THE RISE OF THE LEGAL PROCUREMENT OFFICER: The Business of Law Takes Center Stage.

• Author: Ors, Rose

They are a smart, passionate and focused group. They are a part of a slow but steady change in how the business of law is conducted. They are the pricing officers--a growing cadre of professionals."

This is how I began the article, "The Rise of the Pricing Officer--The Business of Law Takes Center Stage," in the September/October 2014 issue of this magazine. In this issue, my focus is on the concomitant rise of the legal procurement officers who, like their law firm counterparts, are a "smart, passionate and focused group." And, who like their counterparts, are hired by their companies to establish a more analytic approach to pricing legal services. But the similarities don't end here.

Although true that for decades the corporate world has had procurement departments tasked with negotiating the purchase of products and services, including professional services, the advent of a legal procurement function is relatively new. Indeed, in the long history of corporate procurement, the legal pricing professional is the new kid on the block. Its ever-increasing role and influence are the results of a shift of power over money and matters from outside law firms to inside legal departments.

Experience and Scope of Role

The experience level, responsibility and reporting lines of legal procurement professionals differ. Some come from corporate procurement and report into that division. Others have moved from the corporate procurement group to the legal department. Still, others have practiced law and have moved to the legal procurement role. The last two groups most often report to the general counsel or chief legal counsel. In some large legal departments, some report to what is also a relatively new role within legal--an "operations" professional.

The role of legal procurement professionals varies from company to company. What is constant is that procurement is not the final decision maker in selecting outside law firms. Their primary role is to manage the process of selecting outside counsel. The role may encompass a myriad of functions--collection and analysis of the legal department's historical spend, preparation of RFP requests, analysis of RFP proposals against established criteria (including weighted scorecards) and fee negotiations (both matter-specific and portfolio work).

In the area of fee negotiations, all the legal procurement professionals I interviewed stated a strong preference to work with their law firm counterpart versus the law...