Case Studies / White Papers
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Case Studies
A successful Midwestern law firm with 42 attorneys and approximately $80 million in revenue specializes in business litigation. The firm accepted a case with a reliable but not frequent client through an alternative fee arrangement. Because the agreement used a contingency fee framework, the firm would only be paid upon winning the case. In this type of scenario, the firm can only manage costs by gaining full control and maximizing value. The firm determined that the document review workflow would be key to decrease the number hours required to win the case.
The law firm selected ClariLegal to help select a vendor for that portion of the litigation services ensuring the best quality for the most competitive price.
Once the firm and vendor began working together, the vendor found a few issues when processing and loading the firm’s data into the review tool. The vendor team uses the ClariLegal discussion board within the ClariLegal task management module to quickly communicate with the associate and paralegal involved in the case. The firm quickly identified the gap in their understanding of both the data and the technical processing. The vendor and firm collaborated in real time to find a solution.
The Associate reached out to the ClariLegal Concierge Desk (CLCD) to diagnose the processing issue and determine a solution. Using the discussion board on ClariLegal, everyone involved in the case saw the solution simultaneously and began implementing the agreed course of action in an efficient and timely manner.
Wins:
- Law firm identified a vendor that would provide high quality document retrieval and storage while controlling for cost
- Both law firm and vendor utilized the ClariLegal discussion board to communicate and resolve an issue
- The transparency of the discussion board enabled collaboration across all parties at the same time
- Potential time and cost overruns were avoided
Bottom line – ClariLegal’s vendor management, communication tools and Concierge Desk saved this law firm time and money ensuring the highest client service at the best rate.
A large investment firm was involved in a substantial and complex lawsuit related to one of the customers in its portfolios. The lawsuit included a variety of tasks that required the help of a vendor. The firm’s in-house counsel uses a preferred list of vendors for this type of work. When it came time to choose a preferred vendor to perform the work that needed to be sourced, counsel had significant issues. First, counsel identified the loss of responsive evidence. Next, several team members at the investment firm became suspicious that the vendor was overcharging the company by double what the current market rate was for this type of work. The firm needed to protect their portfolio company and resolve these issues.
The investment firm decided to get a second opinion. Unfortunately, the firm had been using their preferred provider for so long that they did not know where to begin in reaching out to another vendor. After cold calling almost a dozen law firms they had worked with asking for recommendations, they compiled a list of 20 vendors and spent the next two months conducting a vendor selection process. Luckily, they picked a great vendor. This relationship was strong and lasted many years, and the investment firm even paid for the vendor to set up shop inside of their office in an effort to make their services even more effective.
Years later, during a complex litigation involving a different portfolio customer, the firm realized that this vendor also become complacent and was charging them ever-increasing rates for the same work. The firm addressed this issue of overcharging to the vendor, but the vendor elected not make any adjustments to their prices and fees. The vendor chose to do this because the vendor knew the amount of time and energy that goes into finding a replacement vendor, and they were certain the investment firm would rather overpay than begin a new vendor search.
By using ClariLegal, the investment firm’s corporate counsel creates a RFP in less than 30 minutes, publishes the need to a community of pre-vetted ClariLegal vendors and gets 5 bids in less than 12 business hours. These bids were instrumental in comparing the services and cost associated with the existing preferred vendor. After a side-by-side analysis, the investment firm selected a new vendor that performed the work at an overall cost 70% lower than the established vendor. In 1 day, the investment firm saved their client company both money and anxiety.
Wins:
- Investment firm quickly drafted a RFP and bid work
- Investment firm was able to provide added value to client company
- Client company benefited from lower cost and budget stability
Bottom line – ClariLegal can assist in single RFP creation or repeated work as a tool to compete incumbent service providers or find reliable vendors in a time-sensitive environment.
A law firm working for a corporate client had a relatively simple litigation service job with a strict deadline. Over a significant part of three days, the firm’s litigation management team called 4 usual vendors. The team and the 4 vendors exchanged a total of 83 communications to describe, organize and finalize the bids.
During the bid review, the firm found the most expensive bid was 2X that of the lowest bid. The vendor who placed the lowest bid also had a better reputation and reviews. The law firm decided to select the vendor who placed the lowest bid. Once the firm engaged, it took another 21 communications back and forth with the vendor to refine the scope and negotiate the specific details of the project. Only then was the work able to be completed.
A short time later a nearly identical job came along, but this time instead of using their previous methods of searching for the right vendor, the law firm decided to use ClariLegal. Within an hour the scope of work was defined and the firm started receiving bids from approved vendors. After only 6 hours they had received a number of competitive bids all from qualified vendors.
Using the method of blind bidding, these vendors were invited to submit their bids to win the business. The nature of blind bidding lead to sharper bids. By the time the law firm selected one of the vendors through ClariLegal, the scope, requirements and logistics were all included.
Wins:
- ClariLegal enabled an organized and efficient vendor management search
- Full control of the process
- Quicker definition and search than traditional method
- Better price than traditional method
Bottom line – The firm can proceed knowing they selected the right vendor for a better price saving time and money.
A well-known, well respected law firm accepts a corporate litigation matter on contingency fee basis. Because the firm will only be paid upon winning, the litigation partner must gain full control of the cost and effort related to the case. The firm has extensive experience in this type of matter but needs support services to get through the document review process. The partner decides the priority is reduce the number of lawyers and number hours the staff will spend on documents.
To accomplish this goal, a portion of the litigation service work will be sourced. Once the documents start coming in from their client and from discovery, the law firm discovers it has not tackled a document review of this size. The law firm needs advanced eDiscovery products and must expand its existing vendor network. They needed a vendor and tool set that is cost effective and experienced implementing an improved document review workflow. The firm decided to locate a vendor through ClariLegal.
The firm reviewed vendor profiles and experience on ClariLegal and reached out to one whose work in document review was priced better than the firm had anticipated. The lead associate of the firm and the vendor reviewed the statement of work that was created from the job description and job scope within the ClariLegal. To ensure the firm was making the right decision, the associate worked with a member of the ClariLegal Concierge Desk (CLCD) to create a workflow training session using the vendor’s hosted review tool that was targeted to the specific needs of the law firm. The training to do this only took an hour and resulted in a simplified workflow that reduced the number of hours spent on document review, while ensuring that nothing of relevance was missed by anyone reviewing the documents in the firm. Using ClariLegal, a qualified vendor and a lead associate (instead of a Partner), the firm estimated savings of 100 hours of doc review (using an hourly rate of $500). That’s a total savings of $50,000.
Wins:
- The firm could react quickly to a sophisticated client and production process
- The firm could save time and money by leveraging outside experience, ClariLegal’s CLCD and an associate
- Controlled vendor expenses helped the firm offer alternative fee arrangements with confidence
- Using ClariLegal CLCD ensured an excellent, quality vendor who would deliver
Bottom Line: ClariLegal is a planning tool that allows firms of all sizes better match clients, cases and work to the most cost-effective solution for each.
A reputable Midwest law firm that was highly experience in business litigation agreed to work with a client on a contingency fee basis, meaning that they would be paid upon winning the case. Because of the alternative fee agreement, the law firm wanted to be sure that had full control on the efforts and costs related to the matter, which including improving their document review workflow to reduce the number of hours their staff spent on it.
A portion of the litigation service work was to be sourced, however, the law firm had recently started ranking and scoring its advanced eDiscovery products and vendors. The firm needed a vendor and tool set that was low costing while simultaneously implementing an improved document review workflow. Using its new scoring system, the firm had a relationship with a local vendor and as associate from the firm asked them for their cost of the work. Four days later (!), the vendor came back with what seemed like a reasonable estimate of about $4,000 for data processing and hosted review. Just to be sure the new scoring system was working, a partner within the firm instructed her associate to log onto ClariLegal to find an estimate and obtain some more bids on the work.
Together, the associate and a member for the ClariLegal Concierge Desk (CLCD) scoped the work within the ClariLegal application. Within minutes, the ClariLegal resource worked with the associate to learn more about the case and the challenges that the firm was facing with it in order to best describe the job and outcome that was needed. The process of having a CLCD consultation, job scope, and job submission was able to be done by the associate within a half hour.
Within 24 hours the law firm received four bids on the work, and they ranged from $1,000 to $6,000. After reviewing vendor pricing and capabilities within the ClariLegal application, the associate was able to efficiently narrow down the bids to two vendor proposals. The firm selected a $1,000 bid and engaged a vendor whose reviews pointed toward a great service offering at a value price. This complete vendor selection process took under one hour. The partner and associate did not have to sacrifice certainty because transparency in the process ensured everyone involved was on the same page.
Wins:
- The task was completed quickly and with confidence
- ClariLegal’s vendor management tools provided clear communication and visibility
- The firm saved time and money but did not sacrifice the result
Bottom Line – ClariLegal functions well as a primary marketplace of service providers or as a valuable second opinion when longstanding or local vendors do not sharpen their bid.