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A Call for Benchmarks

By Patrick Lamb on January 12th, 2010 Posted in Commentary

We live in a world that is increasingly data driven. And that includes the world of law. Some may want to debate whether that is good or bad, but that it is so is beyond debate, at least in my view. With that in mind, I ask this question: when making a decision to buy services, that is engage a new lawyer, what data or benchmarks do customers want to examine?

As litigators, we focus on:

Win-Loss record
Cycle Time
Ratio of partner time to associate time
Ratio of costs to total fee
Cost per type of matter
Stage of resolution (in other words, do our matters settle early, just before trial, etc.)
Percentage of cases mediated
Percentage of cases successfully mediated
Performance to budget

What others should be added to this list?

http://lexician.com/lexblog Steven Levy

Many of these are substitute metrics, which are bad juju. For example, win/loss record: Think of the DA who tries only slam-dunk cases and pleads out anything difficult; is that better than someone who takes on the toughest cases and wins 75% of them? (Are the 9-4 USC Trojans better than the 5-11 Seattle Seahawks? Different leagues.)
Partner/associate time may be distorted based on the type of work partners take on. I’ve seen situations where partners are doing associate-level stuff; is that good or bad? What if they’re 3x efficient at 2x cost? Or 2x efficient at 3x cost?
And so on…. I’m not suggesting that metrics are bad, just that it’s a bad idea to take them in a vacuum and make a decision solely by comparing these numbers.
That said, I’d add one: What percentage of the time do you refund (or not charge) part of an anticipated or agreed fee because you solved it well ahead of schedule? If firms don’t do this at least once in a while, are they really acting in your best interests? On the other hand, if they do it too often, they’re probably padding their estimates.
Not everything that counts can be counted, said Einstein, and not everything that can be counted counts.
http://texaslaw.blogspot.com Bradley B. Clark

Patrick,
I believe the benchmarks differ across the client spectrum. Where an institutional client employing BigLaw on a matter may look at some of the benchmarks you have identified I know twice as many – if not more – that buy professional services based on relationship, trust, knowledge, and integration.
Yours truly,
Bradley B. Clark