General Counsel’s are under pressure from the CFOs and their boards to do sufficiently more with less than they had before the pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn. With regulatory pressures increasing and legal demand still growing, reducing legal budget can be a significant challenge.
Further to this is the diverse requirements from stakeholders and internal clients to demonstrate value for money, justify their spend and engagement decisions and alignment with values.
In November 2020 at the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia’s annual conference, a group of innovative and forward-thinking leaders in the legal industry discussed the growing interest in using competitive Request for Proposals (RFPs) for legal matters as a way to demonstrate value-for-money and control legal costs. The discussion also incorporated the use of RFPs to support buying decisions based on diversity and inclusion principles.
Valuable contributions and insights were received from Salam Saffarini, Head of Operations, Transformation & Strategy at Westpac’s Legal & Secretariat group; Jo Keen, General Counsel at Queensland Rail; and Dion Gooderham, Director of Legal Services at Uniting Church in Australia (Vic. & Tas. Synod).
Watch the first 10 minutes of the panel discussion below.
