Corporate & Securities Law

ACC Value Index - Still Going

By John Wallbillich

The Lawyer takes the pulse of where things stand in early 2010 with the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Value Index. Notably absent from this article are any law firms going on the record about concerns with the Value Index, or quotes from their consultants about same, as we saw last year.

A good summary of the initiative:

Lawyers use a five-point scale where one is poor and five is excellent to rate their outside counsel on the following criteria: understanding objectives/expectations; legal expertise; efficiency/process management; responsiveness/ communication; predictable cost/budgeting skills; and results delivered/execution.

Hardly sounds like something to be afraid of.

And a preview of what’s next from ACC president Fred Krebs:

?Some have expressed concern, mainly saying they don?t like the concept of being evaluated. But most want to see how they?re being evaluated and we?re in the process of providing that. We?ve already done it when we?ve been asked by a firm directly, but we?re looking to do that in an automated way. We hope this will go live later this month [January].?

This may help ACC get to a goal of 10,000 evaluations by its next annual meeting, in the Fall.

Some law firms could be re-thinking their opposition to the Value Index. Perhaps they realized that appearing hesitant about competition or transparency is not a positive signal to send in today’s legal marketplace.

Full post as published by The Wired GC on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).