As consumers of legal services know, when the outside counsel spend is governed by hourly billing, it’s inherently hard to predict, as it can vary with the phase of a project, the demands of the other side, even the habits and styles of the lawyers involved.
The unpredictability of legal activity has been the top reason in-house teams struggle to accurately predict legal spend. But, this is changing, especially with the rise of legal operations. Legal teams can no longer operate as a black box, spending with impunity. They must be more quantitative. They must take a disciplined and strategic approach to spend management so they are armed with the necessary data to enforce real change.
Budget season approaches – and soon it will be time to turn your attention from the law to the ledger. More than 70 percent of companies have a December 31 year-end; for this majority, the next few months are a critical time to request and allocate resources for the year ahead.
On its face, ROI seems pretty straightforward – a basic math equation that determines the ratio between an investment’s profit and its cost. But with legal technology, this can get a little nebulous: Your department deals in time, not in widgets.
