Vendor Management - Scorecards

In Legal Operations, scorecards are most frequently discussed in the context of Law Firm Panels. However, they are equally useful for annual firm performance review for the subset of key firms accounting for  a majority of spend and to help attorneys select an appropriate active firm for their new matter.

Outside of a panel framework, I’m a fan of reviewing annually the performance of the firm’s accounting for the top 75% of spend.  At one prior employer, typically that constituted 30 firms, and there was about 30% change in those firms from year to year, Separately,  we would look at the firms comprising the final 25% of spend and identify opportunities to consolidate work at a better negotiated price.

Ops in a Box, Legal Edition contains 2 examples of legal services provider evaluation/scorecards.  The first is a short survey (suitable for matter close review) and the second a scorecard.  In either case, I recommend formalizing an internal relationship attorney for each firm evaluated, which you can do by looking at the matter volume and spend level by matter manager.