Hi there,

Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) legal team now sources over half of its matters with outside counsel using alternative fee arrangements, or AFAs. 

But that wasn’t always the case. 

In 2019 when Shane O’Connor, CBA’s General Manager of Strategy and Operations, took on the challenge of modernising CBA’s legal department to align with new standards, AFAs were used for only a handful of small value, high-volume, routine matters.

How did Shane and his team get to where they are today? 

In case you missed it, Shane joined us last week in an excellent fireside chat where he shared the story of CBA’s legal ops journey and how they’re using AFAs to improve their partnerships with firms to better serve the business. 

You can catch the replay here.

As Shane shared, one of the biggest challenges to using AFAs with his team was the common misconception:

"AFAs won’t work for a lot of our matters." 

We hear that one A LOT. 

To that, our Director of Legal Advisory, Laura Spalding would say, “I’ve never seen a matter I can’t source using an AFA.”

And by the way, Laura and her team have now helped our clients source thousands of matters using AFAs.

That’s why I’m thrilled to introduce two new resources this week that help dispel this myth.

The first is an interactive breakdown of the most common matter types on PERSUIT.  

Yes, it’s true that 70% of matters sourced on PERSUIT use AFAs. 

That means it’s also true that there’s another 30% that don’t. 

Here, we’ve collated anonymized data from over $10B in proposal value submitted on our platform so you can drill down by industry and matter type to see how your peers are using PERSUIT to source their firms.

The second is a primer on how to choose the best alternative fee arrangement for your matter. 

While many of the AFAs on PERSUIT use a value-based pricing model, there are dozens of AFA types — capped fees, fixed fees by phase, blended rates, and annual collared fees, to name a few. 

This short guide with easy-to-follow flow charts will help you determine the best AFA for your specific matter type. 

So my question (as it always is) to in-house teams is this: 

“If Australia’s largest bank can move to sourcing over half of their matters using AFAs in just a few years, why can’t you?”

Cheers,

Jim

Jim Delkousis

Founder and CEO  

PERSUIT

DATA

How Are In-house Legal Teams Using PERSUIT?

"PERSUIT won't work for all of our matter types. Besides, isn't it just for AFAs?"

It's a misconception we hear a lot. 

It's true that 70% of matters on PERSUIT use alternative fee arrangements.

It's also true that Fortune 500 teams are using PERSUIT for a wide variety of matters and RFP types — and that holds across all industries.

Click on this interactive chart to see how in-house teams in your industry are sourcing their matters using PERSUIT. 

Continue Reading: How Are In-house Legal Teams Using PERSUIT?

Jordan Weinstein

VP Data & Growth

PERSUIT

LEGAL ADVISORY

How to Choose the Right AFA for Your Matter 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the different types of AFAs — there are dozens of them.

In the seven years we’ve been working with in-house teams as they engage outside counsel, our Legal Advisory team has seen thousands of AFAs.

Here's the process we've developed to help clients find the right AFA type for their matter.

Continue Reading: How to Choose the Right AFA for Your Matter

Laura Spalding

Director, Legal Advisory

PERSUIT

WEBINAR

The Power of Firm Panels: How to Optimize Firm Partnerships for 2024

Panel reviews are fast approaching. Do you have a plan for optimizing your firm partnerships in 2024?  

Register here

UPCOMING EVENTS

Where's PERSUIT? 

Here's where you can find us this month:

• Buying Legal Council, London, UK, November 29 — Register here 
• CLOC Bay Area Year-End Bash, San Francisco, CA, December 13 — Register here