This GC Thinks He Can Quantify the Long-Subjective Art of Service Provider Value

It's happening with increasing frequency: You use an legal service provider for litigation, or e-discovery, or project management. Then, the crucial question comes from the finance department: Do you know whether or not this service provider is actually creating value? Many corporate legal departments can come up with an answer, but the criteria involved in that answer varies, and is often based on subjective data.

One new company, though, is looking to simplify and standardize that process. Qualmet has released its first cloud-based platform, aimed at measuring the value of external legal service providers. The brainchild of founder Mark Smolik, general counsel and chief compliance officer of DHL's supply chain operations in the Americas, and his wife, the platform's goal is to give law departments a quick way to assess and compare performance of legal service providers in order to maximize the business value to their companies.

James Beckett, CEO of Qualmet, told Legaltech News that the platform compares value-based on inputs from law department team members. Individual members of the legal team first conduct evaluations of a legal matter, including associated lawyers and firms, using quick forms intended to take about one minute to complete. From there, the platform assesses performance quantitatively, with results coming in six categories:

1. Understanding  of the client's business;
2. Results;
3. Service;
4. Appropriateness of effort;
5. Resource management; and
6. Overall satisfaction.

The results can then help with quantitative comparisons between firms, with legal spend added into the equation for context. Beckett said law departments can also customize the formula with their own metrics as they see fit, though some elements of the formula will remain consistent among all deployments.