A new experiment is underway to test legal industry standards and determine where there's room for improvement in the relationship between legal departments and their outside law firms.

The aim is to arm in-house counsel with the data they need to understand whether industry assumptions produce the best results. The ability to use data to inform decisions that impact how a legal department spends its time and money would be an important step forward for in-house counsel, according to those who work or have worked in legal departments. The GC Thought Leaders Experiment seeks to answer questions around a number of assumptions about outside counsel relationships, such as whether it really makes sense to use preferred provider panels and if flat fee arrangements are in fact best. The 18-month project, from consultancy AdvanceLaw and with participation from more than 25 general counsel from companies such as Mastercard and Sony Electronics, began earlier this year.

The GCs involved are sharing data from thousands of legal matters including information on billing rates, billing arrangements and whether a particular firm is a preferred provider. The hope is that the data and the resulting conversations will reveal which aspects of the relationship between legal departments and law firms are most successful.