Legal Spend Terminology - The A-Z
Alternative Fee Arrangements: a fee arrangement that moves away from the billable hour. There are many different types of AFA, including a fixed fee, a success fee arrangement and blended hourly rate.
Alternative legal services providers (ALSPs): These are the non-traditional companies that offer legal services as competitors to the tradi
Alternative Fee Arrangements: a fee arrangement that moves away from the billable hour. There are many different types of AFA, including a fixed fee, a success fee arrangement and blended hourly rate.
Alternative legal services providers (ALSPs): These are the non-traditional companies that offer legal services as competitors to the traditional law firm. ALSPs usually cover services such as legal process outsourcing, e-discovery and document review services and contract lawyering.
Auction (see also EAuction): Electronic Auctions (eAuctions) for buying legal services allow potential suppliers to compete online, in real-time, to provide prices for the goods or services under auction
Benchmarking: Benchmarking of your law firm hourly rates is one way to establish whether you are getting value for money from your external law firms. Hourly rates are not the best way to determine ‘value for money’, but they are one indicator of value, and a good starting point. In our experience, very few legal or procurement teams have
Benchmarking: Benchmarking of your law firm hourly rates is one way to establish whether you are getting value for money from your external law firms. Hourly rates are not the best way to determine ‘value for money’, but they are one indicator of value, and a good starting point. In our experience, very few legal or procurement teams have the level of visibility they need to keep their hourly rates competitive.
Buying Legal Council: This is the international trade organisation for professionals tasked with sourcing legal services and managing legal service supplier relationships. The annual Buying Legal Council conferences, which take place around the world, are one of the highlights of the Legal Procurement calendar.
Capped Fees. This is type of Alternative Fee Arrangement (see AFA), with an agreed limit on the fees that will be charged for a piece of work. Capped fees are very common in transactional legal work.
CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium): This is the world’s leading legal operations consortium. They provide events and resources on Legal Operations.
Data analytics: In our experience, few legal ops teams have the level of data they need to make informed decisions. We can help through our MI claims litigation (see LegalSRM) and legal spend analytics dashboards.
Discovery: Discovery is the process of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information (ESI) for a law
Data analytics: In our experience, few legal ops teams have the level of data they need to make informed decisions. We can help through our MI claims litigation (see LegalSRM) and legal spend analytics dashboards.
Discovery: Discovery is the process of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information (ESI) for a law suit or investigation. In 2018, we won a World Procurement Leaders Award for an EDiscovery RFP project.
eDiscovery: This is the electronic aspect of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request for production in a law suit or investigation.
eAuctions: Electronic Auctions (eAuctions) for buying legal services allow potential suppliers to compete online, in real-time, to provide prices
eDiscovery: This is the electronic aspect of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request for production in a law suit or investigation.
eAuctions: Electronic Auctions (eAuctions) for buying legal services allow potential suppliers to compete online, in real-time, to provide prices for the goods or services under auction
Enterprise legal management: ELM was introduced in the 1990s and uses software to manage internal legal documents and workflows, electronic billing/invoicing, and to guide decision-making through reporting and analytics.
eBilling Software: An eBilling tool or eBilling software can aid efficiency and reduce external legal spend, but only alongside human intervention. Best in class organisations use trained legal professionals to review legal invoices before payment.
eBilling Administrator: The eBilling Administrator is an experienced legal e-billing professional who will be part of a team who is responsible for the administration of a company's e-billing software, processes and procedures.
Fee Earners: someone who carries out work that generates income for a law firm. There are different grades of fee earner, but all carry out work that has a fee associated with it.
Fixed Fee: A fixed fee is an agreed price for a piece of legal work or a service, which moves away from the traditional hourly rate charging model.
File Audit: We
Fee Earners: someone who carries out work that generates income for a law firm. There are different grades of fee earner, but all carry out work that has a fee associated with it.
Fixed Fee: A fixed fee is an agreed price for a piece of legal work or a service, which moves away from the traditional hourly rate charging model.
File Audit: We offer a legal panel file audit service for insurer clients to ensure that external law firms are providing services in line with agreed SLAs and invoices adhere to agreed rates and guidelines
General Counsel: A GC is the chief lawyer of a legal department, and a senior business leader. A General Counsel is typically responsible for implementing strategic goals from a legal perspective.
Guidelines: also known as Billing Guidelines or Outside Counsel Guidelines. These set clear expectations of what is expected of external law fir
General Counsel: A GC is the chief lawyer of a legal department, and a senior business leader. A General Counsel is typically responsible for implementing strategic goals from a legal perspective.
Guidelines: also known as Billing Guidelines or Outside Counsel Guidelines. These set clear expectations of what is expected of external law firms and can help control legal spend. We can assist with devising clear billing guidelines – get in touch for more information.
Hourly rates: Traditionally the way that people are billed for legal services. There are alternatives to hourly rates (see AFAs).
In-house lawyers: We work closely with in-house legal teams to optimise their external legal spend. Speak to us for advice.
Insurance: An industry that we specialise in, as our Partners have extensive experience within this area. Our Claims Litigation technology that will give you a holistic view of your legal spend and the performance of your law firms.
Junior Lawyers: In England & Wales, junior lawyers are classed as those with less than 5 years PQE.
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Knowledge Management: For legal departments, knowledge management ensures more efficient and effective operations. For law firms, it helps firms win and keep business.
Legal Panels: A Legal Panel is a group of law firms who have been specially selected to take care of your company’s external legal work.
Legal Spend Health Check: This is the quickest and simplest way to start making savings on your external legal spend as it provides diagnostics for in-house teams. Reports can be with you in as little as
Legal Panels: A Legal Panel is a group of law firms who have been specially selected to take care of your company’s external legal work.
Legal Spend Health Check: This is the quickest and simplest way to start making savings on your external legal spend as it provides diagnostics for in-house teams. Reports can be with you in as little as four to six weeks.
Legal Spend Matters: This is our monthly e-newsletter, which covers all things Legal Spend Management. Have you signed up for your copy yet? Subscribe here.
Legal spend management: We help organisations of all sizes to optimise their external law firm spend. The starting point for most organisations is a legal spend health check (see above).
LegalSRM™: our Claims Litigation technology, developed specifically for insurers, to better understand and manage the performance of their law firms.
Legal Invoice Review: This is the process of reviewing your legal invoices for errors and inconsistencies in the legal billing process. Clients who use us for legal invoice review report average savings of 7%. We use a human-led approach, which differs to others in the market.
Legal Procurement: Legal Procurement is one category of Procurement and involves the buying of legal services. Unlike other categories, savings are achieved over time and grow the longer someone stays in post and specialises in this area.
Legal eBill Review: COG Legal has reimagined eBilling - taking it from a piece of technology to a fully managed service for maximum uptake and benefit. We combine technology and Legal Invoice Review to deliver a full service for you that works.
Magic Circle: These are the five UK-based law firms, considered to be the most prestigious in the world: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, FreshfieldsBruckhausDeringer, Linklaters and Slaughter&May.
Millions: We have delivered hundreds of millions in real and sustainable savings for clients on their external legal spend.
Management Informati
Magic Circle: These are the five UK-based law firms, considered to be the most prestigious in the world: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, FreshfieldsBruckhausDeringer, Linklaters and Slaughter&May.
Millions: We have delivered hundreds of millions in real and sustainable savings for clients on their external legal spend.
Management Information (MI): Management Information (MI) is any data that relates to business activity. Istaff and sales. MI is very useful for identifying potential problems within an organisation. At COG Legalour proprietary technology, LegalSRM™ , lets us analyse MI direct from your law firms, providing you with real performance metrics to deliver real cost savings.
Nearshoring: This is transferring work to areas that are less expensive or more cost-effective. We have helped one client move work from London to Leeds, for example, to reduce costs.
Non-billable items: These are items that you may record when working for a client, but that cannot be billed to the client.
Optimising your legal spend: We work with some of the world’s biggest brand names, including FTSE and Fortune100 companies to make the most of their external legal budget. Speak to us to make your external legal budget go further.
Outsourcing: This is using an external provider for a service that could typically be provided in-house. Outso
Optimising your legal spend: We work with some of the world’s biggest brand names, including FTSE and Fortune100 companies to make the most of their external legal budget. Speak to us to make your external legal budget go further.
Outsourcing: This is using an external provider for a service that could typically be provided in-house. Outsourcing does not have the overheads that in-house provision does and is often seen as better value for money.
Offshoring: This is transferring work o countries that are less expensive or more cost-effective.
Outside Counsel: These are your external legal advisers.
Panel Review: Let us manage the panel tender process for you so you can focus on strategic matters. A review of your legal panel can make significant savings – speak to us for information.
Performance management: In our experience, legal teams devote a lot of time managing the performance of their in-house counsel, but do not focus as much
Panel Review: Let us manage the panel tender process for you so you can focus on strategic matters. A review of your legal panel can make significant savings – speak to us for information.
Performance management: In our experience, legal teams devote a lot of time managing the performance of their in-house counsel, but do not focus as much attention on the performance of their external law firms. We have built a tool to help manage the performance of your law firms – speak to us for advice.
Per Equity Partner: Equity Partners earn more than half their salary from the profit that a law firm brings in and are considered partial owners of a firm.
Quality: It’s really important to us that all of our services are quality assured, which is why our Legal Invoice Review service is Lawyer-supervised and our other services are Partner-led.
Rates benchmarking: Do you know if you’re getting value for money compared to similar companies? Law firm rates benchmarking compares your rates to those of similar organisations.
Request for Proposal: We can manage your RFP exercises for EDiscovery, Legal Panels and many other services.
September: the month when legal teams typically start planning for the year ahead. We can assist with ensuring your external legal budgets delivers more with less in 2020 – speak to us about how we saved $3m for one client in a matter of weeks
Spend Managed: Billions in Legal Spend Managed. We manage legal spend for some of the largest glo
September: the month when legal teams typically start planning for the year ahead. We can assist with ensuring your external legal budgets delivers more with less in 2020 – speak to us about how we saved $3m for one client in a matter of weeks
Spend Managed: Billions in Legal Spend Managed. We manage legal spend for some of the largest global organisations allowing us to provide unique insights into your spend.
Sustainable savings: We have delivered hundreds of millions in real and sustainable savings for clients on their
external legal spend.
Terms of engagement: These are the terms that are provided to an external law firm to outline the agreement you have with them. Law firms should accept these terms before carrying out work for you.
Timekeeper rates: These are hourly rate for all levels of legal providers e.g. Associate, Partner, etc, by country or region.
US law firms: visit https://hubs.ly/H0kdS_M0 for updates on the AMLaw100/200, the 100/200 largest law firms in the USA
Value: All COG Legal legal spend management services will add value to your bottom line, helping you to save time and money on your external legal spend.
Vacancy: Interested in a job in legal spend management? Head across to our careers page to check out our open positions.
White Shoe Law firm: This refers to the most prestigious law firms in the USA that traditionally hire from elite Universities.
Women: We are a 80% female workforce, as well as being a 50% female owned business.
World Procurement Leaders Award: we’ve won this award in the past for our work with a global Financial Services client.
Year: Each year we save our global clients millions on their external legal spend.
Zero tolerance: Our legal invoice review services sees us review legal invoices line by line to identify where mistakes and overcharges have been made. We take a zero tolerance approach to errors to ensure we capture as many cost savings as possible.