Fish & Richardson's pricing group and legal project management team have allowed the firm to do 31% of its work in connection with alternative fee arrangements, including innovative pricing plans, based on the number of patents and claims asserted in litigation. The Fish legal ops team is being recognized as the Most Innovative Operations Team at a law firm as part of California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards. The Recorder recently caught up with Carl Manning, the global director of litigation practice systems at Fish, to ask about the operations team's mission at Fish.

The Recorder: How would you characterize the mission of the legal operations team within Fish & Richardson?

Carl Manning: We are committed to maximizing client value and improving financial performance of the practice group by providing outstanding customer service and business deliverables, by working smart; innovating; sharing information; developing actionable data analytics; and continually improving processes in alignment with industry best practices.

How do you measure the impact that your legal operations team is having on the firm's business as a whole?

Client satisfaction is paramount, and we proactively seek feedback from both our internal and external customers regarding legal operations services provided. Inextricably linked to client satisfaction are key performance indicators, including pricing precision, budget realization on matters, and reduction in opportunity costs for our fee generators.

What was the biggest business problem that your legal operation team faced this past year and how did you go about tackling it?

Legal operations were previously deployed as silo activities within the practice group. In the past year, we reorganized legal operations to form a triad of business units working together, to exploit the business feedback loops that exist among the pricing, legal project management and knowledge management services, and ensure a best-in-class experience for our clients.