Hi there,

“My team isn’t ready to make this change right now.”

I heard this objection recently from a GC in considering whether to adopt PERSUIT. 

It’s an objection the PERSUIT team hears often, despite the fact that in the same breath we also hear:

“Reducing costs is our number one goal.” 😫

Contrast that with what we’ve heard from more than one enthusiastic PERSUIT customer:

“We have aggressive savings targets. And PERSUIT is the plan.” 

I’ve talked about the nursing home test before (see here and here). 

Here’s a new one that I’d recommend to any change-wary legal leader (or any other leader) to implement  — The CEO test. 👈

When it’s time to report to the CEO and you’re called on to answer for your progress towards top-down mandates to reduce costs and drive efficiencies in the business, the response, “the team is not ready at the moment” is unlikely to land well.

So back to our change-wary GC whose team “just wasn’t ready” for change.

Here’s how I responded.

If you wait for your team to tell you that they’re ready for change, then either they’ll never be ready, or when they are, it will be too late. 

Change is hard. And there’s always something not ready, not right, not aligned. 

Or something else that takes priority — because it’s easier to keep doing what we’re doing.

But no CEO ever has said: “I’m glad you’re going to wait until all the stars are aligned just right to implement transformational change that will save  time, reduce expenses, and lead to better decision-making.”  

Here’s one more thing I didn’t say (but should have).

That change doesn’t happen in one swift and defining moment. It happens one messy, incremental step at a time. 

I’ve had a bit of experience here. We’ve had a lot of messy and painful “next best steps” in this startup journey.

So cheers to your next best, messy, inescapable step to embracing the inevitable changes in our legal industry. 

Because this is now how business gets done. And PERSUIT is ready to meet you at whatever step you’re at in your journey.

Cheers,

Jim

P.S. If you’re looking for inspiration for that next step, you’ll want to delve deeper into this week’s newsletter edition, including:

• Insights from Chris Grant, HSBC’s Head of Legal Market Engagement, who has moved his team closer to improving how they work with outside firms and suppliers, in part, by implementing one simple business rule — “Everything that we do has to be able to attach an ROI to it.” 
• Gregg McConnell, Global Director Legal Operations at Corteva, who shares the surprising way their firms responded when they made the change to value-based pricing.
• The collective trends we’re seeing from teams like Gregg’s and Chris's as they are increasingly using AFAs on the PERSUIT platform.

Jim Delkousis

Founder and CEO  

PERSUIT

DATA

How Often Do Corporate Legal Teams Use AFAs on PERSUIT?

In the early days of PERSUIT (2016 – 2017) only 30-40% of matters used an AFA. 

After our recent milestone of $10B in law firm proposals, we’ve been looking back across our data set to see what insights we could find.

Here's what we see in AFA usage today.

And why you might want to reconsider whether we should call Alternative Fee Arrangements "alternative" for much longer. 

Continue Reading: How Often Do Corporate Legal Teams Use AFAs On PERSUIT? 

Jordan Weinstein

VP Data & Growth

PERSUIT

INNOVATION IN ACTION

What Is the ROI of Legal Innovation? A Conversation With Chris Grant, Head of Legal Innovation, HSBC

What can in-house legal teams do to better demonstrate the value of their work?

Cyntha Lareine, PERSUIT’s Director of Executive Advocacy, recently sat down with Chris Grant, Head of Legal Innovation at HSBC, to ask him about innovation, ROI, and the impact of technology in legal.

Here's what Chris had to say.

Continue Reading: What Is the ROI of Legal Innovation?

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Why Value-Based Pricing Was a Win-Win for Corteva and Its Firms

Gregg McConnell, Global Director of Legal Operations at Corteva Agriscience, shares why it was time for both Corteva and its firms to move towards value-based pricing.

"So I would have told you that I thought the firms were going to freak out when we did that. And what we found out is that every one of them said, I wondered when you were going to come and ask this question. We're ready to do this. Sometimes it makes more sense to us as well. It gets them out of tracking every single minute. They don't love that process either. Neither did we."

You can hear more about how value-based pricing has been a win-win for both Corteva AND its firms here. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Where's PERSUIT? 

Here's where you can find us this month:

• Innovative Legal Leaders Roundtable: London, UK, October 10 — By invitation
• Innovative Legal Leaders Roundtable: New York, October 16 — By invitation
• WEBINAR: Unlocking Tech Success Together — The Evolving Relationship Between GCs & Their Legal Ops Team, October 19
• Legal Tech Innovation Roundtable: Charlotte, NC, October 25 — By invitation