ACC Value Index - A Few Good Firms
February 9, 2010 | Filed Under Legal Ratings, Value
The ACC announced last week that law firms would be given some access to performance feedback being gathered as part of the “index phase” of the Value Challenge initiative. The press release is here; Corporate Counsel has more today here.
Part of the CC article gives equal time to a former ACC national chairman, who:
… said law firms have expressed concern because the survey’s evaluators are anonymous, and outside counsel couldn’t see what they said.
In reality, certain firms saw Code Red last year when they first heard about the Value Index. These firms (not all large law firms, of course) appear to view shared client feedback as something to be challenged, as opposed to an evolving part of the puzzle that their clients are solving to better manage legal spending.
So, as mentioned earlier by ACC, law firms can see part of their feedback gathered by the Value Index.
Can you handle it? What are you going to do about it?
US News Joins Law Firm Rank-O-Rama
January 29, 2010 | Filed Under Legal Ratings
US News & World Report gave an update yesterday about its plans to rate law firms in the United States. It is partnering with Best Lawyers to rank 5,000+ law firms in 125 legal practice areas across national, state, and metropolitan groups.
They claim over 50,000 references have been gathered from a large swath of the industry:
Lawyers, clients, marketing officers, recruiting officers, associates, and summer associates are being surveyed. In firms without marketing or recruiting officers, lawyers will be asked to provide the information asked of marketing and recruiting officers. The overall national rankings, including the highest ranking firms by practice area nationwide and the highest ranking firms in each state, will appear in U.S. News’s October edition.
Two thoughts:
1. I know US News heard a lot from deans about their law school rankings. I wonder how managing partners will react to this new legal yardstick?
2. With yet another ranking thrown into the mix, does it make it any easier for clients to find the right lawyer at a good firm for a fair price in a timely manner?
ACC Value Index - Still Going
January 11, 2010 | Filed Under Legal Ratings, Value
The Lawyer takes the pulse of where things stand in early 2010 with the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Value Index. Notably absent from this article are any law firms going on the record about concerns with the Value Index, or quotes from their consultants about same, as we saw last year.
A good summary of the initiative:
Lawyers use a five-point scale where one is poor and five is excellent to rate their outside counsel on the following criteria: understanding objectives/expectations; legal expertise; efficiency/process management; responsiveness/ communication; predictable cost/budgeting skills; and results delivered/execution.
Hardly sounds like something to be afraid of.
And a preview of what’s next from ACC president Fred Krebs:
“Some have expressed concern, mainly saying they don’t like the concept of being evaluated. But most want to see how they’re being evaluated and we’re in the process of providing that. We’ve already done it when we’ve been asked by a firm directly, but we’re looking to do that in an automated way. We hope this will go live later this month [January].”
This may help ACC get to a goal of 10,000 evaluations by its next annual meeting, in the Fall.
Some law firms could be re-thinking their opposition to the Value Index. Perhaps they realized that appearing hesitant about competition or transparency is not a positive signal to send in today’s legal marketplace.
Of Lawyer Ratings and Value (Wine) Pricing
December 11, 2009 | Filed Under Legal Ratings, Pricing
Sometimes you get tired of hearing about legal change, alternative billing, and those emerging lawyer ratings. So let’s talk something fun and tasty. Like wine.
One of the emerging social media superstars who is making wine more popular is Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary TV. A recent video episode covered Robert Parker’s Master Wine Tasting at Wine Future in Rioja, Spain. It sounds slightly more fun than LegalTech.
Here’s the link to the episode. And darned if Mr. Parker (an attorney and former in-house counsel), talking to international wine buyers and distributors, doesn’t inform us about legal change in the process.
Here’s a few tasty samples to swish around a bit:
@ the 6:00 min mark:
– the wines that will do well will be the wines that offer the best value.
– one of the good things in this world recession is that consumers are searching out value.
– and they are discovering how many wonderful wines there are at lower price points.
– the age of speculation is not completely dead, but you must over-deliver in terms of value for what the price is.
– what will do well is good wines at reasonable prices.
@ 7:20 min mark:
- we look at wine from a global perspective.
- I am optimistic about the future of wine, making it accessible and friendly.
- value wines, education and interacting with your client base is everything.
Oh, and what does Mr. Parker offer his readers? Ratings.
Mr. Vaynerchuk also took this a bit further recently in a private briefing (for customers of this membership plugin for WordPress users). He is going multimedia and is the author of the current New York Times business books bestseller Crush It. He concluded with his thoughts on customers and reputation:
Word of mouth is what builds businesses. Word of mouth is now on steroids. And if you don’t give customers service, they will tell their friends. Period.
Oh, and what does Mr. Vaynerchuk offer his viewers? Ratings.
So feel free to sit back this weekend, turn off your computer, set your BlackBerry to quiet mode and pour yourself a glass (or two):
Both Messrs. Parker and Vaynerchuk rate it highly.
Lawyers Not Thanking the Ranking
November 30, 2009 | Filed Under Legal Ratings, Law 2.0
The Association of Corporate Counsel is continuing its Value Challenge initiative by asking members to confidentially rank law firms.
Three things have followed:
1. Some law firms don’t like it, and have retained a former ACC board chairman to carry their water. One main public concern is what “disgruntled former law firm associates” might be saying.
2. Predictably, some early information about the rankings has slipped out. This is unfortunately to be expected these days and only fuels some of the concern mentioned in 1., above.
3. Informed commentators are starting to examine closely the concerns of the law firms. One of the first is Paul Lippe, who provides a very nuanced view of where we are and where things are going. It’s required reading from someone who’s leading a team at Legal OnRamp that’s doing something about these things.
But today, fresh off a lot of good food and hopefully a bit of thankful reflection, a few observations about legal ratings from the inside out perspective:
1. Law firms should worry about “disgruntled associates.” But they should not worry that they are now in-house counsel and exacting revenge on their former employers. The news flash is that GCs don’t usually hire disgruntled associates, since they won’t fit in and are rather easy to spot.
2. The second reality law firms should understand is that nearly all better companies rate and rank their employees, including in-house counsel. It is anonymous and it’s taken seriously. It’s also part of the culture, and vital to lawyer development.
3. If law firms don’t like these basic big-picture ratings now, just wait. Everything is rated and ranked, online and elsewhere. It’s part of the information age we are in, where customers are able to get more data and use it faster to make better business decisions. Retaining law firms and selecting lawyers are big business decisions.
Many law firms are understandably nostalgic for the time-honored selection process, which started with a referral that went something like this:
“Good firm; smart lawyers.”
There was a time when that wasn’t a bad starting point. Except that there are a few thousand good firms and tens of thousands of smart lawyers, all charging clients many billions of dollars. The GC can’t reply to the CEO, CFO or the board about outside counsel selection and management using the quote above.
The ACC ratings are a small step, and they are just the beginning. They will undoubtedly be refined and improved over time, and others will enter the picture as well.
And law firms can either (a) fight the trend, or (b) try to get better. We call (a) “nice work if you can get it” and (b) “looking in the mirror honestly every morning.”
Search
Powered By
Links
| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
||||
