ACC honors 12 legal department projects and collaborations as Value Champions
Helping revamp procurement for a corporate spinoff, providing a preventive approach to employment issues and improving contract management are among the accomplishments honored in the fifth annual ACC Value Champions competition.
The Association of Corporate Counsel recognized 12 companies as ACC Value Champions, part of the ACC Value Challenge, which promotes adoption of management practices that drive value to control legal spending and produce better outcomes. Value Champions were selected by a panel of in-house counsel judges from a pool of 57 nominees.
“In 2008, ACC launched the Value Challenge so inside and outside counsel could reconnect value to the delivery of legal services—an especially fitting mission upon the onset of the financial crisis,” said Veta T. Richardson, ACC president and CEO. “Then, in 2012 we announced our first ACC Value Champions to recognize and celebrate the law departments and law department/legal service provider collaborations achieving measured results through their value-focused innovation and, importantly, provide inspiring examples for others to follow.”
“The 2016 ACC Value Champions include law departments with innovative programs to support their business clients, and inside/outside counsel partnerships built on collaboration and technology-based solutions,” Richardson said. “In all cases, the 2016 ACC Value Champions improved ingrained processes, promoted knowledge-sharing across the enterprise, and shortened the time needed to answer legal questions.”
Cutting internal and external legal costs was also a theme among this year’s honorees. Several projects were recognized for collaborations with outside counsel, often consolidating work with a single law firm under alternative fee arrangements, including fixed fees and success fees.
Those recognized for their work with outside counsel included:
Axalta Coating Systems with Hunton & Williams (Philadelphia and Richmond, Va.) — Seizing an opportunity to start over after Axalta became independent from DuPont, the law department, with help from Hunton & Williams, built templates and playbooks to overhaul procurement, a crucial part of the business. Lawyers provided training on using the playbooks. As a result, the procurement department now processes 62 percent of contracts without engaging the legal department, approaching an 80 percent goal. Because of these initiatives and alternative-fee spending with the law firm, annual spend for commercial contract review by outside counsel has dropped 80 percent.
Hhgregg with Ogletree Deakins (Indianapolis and Atlanta) — Revamped the process for labor and employment claims by consolidating outside counsel and selecting Ogletree Deakins as its partner firm. Through a value-based fee arrangement, they crafted a preventive approach by analyzing past litigation and company policies to identify a need for further training or policy changes. New technology platforms allowed employee relations staff to manage many requests without legal assistance. Questions can be directed to Ogletree Deakins and response times have dropped from eight or nine days under old firms to minutes. Litigation has dropped by 74 percent, claims by 60 percent, and hhgregg saved 44 percent on outside legal spend.
*Red Robin with Bryan Cave (Greenwood Village, Colo. and St. Louis) — Red Robin built playbooks and a comprehensive contract management system with Bryan Cave, now the company’s single provider under a value-based, flat-fee structure. One aspect of the system, a “green sheet” offering a contract and approvals summary, has brought needed clarity to the system, making it popular across the business units. The rollout has improved timeliness (90 percent of contracts are completed on time) and lowered risk (100 percent of high-impact contracts are approved via the system).
For a complete list of winners, see the ACC Value Champions webpage.
