Legal departments eager to control spending on outside counsel should closely monitor the law firm teams who are assigned to work on their major projects, according to Thomson Reuters.

In-house lawyers can start by working with external counsel to ensure the experience levels of the lawyers being given the work matches the tasks at hand.

Legal units are also advised to watch carefully so that a law firm project team is not changed without the in-house department’s approval. 

“There are many instances where clients hire a major firm because of perceived expertise, only to find dozens of inexperienced associates — or even temporary lawyers — on the bill doing the actual work,” Thomson Reuters said in a blog post.

Legal operations functions can serve as watchdogs to see if additional members of a law firm are added to bills for the work.

Legal ops can also determine whether inexperienced lawyers are being added to multiple matters a firm is handling for their company.

Requiring detailed bills from outside firms can help general counsel and their departments monitor the specific work outside law firms are doing.

This approach is preferable to more generic descriptions and so-called block billing, which Thomson Reuters said “can hide duplication of effort, inefficiency, and time erroneously billed to the wrong project.”

“The legal department can also maintain a record of challenged entries and amounts written off to ensure that law firms follow through on billing revisions,” the blog post on outside counsel management said.

In-house legal teams are advised to require budgets in their outside counsel guidelines, and Thomson Reuters recommends they withhold payment on legal matters until budgets are in place.

These budgets should be broken down by time period, phase or major activity. This approach allows legal teams to compare the bills that come in with the relevant budget categories to ensure a project is staying on track.

Additionally, legal departments should obtain electronic copies of all important records.

These records can assist with the monitoring and reviewing of legal work. Securing the records of a law firm’s work can also prevent duplication of effort. 

“By maintaining such information in a shared electronic repository, the legal department avoids having to pay multiple times to obtain the same information,” the Thomson Reuters post said.