Innovative Techniques for Reducing Legal Spend in the Post-COVID-19 World ROB WILLIAMS McNEES WALLACE & NURICK The survey focused on three key areas that significantly
Highlights from Exterro’s recent webcast about how legal departments are controlling budgets and minimizing spend – now and in the future.
impact legal spend: legal operations, e-discovery activities and data privacy processes. When it comes to legal operations, the survey highlighted
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused broad shifts in the way people across all industries work, with far-reaching ramifications that will likely be felt for years to come. While the crisis remains ongoing in many parts of the country, it is important to consider – and begin to plan for – what the legal world will look like in the future, once the coronavirus is safely in the rearview mirror. With that in mind, leading e-discovery provider Exterro recently hosted a webcast entitled “Innovative Techniques for Reducing Legal Spend
the importance of having a comprehensive legal spend strategy. To that end, the survey also revealed that more and more companies continue to bring their legal work in-house, a trend that Connie Brenton said tends to makes companies more efficient and cost-effective overall: “Legal operations is relatively new, and it exists for the same reason that it exists across the company. To simplify the business, make processes more streamlined and stronger and provide more highly predictable results.
in the Post-COVID-19 World.” The webcast panel consisted of Connie Brenton, senior director of legal operations at NetApp; David Yerich, director of e-discovery at UnitedHealth Group; and Tyler Thompson, associate at Bryan Cave LLP. It was hosted and moderated by Mike Hamilton, senior managing director at Exterro. It’s clear that whatever the ultimate outcome of the pandemic ends up being, it has already resulted in massive – sometimes catastrophic – losses for businesses across nearly all industries. As companies look to prevent more losses, now and in the future, it is imperative that in-house legal professionals think of innovative techniques to minimize legal spend. That’s why, several months ago, at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in March, the Blickstein Group, Corporate Counsel Business Journal and Exterro came together to create a survey that asked legal leaders across the country how their legal departments are controlling budgets and what techniques are most effective for reducing spend. The results of that survey helped frame the webcast discussion. CORPORATE COUNSEL BUSINESS JOURNAL
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