FEATURE
Using State Court Litigation Analytics By RICK MERRILL
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TODAYSGENERALCOUNSEL.COM JANUARY 202 1
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egal practice, even among general counsel, has not historically been a field that is subject to precise quantification. Legal department expenses are an exception, something all general counsel measure with precision lest they risk finding themselves measuring the length of their curricula vitae. However, new tools enable general counsel to measure and quantify things such as the experience and performance of outside law firms, the tendencies of judges and plaintiffs’ counsel, and how different jurisdictions compare with respect to litigation risk. These new AI-powered tools — state court litigation analytics platforms that analyze vast amounts of trial court data and documents — enable general counsel to gain new insights, measure previously invisible facts relevant to litigation management, and know things their competitors and opposing counsel might not know. Measuring outside law firm performance. Frequent litigation is a cost of doing business in the United States. Legal departments that effectively select and manage outside litigation counsel help their organizations reduce exposure and expenses. The old way (the way most organizations still do it) is selecting outside litigation counsel based on personal relationships, anecdote, and law firm reputations based on vague criteria. This results in inefficiencies — counsel mismatched to the matter or the judge, low-performing counsel chosen because of personal relationships, and money wasted. The new method of selecting outside litigation counsel for a state court matter relies on using BACK TO CONTENTS
