Checklist: Turn Legal Data Into Confident Outside Counsel Decisions

Selecting and managing outside counsel requires more than intuition and historical relationships. Today's legal departments need objective, data-backed insights to evaluate law firm performance, control legal spend, and improve predictability.

The challenge is that valuable signals often exist across multiple systems, invoices, matters, and reports, making it difficult to identify opportunities, compare firms consistently, and support decisions with evidence.

This practical checklist helps legal departments identify the key metrics, benchmarks, and governance practices that lead to stronger outside counsel management decisions. Learn how to connect legal spend data, benchmark firm performance, evaluate staffing models, and build a more consistent approach to law firm selection and oversight.

Download the checklist to learn how to:

• Compare law firm performance using objective benchmarks
• Improve cost control and legal spend predictability
• Evaluate staffing leverage and billing guideline compliance
• Strengthen vendor governance and outside counsel oversight
• Use legal data and benchmarks to support rate and staffing discussions
• Balance data-driven insights with human judgment in firm selection decisions