For many legal departments, the outside counsel selection process still relies exclusively on word of mouth referrals. In fact, 47.4% of legal operations professionals say they have no formal process for hiring outside counsel, according to The Blickstein Group’s 15th Annual Law Department Operations (LDO) Survey Report. The report comments that “the methods used to engage outside counsel remain rooted in the past,” which is “extremely problematic.”
It makes sense that many attorneys aren’t taking advantage of outside counsel data and technology-driven procurement processes—the old saying “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” still rings true for many people. However, legal departments that are pursuing these avenues are often able to achieve ambitious cost-savings, time-savings and diversity goals. Priori’s Marketplace and Scout platforms offer ways to leverage data and technology to make the outside counsel hiring process seamless.