Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions Reveals Findings of 2017 General Counsel Barometer

Global News

28
Feb
2017

Editor

General Counsels (GCs) at European firms are adapting their roles and becoming more strategic. And it’s the largest organizations who are embracing technological solutions to achieve their business goals. That’s according to the General Counsel Barometer 2017, released today by Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions.

38% of respondents stated that their role has become increasingly strategic in the last three  years, but differences between a countries’ strategic focus was apparent. 47% of U.K. respondents feel their focus has been increasingly strategic, with this figure falling to 44% among Germany-based organizations and 39% among those headquartered in France.  Alignment with business strategy will provide a major focus for legal departments. 54% say that in the next three years their role will develop with an ever increasing focus on strategy. 

There is, interestingly, evidence of a gulf between the survey’s largest and smallest companies’ adoption of technology to manage contracts, matter management, e-billing and compliance - with the larger organizations using technology as an enabler to manage manual processes so they can concentrate on strategic work. Adoption of technology is most prevalent in the finance and banking sector (68%), arguably due to stringent regulation in the sector. 

“This survey supports the notion that legal departments outside those in the largest organizations often find themselves tied into functional roles because they lack the resources to become more strategic,” says Mark Stapleton, EMEA managing director for Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions. “If GCs use technology to automate certain processes, they can free up lawyers to focus on the bigger picture and also reduce outside counsel costs. Unlike at larger companies where GCs are demanded to be strategic, technology can actually enable forward thinking GCs in smaller companies to be proactive in this area.”

Notably, respondents were split on how they manage and evaluate their outsourced work. 34% stated they have a panel of legal providers “and use legal spend and matter data to measure their performance against goals and guidelines.” In the finance and banking sector, this figure rose to 50%, and to 42% among those in energy and utilities.

Of the U.K.-based companies, some 37% of companies measure their panel providers in this way – slightly more than those in Germany (36%) and France (35%), and considerably more than Belgium (25%), the Nordics (28%) and Switzerland (28%). However, two thirds of respondents have limited or no data to manage their firms, and therefore cannot measure the value they’re receiving from their large expenditure.

“By using data and reports from technology, legal departments can scorecard and benchmark their firms, and have informed conversations that improve collaboration and ensure value for money,” Stapleton adds.  

In fact, the largest companies are already doing this, as Maurus Schreyvogel, head of Operational Excellence and Strategic Assistant to group General Counsel at Swiss-based Novartis International AG says: “We used to adhere to a kind of professional code…if a company told us a task had taken them a certain number of hours we would just accept it…. Now, though, we look from a value perspective and we won’t hesitate to challenge external counsel on fees.” 

The survey sought responses from organizations divided into three groups according to annual turnover. These were as follows: less than $5 billion (30%), $5-$25 billion (35%) and in excess of $25 billion (35%). In terms of location, the companies were headquartered in a range of European nations, with the majority in the U.K. and France (30% each), and a sizeable proportion in Switzerland (16%) and Germany (14%). Others included Belgium, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

Respondents were split equally from finance and banking, pharma and chemicals, telecoms, energy and utilities, and commodities and mining. The organizations tended to have sizeable legal departments, with the majority (36%) featuring a headcount of more than 150 and a further 25% numbering between 100-150 people. 

The news follows from Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions announcement at the end of last month that it has launched Passport® Pro, a new pre-configured version of its Passport® ELM (Enterprise Legal Management) platform.

Passport Pro is a hosted solution that the firm says “offers a comprehensive menu of essential legal matter and spend management features and best practice based workflows that come ready to install, resulting in faster implementation.” Corporate legal departments with less complex legal workflow requirements, limited internal IT capabilities, and legal departments of less than 100 users are best suited to use the solution, the company adds. 

Ranked one of the world’s largest legal service organizations with more than 180 years of legal expertise, Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions claims to “leverage a deep understanding of customer needs to transform the Enterprise Legal Management experience and help corporate legal departments and insurance claims organizations make better business decisions.”