Historically, in-house legal departments had a simpler approach to engaging with outside counsel. When a legal issue arose, they would quickly lean on the expertise of their General Counsel’s (GC) previous BigLaw firm. While such a strategy was straightforward and safe, it might not have been the most cost-efficient solution. Furthermore, it was almost impossible to objectively assess if the selected firm was indeed the most suitable for the task.
As times have changed, so have corporate expectations. Accelerating fiscal constraints coupled with escalating law firm fees have created an uneasy environment for in-house counsel. Presently, corporate legal departments are caught in the paradox of potentially overspending or underspending; the proverbial expression “No one gets fired for hiring Cravath” now feels almost antiquated.
Priori Legal, a platform familiar to the legal domain, is lending a helping hand to in-house teams navigating these troubled waters. The platform, which houses a marketplace of outside counsel, assists in-house teams in finding the right firms for the right tasks. This innovative platform caters to an impressive clientele, including Fortune 50 companies and features thousands of outside counsel options from both big and small law firms across a myriad of practice areas.
But the evolution hasn’t stopped there. Priori is reportedly set to roll out a lite version to give in-house legal teams a glimpse of the added benefits they can capitalize on. Effective from February 15, users can now avail six months of free access to Priori’s newest service additions. More on this can be found directly on the
Priori website.
Key among these value-added features is the introduction of proposal requests from in-house firms. By using structured reviews and scorecards, legal teams can track their preferred firms’ performance over time. Legal teams will also enjoy the option to receive proposals from Priori’s worldwide legal marketplace. This will allow a comparison against their trusted law firms, ensuring they get the right talent for their needs and cost savings when hiring for new affairs.
The crux of Priori’s proposition, it seems, is a neat, streamlined package that will appeal to modern law departments. For in-house teams that still tend to rely on long-established legal partners, Priori’s solution anonymizes the process, affording the opportunity to compare established relationships against market offerings, which seems like a win-win offer for in-house legal teams.
Signing up to this Early Access Program is straightforward and can be done directly on the Priori website.