For many in-house legal departments, juggling multiple matters with various external counsel is part of the office's day-to-day chaos. Between ill-timed phone calls with unbriefed staff to arranging agendas and meetings, the challenges these relationships can present are varied and numerous. But by creating flow between the legal department and its suppliers, both groups will have more predictable interactions, be adequately prepared for meetings, and save time and money throughout the life of any case or matter.

Once the tools and principles of Operational Excellence have been taught and are understood by the corporate legal department team members, they can design robust binary connections with law firms they deal with on an ongoing basis or even design a value stream just for the duration of a single matter that may be used for only for a matter of weeks or months. The design should dictate exactly when the connections between them will take place, establishing cadence and predictability for the team using workflow cycles, and defining how interactions will be conducted using integration event templates.

For example, for an ongoing matter that will require a high volume of interaction, the team should set twice daily workflow cycles during which everyone – internally and externally – will connect. This may sound like a status meeting, but it is not. Instead, it is a session for connecting so team members can pass along the information required to keep the case moving forward. What results is that the legal department will no longer have to call or email external counsel with a request to talk when work is completed because both groups will work to a steady cadence during which they deal with whatever work has been completed at each interaction.

To achieve this result, this workflow cycle should be set up as an integration event. This means there is standard work for the format of requests and for the order of moving through topics or issues, which will help ensure the session does not become a status meeting or discussion. For example, one group gathers its team and external counsel at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. Prior to these workflow cycles, all questions or queries are entered into a shared spreadsheet in a controlled and predefined format. As the team moves through the list, if any one item takes (or will take) more than three minutes to discuss, it is taken back by the appropriate person to be addressed outside of the meeting. The answer will then be posted and discussed prior to the next event at 4 p.m., or the following day, if necessary.

In this environment, follow-up phone calls or emails are not required; people just wait for the next workflow cycle. By designing how information will flow and knowledge will be captured between an in-house legal department and external counsel, much of the common chaos that arises from interactions between these two groups will be eliminated. Instead, companies will see predictable lead times, have more productive interactions with their suppliers, and realize quicker responses and savings.