

0 1-19 20-49 50-99 100-199 200+


In Asia Pacific?



11. How many part-time attorneys are in your law department?

12. Does the legal department use contractors/third party staff?

No

Yes (If yes, please explain or describe)

13. How many different physical locations have lawyers?

1

2 - 5

6 - 10

11 - 15

16 - 20

21 - 30

31 - 40

40+

Other (please specify)

14. Which of the following groups do you participate in?Choose all that apply

ACC Legal Operations

ACC Law Department Executive Leaders

CLOC

Regional Groups (e.g. CLIC, NY Legal Dept COO, etc.)

ILTA Law Department Peer Group

P3

15. Are Compliance matters handled as a part of the legal department?

No

Yes (Please indicate how many full-time personnel are dedicated to compliance matters)

About the Law Department Operations Manager


16. Degrees obtained - Please check ALL that apply.*

Bachelor's degree

MBA

Master's degree (non-MBA)

J.D.

CPA

Paralegal certificate

I have another degree (please specify)

17. Have you ever worked as:

Legal industry consultant

Vendor to the legal industry

Finance department

In-house counsel

Law firm attorney

Law firm back office

Process Improvement Consultant

Service Industry Manager

None of the above

18. What is your annual salary?

Percent

19. What is your annual incentive target given as a percentage of salary?

20. What is your annual target award for stock grants/options as a percentage of salary?

0%

1 - 10%

11 - 25%

26 - 50%

51 - 75%

76 - 99%

100%

21. In what year did your company add its first dedicated Law Department Operations professional of anykind?

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008 or before

We do not have a dedicated LDOprofessional

22. In what year did your company add its first dedicated Law Department Operations professional withresponsibilities for more than one legal operations function?

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008 or before

We do not have a dedicated LDOprofessional with responsibles for morethan one function

About the Law Department Operations Manager


23. Are you a counsel also supporting ops?

No

Yes (If yes, what percentage of your time is dedicated to law department operations? Please enter as a whole number between 0and 100.)

Years as LDOProfessional

24. How long have you been a Law Department Operations Professional?

25. How many total FTEs (including yourself) are on the legal operations team?*

0

1

2-5

6-20

21-99

100+

Operational Structure


26. To what position do you directly report? (Please select one.)*

General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer

Deputy/Associate/Assistant General Counsel

CEO

CFO


27. To what position or department do you have dotted-line reporting (if any)?

General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer

Deputy/Associate/Assistant General Counsel

CEO

CFO

Human Resources

No dotted line reporting



28. What positions report to legal operations? (if any)

Paralegals

Business/financial analysts

Billing support

Administrative support

Legal procurement

IT or Technology System Support

Records Management

Knowledge Management or Legal Librarian

LPM

Matter Management

Reporting/Analytics

Service of Process

No positions report to me



eDiscovery Management

Law Department Strategy

Law Department Administration

Outside Counsel Management

Technology/Digitalization/Implementation

Vendor Management

Information Security

29. What percentage of your time do you spend on the following?

(Should total 100. Please enter numbers only, no % symbols).

Records Management

Process Improvement

Department Training

Implementing Integrations

Reporting

Finance

Strategy

Coordination

Compliance

Other Corporate Initiatives

30. Which non-traditional law department functions are managed by your law department?

Philanthropy or Sustainability

Government Affairs

Corporate Compliance

Global Security

Risk Management


Top Challenges


31. As the LDO, what are the top three challenges you CURRENTLY face related to managing lawdepartment functions?

*

Staying abreast of law department technology / managing and handling IT issues

Business process improvements / cost containment and savings / managing the budget

Handling global / international matters (e.g., Brexit, GDPR, cross-border discovery)

Intra-departmental relationships (e.g., gaining attorney buy-in, communicating with GC)

Departmental resources (e.g., funding for personnel / technology, personnel retention)

Service providers (e.g., managing outside counsel, effective AFAs)

Performance (e.g., documenting ROI of the LDO position, reporting to stakeholders)

Compliance issues

Data protection


32. As the LDO, what are the top three challenges you EXPECT to face over the next three years?*

Staying abreast of law department technology / managing and handling IT issues

Business process improvements / cost containment and savings / managing the budget

Handling global / international matters (e.g., Brexit, GDPR, cross-border discovery)

Intra-departmental relationships (e.g., gaining attorney buy-in, communicating with GC)

Departmental resources (e.g., funding for personnel / technology, personnel retention)

Service providers (e.g., managing outside counsel, effective AFAs)

Performance (e.g., documenting ROI of the LDO position, reporting to stakeholders)

Compliance issues

Data protection


Cyber Security


Primarily Responsible Meaningful Influencers

Limited or NoInvolvement

IT

Dedicated cyber team

Security

Legal department

Audit function

Records management

Finance

No one


33. Which of the following departments are primarily responsible and/or meaningful influencers for cybersecurity? (Please check one as primarily responsible and all that apply as influencers):

Very effective Somewhat effective Somewhat ineffective Very ineffective Don't Know

34. Please rate your outside law firms’ ability to protect your data.

Law firms to complete any cyber

security questionnaires?Cyber security requirements in your

outside counsel guidelines?Law firms to carry cyberliability

insurance?

Requirement

35. Do you require . . . ?*

Legal IT


1 - Noteffective 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 -ExtremelyEffective

NotImplemented

eBilling

Matter Management

DocumentManagement

Contract Management

IP Management

eDiscovery

Litigation Hold

Intellectual Property

Board Management

Entity Management

Managed eDiscoveryServices

Claims Management

Legal Spend Analytics

Electronic RecordsManagement

Electronic Signature

GRC / Compliance

Hotline / IncidentReporting

Gifts and EntertainmentReporting

Privacy Reporting

36. How effective is the following technology?

Primarily Responsible Some Influence Not Responsible NA

eBilling

Matter Management

Document Management

Contract Management

IP Management

eDiscovery

Litigation Hold


Board Management

Entity Mangement

Managed eDiscovery Services

Claims Management


Electronic Records Management


GRC / Compliance

Hotline / Incident Reporting

Gifts and Entertainment Reporting

Privacy Reporting

37. How responsible are you (or others that you manage directly) for the following technology:

38. Do you have or plan to develop a legal department technology strategy or three-year road map whichaddresses how you integrate, evolve and replace your systems to support the legal department'sprocesses and needs?

Yes, we have a strategy

We are planning or developing a strategy

No

Yes No Don't Know

eBilling

Matter Management

Document Management

Contract Management

IP Management

eDiscovery

Litigation Hold


Board Management

Entity Mangement

Managed eDiscovery Services

Claims Management


Electronic Records Management


GRC / Compliance

Hotline / Incident Reporting

Gifts and Entertainment Reporting

Privacy Reporting


39. Are there plans to update, evaluate or implement any of the following technologies in the next 12months?

Currently Track Most Valuable (Select 3)

Company vs. third partypaper

Number of templates used

Contract volume bycustomer/partner/program,type & geography

Contract turnaround time/cycle time to signature

Contract value

Delay in approvals

Deviation of contract termsfrom standardterms/clauses

Percentage of agreementsexpiring without renewals

Deviations from contractmanagement policies;inappropriate authorization& signature approvals

Contract obligationperformance by contractparties


40. With regard to your contract lifecycle management processes, what data do you currently track andwhich three (3) are most valuable?

*

Operations Budget


41. How does your legal department chargeback / allocate its legal expenses to the business units?*

100% chargeback for all matters

Partial chargeback for all matters

Partial chargeback for certain types of matters

N/A - All legal costs attributed to the law department budget

42. What is the highest level approval necessary for "major" initiatives (e.g. new technology)?*

LDO

General Counsel

CFO

CEO

CIO

Contract Bounds


Strategic Relationships


43. How often are you involved in enterprise-wide (outside the legal department) strategic initiatives?

Very Frequently

Frequently

Occasionally

Rarely

Very Rarely

Never

44. How often are you involved in cross-functional objectives (e.g. a contract management program thatinvolves both procurement and legal)?

Very Frequently

Frequently

Occasionally

Rarely

Very Rarely

Never

0 times 1 - 2 times 3 - 5 times More than 5 times

HR

IT

Finance

Executive Suite

General Counsel

Compliance


45. Please indicate the number of times per week you interface with:

LPM


Very effective Somewhat effective Somewhat ineffective Very ineffectiveWe don't have an LPM

program

46. How effective is your Legal Project Management program?

47. What are the elements of your Legal Project Management Program? (Select all that apply.)

Budgeting management on cases

Strategic case assessment

After action reviews

Performance evaluation

Technology

Process improvement


Yes/No

Matter Budget for TotalFees

Matter Budget byPhase/Task

Matter Budget byPhase/Task/Timekeeper

48. Do you budget at any of the following matter levels?

eDiscovery


49. Does your law department have a dedicated eDiscovery manager?*

Yes

No

eDiscovery


50. Is the eDiscovery manager a lawyer or non-lawyer?

Lawyer

Non-lawyer


51. Who does the eDiscovery manager report to?

Legal operations

Litigation function

General counsel

Corporate IT


eDiscovery


We handle this

entirely in-house

We sometimeshandle this in-house(or handle some of it

in-house)

We have plans tobring this process in-

house

We would like tobring this process in-

house

We are not interestedin bringing this

process in-house

Preservation/LegalHold

Collection

Early CaseAssessment

Processing

Analysis

Hosting

Predictive Coding

Document Review

Production

52. Which of the following eDiscovery processes do you handle in-house?

eDiscovery


If yes, please specify the initiative(s)

53. Is your organization planning any initiatives during the next 12 months to improve your eDiscoveryprocess?

No

Yes

54. How do you expect your eDiscovery budget to change over the next 12 months?

Decrease

Stay Flat

Increase 1 - 3%

Increase 4 - 6%

Increase 7%+

55. Do you feel "in control" of your eDiscovery process?*

Yes

No

Reporting and Metrics


56. Which of the following types of metrics do you track? (Check all that apply.)

Outside spend

Inside spend

Cost savings

Recoveries

Risk/Exposure

Cycle time

Staffing

Ethics/compliance

Productivity of In-House Team

Law firm performance

Internal lawyer performance

Diversity

Revenue generation

Experts

Third party vendors

Conflicts

AFA%

Panel spend

Non-panel spend

Quarterly business review reporting


57. What core technology do you use to gather data? (Check all that apply.)

Matter management

eBilling

Work distribution (service now, Salesforce)

Ticket requests

Conflicts

Legal Service Request (LSR) solution




58. Do you have a formalized reporting/metrics program?*

Yes

No



59. Do you feel your law department makes effective use of the information that metrics provides?

Yes

No

60. Do you feel your business units makes effective use of the information that metrics provides?

Yes

No

61. How mature would you rate your reporting and metrics program? (0 = we don't have one; 1 = primarilymanual, excel or access based, distributed through email, ad hoc in nature; 5 = very mature, fullyautomated, reporting system based, automated distribution, distribution schedule and stakeholders defined)

0 5

62. Are there compensation ramifications based on law department metrics?

Yes

No



Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually Never

General Counsel

CEO

Finance department

Board of Directors

Law department senior management(excluding GC)

Business unit heads

Risk management department

63. How often do you produce management reports for the following constituencies:



Always Sometimes Never

We plan to do more ofthis

Matter outcomes

Matter/department budgets

Discovery costs

Selection of counsel

Selection of venue


64. To what extent do you use data mining and analytics to predict the following? Please also indicateareas in which you plan to do more of this.

Always Sometimes Never

We plan to do more ofthis

Billing/Spend Management

Contract Management - Pre-Execution

Contract Management - Post-Execution

E-Discovery/Document Review

Expertise Automation

Legal Research

Insight/Predictions

We don't


65. To what extent do you use Artificial Intelligence for:

KPIs


66. What do you consider to be your top three key performance indicators?*

Actual spend vs. law department's total budget

Law-related expense as a percentage of total revenue

Total outside counsel spend

Total outside counsel and service-provider spend

Timeliness

Total department spend

Outside Counsel Savings

Attorney productivity

Outcomes

Customer/client feedback

AFA usage

Panel usage


Performance


Very effective:Best in Classand Industry

Somewhateffective:

Adds value,but may notbe best in

class

Somewhatineffective:Adds somevalue, butmisses on

manyopportunities

Veryineffective Don't Know N/A

Overall Law Department Operations

Legal Technology

eDiscovery

Records and Information Management

Intellectual Property Management

Outside Counsel Management

Legal Service Provider (Vendor)Management

Litigation Portfolio Management

Finance and Budgeting

Legal Project Management

Reporting

Business Client Engagement &Strategic Partnering

Training Initiatives

Alternative Fee Arrangements

67. How would you rate your law department's effectiveness in each of the following areas?

0 - We don't do

this at all 1 2 3 4 5

Law DepartmentOperations in general

Preferred Provider Network

Reporting/Metrics/Analytics

Discovery Management

Records Management

Electronic Billing

Outside CounselManagement

Legal Process Outsourcing

Legal Project Management

Alternative FeeArrangements

IP Management

Artificial Intelligence

Training Initiatives

Digitalization

Vendor Management

Contract LifecycleManagement Technology

68. On a scale of 1 to 5, how mature do you consider your operations in each of the following areas?

Managing Outside Counsel and Service Providers


Less than $1 million $1 - $9.99 million $10 - $24.99 million $25 - $99.99 million

More than $100million

Inside the U.S.?

Outside the U.S.?

69. What is your total annual legal spend overall?*

70. What percentage change (+ or -) do you anticipate for the next year? (Please enter a whole number,including a minus sign if you expect a decrease.)

Outside counsel?

Alternative legal serviceproviders?

In-house counsel/Staff

Other

71. What percentage of your total annual legal spend is on . . . (Please enter four whole numbers addingto 100)

72. Please select all practice areas that represent more than 20% of outside counsel spend

Commercial and contracts

Intellectual property (excluding litigation)

Litigation

Labor and employment (excluding litigation)

Merger, acquisition and divestiture

Regulatory


73. How many different law firms does your company use worldwide?

0-49

50-99

100-149

150-199

200-249

250-500

500 +

74. How many different law firms comprise 80% of your outside counsel legal spend?

0-49

50-99

100-149

150-199

200-249

250-500

500 +

For the vast majority of matters

For matters meeting a definedcriteria surge as anticipated spend

Ad hoc usage/no pre-definedcriteria

RFPs/CompetitiveBidding

Preferred ProviderNetwork

No Formal Process -Individual AttorneyDiscretion

75. Which processes do you use to hire outside counsel

Preferred Provider Network


Number of Firms

76. Approximately how many firms are in your preferred provider network?

Percent

77. What percent of your legal spend goes through your preferred provider network?

78. Do you have a preferred provider network for service providers, e.g. staffing and/or e-discovery, Big 4,etc.?

Yes

No

Percent

79. What percentage of outside counsel use your eBilling system?

80. Do you track accruals and/or budgets in your eBilling or matter management system?

Yes

No

Decrease > 5% Decrease < 5% Flat Increase < 5% Increase > 5%

Rate change

81. How have your overall law firm rates changed over the past year?

Decrease > 5% Decrease < 5% Flat Increase < 5% Increase > 5%

Rate change

82. How do you expect your overall law firm rates to change over the next 12 months?

Offshore Legal Process Outsourcing


83. Do you use offshore legal process outsourcing?*

Yes

No



84. For which of the following do you use offshore legal process outsourcing? (Check all that apply)

Document review

Contract management

Intellectual property prosecutions

Compliance and legal research

Real estate

Billing review




85. Would you consider using offshore legal process outsourcing?

Yes

No

Service Providers



86. We use alternative staffing/non-law firm vendors (not including the "Big 4 accounting firms") for:

Court Reporting

Intellectual Property Services

Invoice Review

Legal Research

Market Reviews

Trial Preparation Support

Discovery Case/Project Management

Document Review

Data Collection

Data Processing/Hosting

Technology-assisted Review and/or Analytics


87. We use the "Big 4 accounting firms" for:

Court Reporting

Intellectual Property Services

Invoice Review

Legal Research

Market Reviews

Trial Preparation Support

Discovery Case/Project Management

Document Review

Data Collection

Data Processing/Hosting

Technology-assisted Review and/or Analytics

Service Providers


Direct Manage Assist

Norelationship

We dothis in-house

Billing/audits

Negotiate rates

Negotiate discounts

Negotiate alternative billing arrangements

Matter-level budgeting

Conduct performance reviews

Track legal spend

Track diversity initiative progress

Select outside counsel for particular matters

Select outside counsel for panel (convergence)

Handle performance issues

Assume responsibility for timekeeper data

Diversity and inclusion

Metrics review

88. Which term most closely describes Legal Operations's involvement in the following Outside Counselmanagement task?

External Cost Control


Very effective

Somewhateffective

Somewhatineffective Very ineffective Don't Use

Preferred panel provider network

Electronic billing

Billing guidelines

Aggressive rate negotiation

Early case assessment

Flat fee arrangements

Other alternative fee arrangements

Direct relationships with vendors

Rate freezes

Cap rate increases

Limit when rates can increase

Volume discounts

Staffing controls

Limits on disbursement

Quickpay or Prepayment discounts

Use less expensive attorneys

Invoice review training

Legal procurement function (reportingto corporate procurement)

Portfolio pricing

Framework panel rates

No-cost paralegals

No-cost trainers

Regular transparent communication


89. Please rate the following initiatives in terms of their effectiveness in controlling EXTERNAL costs*



90. What percentage of your firms bill at discounted hourly rates, including tiered discounting?

0%

1-10%

11-30%

31-50%

51-70%

71-100%

Result

Flat fee to handle allmatters in a given area

Flat fee by matter stages(e.g. for each deposition)

Fixed fee per matter

Discount with possiblebonus

Success fee

Contingency fee

“Right to call” retainers

Budget-based monthlybilling

Fixed Fee with a collar orcap (Fee caps)

Risk sharing

Blended rate

Volume discounts

Full service retainer formost matters

Performance bonus

None


91. What types of Alternative Fee Arrangements have you tried/used?

Number ofYears

92. For how many years has the department been using Alternative Fee Arrangements?

Number ofYears

93. For how many years have you had a panel?



94. What percentage of matters are handled by Alternative Fee Arrangements?

0%

1-10%

11-30%

31-50%

51-70%

71-100%

95. What percentage of your legal spend is via Alternative Fee Arrangements?

0%

1-10%

11-30%

31-50%

51-70%

71-100%

96. What is the biggest impediment to using Alternative Fee Arrangements:*

Inability of law firm to set price

Law firm unwillingness

Unpredictable nature of matter activity

Lack of data

Not sure which Alternative Fee Arrangement to use for which matter

No internal impetus to change the current system

Inside Counsel unwillingness

Don't know


Speed Round


Mostly Agree Mostly Disagree

Our law firms do a goodjob at suggestingalternative feearrangements that meetour needs.

I have access to the righttechnology to do my job.

Generally speaking, lawfirms and serviceproviders ask me forfeedback about how wellthey are doing.

I regularly read one ormore client alerts/lawfirm newsletters.

The hourly billing modelwill be obsolete in thenext 5 years.

97. Please indicate if you agree or disagree with the following statements.*

Outside counselgenerally make strongefforts to understand theproblems we face as alaw department.

We have terminated alaw firm because theyhave ignored ourinstructions or billingguidelines.

Law firms are leveragingtechnology to deliverlegal services moreeffectively and cost-efficiently.

Our law firms areinnovative.

We get more value perdollar from partners asopposed to associates.

I get all the support Ineed from my generalcounsel.

I believe that work doneunder our alternative feearrangements is morecost-efficient than workdone hourly.

eBilling and mattermanagement providersare keeping up with ourneeds.

Corporate lawdepartments will be theprimary driver ofinnovation and changein the legal sector.

My job is primarilychange management.

Measuring the value oflegal services is moreart than science.

Shadow billing is aneffective way tomeasure the value offixed fees.


Dedicated pricingprofessionals at lawfirms make it materiallyeasier to implementeffective alternative feearrangements.

We conduct global lawdepartment meetings

I believe most lawdepartments will beusing AI for legal-typework in the next threeyears

I believe most lawdepartments will beusing AI to predict futureoutcomes and events inthe next three years.

Our firms haveprofessionals thatsupport the AFAprocesses

The industry needsstandard KPIs

AFAs have been provento not be the beststrategy for managingoutside counsel spend


Percent

98. By what percentage do you think your company's legal spend would increase without a legaldepartment operations function?

Survey Follow Up


Yes No

Attend an exclusive live roundtable event covering the results of the survey in a majormetropolitan area this fall?

Receive your free copy of the Full Results Package (proprietary to sponsors andparticipants - they will not be published)?

If you want to use an email different from the one submitted at the beginning of the survey for the above items, please enter it here:

99. Please indicate yes or no to the following. Would you like to...*

Survey Completed


Thank you for taking the 2019 LDO Survey.

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