In-house
legal
teams
spend
tens,
sometimes
hundreds,
of
millions
annually
on
outside
counsel.
And
yet,
far
too
often,
the
selection
process
is
still
driven
by
gut
instinct,
legacy
relationships,
or
a
colleague’s
quick
recommendation.
In
the
latest
episode
of
“Notes
to
My
(Legal)
Self,”
I
sat
down
with
Basha
Rubin,
CEO
and
co-founder
of
Priori,
to
explore
what
happens
when
legal
departments
replace
instinct
with
data
and
how
marketplaces
are
redefining
outside
counsel
management
for
modern
teams.
Look
At
Your
Spend.
Then
Ask
Better
Questions.
“The
average
Fortune
500
company
spends
between
$100
to
$150
million
a
year
on
outside
counsel,”
Rubin
told
me.
“But
much
of
that
is
still
being
allocated
without
a
structured
framework
for
risk
or
complexity.”
If
that
sounds
familiar,
it’s
because
many
legal
departments
still
lack
the
muscle
memory
or
the
mandate
to
challenge
their
own
assumptions
about
who
they
work
with
and
why.
Rubin’s
team
often
runs
a
simple
but
revealing
exercise
with
new
clients:
they
ask
legal
departments
to
map
their
outside
counsel
engagements
on
a
basic
risk-complexity
matrix.
“We
literally
create
a
3×3:
high,
medium,
and
low
risk
versus
high,
medium,
and
low
complexity,”
she
explained.
Then
they
categorize
all
legal
projects
from
the
past
year,
flag
who
handled
them,
and
compare
that
against
spend.
The
results
almost
always
tell
a
story.
A
large
portion
of
work
that
ends
up
at
Biglaw
could,
and
arguably
should,
be
handled
by
more
targeted
providers.
“That
doesn’t
mean
high-risk
work
should
leave,”
Rubin
clarified.
“Big
firms
are
best
at
that.
But
there
is
an
overwhelming
amount
of
medium-risk,
medium-complexity
work
that
can
be
done
faster
and
more
cost-effectively
by
others.”
Gut
Feelings
Are
Not
Defensible
Decisions
Imagine
a
litigation
matter
lands
on
your
desk.
It’s
medium-risk,
in
a
familiar
jurisdiction,
with
a
limited
budget.
Your
next
move
should
be
grounded
in
data:
who
has
handled
this
issue
before?
What
were
the
outcomes?
Who
performed
best
on
metrics
that
matter:
speed,
clarity,
predictability,
client
satisfaction?
Instead,
many
in-house
teams
default
to
the
familiar.
“It’s
often
based
on
who
you
went
to
law
school
with,”
Rubin
noted.
Or
maybe
someone
sends
an
email
around
the
department
asking
for
referrals.
In
the
absence
of
a
structured
system,
it’s
no
surprise
that
legal
teams
lean
on
intuition.
But
that’s
not
a
strategy.
And
in
today’s
environment,
it’s
not
defensible.
“Legal
is
no
longer
immune
from
a
procurement-style
mindset,”
Rubin
said.
She’s
not
wrong.
Whether
or
not
you
like
that
trend,
it’s
here.
Boards
expect
defensible
spend.
CFOs
want
transparency.
CEOs
want
business-aligned
legal
departments.
That
starts
with
showing
your
outside
counsel
decisions
aren’t
just
reasonable;
they’re
repeatable.
Design
for
Repeatability,
Not
Just
Reputation
Rubin
and
her
team
at
Priori
are
pushing
the
industry
toward
repeatable,
data-driven
outside
counsel
selection.
They
pull
from
both
public
and
private
sources
to
create
a
searchable
database
of
lawyer
experience
across
firms
and
jurisdictions.
That
includes
litigation
history,
expertise
tags,
diversity
initiatives,
and
internal
reviews
from
past
engagements.
“You
can
search
across
thousands
of
attorneys
to
identify
the
12
who
are
best
suited
for
that
particular
matter,”
she
explained.
That
may
sound
like
a
luxury
reserved
for
massive
legal
departments,
but
Rubin
argues
it’s
becoming
a
necessity.
“In-house
teams
are
under
enormous
pressure
to
do
more
with
less,”
she
said.
“Vendor
selection
is
one
of
the
highest-leverage
points
in
the
department.
If
you
do
it
well,
everything
downstream
gets
better.”
The
best
teams
aren’t
just
collecting
data.
They’re
building
systems.
They
have
frameworks
for
when
to
run
RFPs.
They
create
scorecards
for
reviewing
vendors
after
each
engagement.
They
loop
in
legal
ops
early.
They
tie
spend
to
performance,
not
just
outcomes.
And
perhaps
most
importantly,
they
treat
outside
counsel
like
part
of
the
business,
not
a
one-time
transaction.
Don’t
Just
Save
Money.
Gain
Leverage.
The
legal
department
is
often
seen
as
a
cost
center.
But
that
perception
changes
quickly
when
you
show
how
strategic
vendor
selection
can
create
cost
predictability,
improve
turnaround
time,
and
deliver
higher
satisfaction
to
internal
clients.
This
is
not
about
cutting
corners.
It’s
about
making
better,
more
deliberate
choices.
“Flexible
resourcing
is
no
longer
just
a
stopgap,”
Rubin
emphasized.
“More
and
more
teams
are
using
it
as
a
long-term
strategy.”
The
smartest
in-house
leaders
are
building
core
teams
that
stay
close
to
the
business
and
complementing
them
with
external
resources
that
flex
based
on
workload,
jurisdiction,
or
subject-matter
expertise.
If
that
sounds
familiar,
it
should.
That’s
how
product
teams
scale.
That’s
how
procurement
works.
That’s
how
operations
functions
across
the
business.
Legal
doesn’t
have
to
reinvent
the
wheel.
It
just
has
to
learn
how
to
drive
it.
What
To
Do
Next
If
you’re
an
in-house
leader,
take
a
hard
look
at
how
your
team
chooses
outside
counsel.
Start
tracking
the
data.
Build
a
risk-complexity
matrix
for
your
past
12
months
of
matters.
Review
where
you
spent
the
most,
and
what
you
actually
got
for
it.
Then
build
the
next
cycle
with
intentionality.
Legacy
relationships
aren’t
a
reason
to
avoid
change.
They’re
an
opportunity
to
do
better.
As
Rubin
put
it,
“We’re
building
the
infrastructure
for
defensible
legal
decisions.
The
question
is:
will
legal
departments
use
it?”
Now
is
the
time
to
stop
outsourcing
by
instinct.
Use
the
data.
Design
the
system.
And
make
vendor
selection
the
strategic
advantage
it
was
always
meant
to
be.
Olga
V.
Mack is
the
CEO
of TermScout,
an
AI-powered
contract
certification
platform
that
accelerates
revenue
and
eliminates
friction
by
certifying
contracts
as
fair,
balanced,
and
market-ready.
A
serial
CEO
and
legal
tech
executive,
she
previously
led
a
company
through
a
successful
acquisition
by
LexisNexis.
Olga
is
also
a Fellow
at
CodeX,
The
Stanford
Center
for
Legal
Informatics,
and
the
Generative
AI
Editor
at
law.MIT.
She
is
a
visionary
executive
reshaping
how
we
law—how
legal
systems
are
built,
experienced,
and
trusted.
Olga teaches
at
Berkeley
Law,
lectures
widely,
and
advises
companies
of
all
sizes,
as
well
as
boards
and
institutions.
An
award-winning
general
counsel
turned
builder,
she
also
leads
early-stage
ventures
including Virtual
Gabby
(Better
Parenting
Plan), Product
Law
Hub, ESI
Flow,
and Notes
to
My
(Legal)
Self,
each
rethinking
the
practice
and
business
of
law
through
technology,
data,
and
human-centered
design.
She
has
authored The
Rise
of
Product
Lawyers, Legal
Operations
in
the
Age
of
AI
and
Data, Blockchain
Value,
and Get
on
Board,
with Visual
IQ
for
Lawyers (ABA)
forthcoming.
Olga
is
a
6x
TEDx
speaker
and
has
been
recognized
as
a
Silicon
Valley
Woman
of
Influence
and
an
ABA
Woman
in
Legal
Tech.
Her
work
reimagines
people’s
relationship
with
law—making
it
more
accessible,
inclusive,
data-driven,
and
aligned
with
how
the
world
actually
works.
She
is
also
the
host
of
the
Notes
to
My
(Legal)
Self
podcast
(streaming
on Spotify, Apple
Podcasts,
and YouTube),
and
her
insights
regularly
appear
in
Forbes,
Bloomberg
Law,
Newsweek,
VentureBeat,
ACC
Docket,
and
Above
the
Law.
She
earned
her
B.A.
and
J.D.
from
UC
Berkeley.
Follow
her
on LinkedIn and
X
@olgavmack.