The ACC Value Index and Value Challenge Model

Further to our post on the Association of Corporate Counsel's Value Challenge, here's a nod to Discovery Resources recent discussion regarding the tipping point for the value challenge.

The upshot is that as part of the Value Challenge, the ACC offers their Value Index, a forum for Corporate Counsel to rate law firms in terms their cost control and cost predictability, resulting in the Value Index.

And the index seems to be supporting Counsels' demand for value realignment.

As the ACC's original Value Challenge notes:

"According to a recent issue of the California Bar Journal, a survey by the Corporate Executive Board found that “while non‐law firm costs increased by 20 percent over the past 10 years, large law firms’ prices jumped almost 75 percent in the same period.” These numbers confirm the disconnect most if not all of us have been feeling."

To even further support Counsels' overall discussions with Law Firms, the ACC commissioned the Value Challenge Model, an interactive spreadsheet that allows users to test how changes in a law firms use of partners, associates, rates, and overhead may affect efficiency and profitability.

It's definitely worth giving a look.

The Association of Corporate Counsel Value Challenge

The Association of Corporate Counsel continues their Value Challenge in 2010, pursuing an initiative designed to meet head-on the seismic shifts currently taking place in the traditional delivery model and cost structure of legal services.

According to the ACC:

"With the economic meltdown, law firms are now facing additional pressures: loss of clients and business, reduced access to bank lines of credit, a need to downsize and better manage overhead, and at the same time, keeping as many people employed as possible.

Believing that solutions must come from a true dialog and a willingness to change things on bothsides, the ACC Value Challenge is based on the concept that firms can greatly improve the value of what they do, reduce their costs to corporate clients and still maintain strong profitability. Our task is to help shift the discussion to a focus on value and to find solutions that work for all sides."

It's noteworthy that as part of the value challenge, the ACC endorses a number of practical approaches to bring change to your company, one of which is to:

"outsource, offshore, and farm-shore process oriented work to increase efficiencies."

Also of note is their Covenant For Counsel, a philosophical agreement between client and counsel created to advance mutual goals. Included in the covenant are pledges to:

"Proactively offer value-based alternative fee structures"

and

"Seek to reduce our costs creatively and constantly"