Data Analytics & Benchmarking

Strengthen your overall approach by using quality data analytics to manage Legal more strategically. What are the key metrics you should be focusing on? How reliable is your existing data? How can you extract valuable insights from your existing systems? What additional data to you need to plug the gaps? CMG helps with all of these.

Many publications and conferences these days tout the value of data analytics and the benefits that come from better information to guide decision-making. But what does this mean in the context of Legal matters – and specifically within the context of your matters and firms? This is exactly what we help answer via a superior approach to data analytics that goes far beyond conventional metrics.

Yes, we will show you a new and helpful view to see how your dollars are flowing across various matters and firms. And yes, we will show you interesting analytics regarding timekeepers and rates and how they fit in comparison to other similar matters. These are the fundamentals, and you can get these – in varying degrees of quality – from a host of different sources, including some of your current systems.

Far beyond this, however, is the prime value we bring to data analytics – better application in the real world via superior understanding of coding accuracy, comparative law firm efficiency, and unit cost management.

First, using our deep insight and experience with the ABA Task Codes, we will help you understand how reliable your underlying data is in the first place, by analyzing accuracy of your law firm coding. (If your firms have not used the codes, we can help with interpretive guidance of what is there. We will also help you consider whether using the codes would be helpful to you.)

Second, our proprietary AFADATA^® system enables us to perform sophisticated analyses of comparative law firm efficiency. Why is this important? Because, as many of us have seen, a discounted rate may end up being a bad deal if the firm is relatively inefficient, and a higher rate may end up being a great deal if the firm is more efficient. So we assess efficiency on two levels: (1) identifying which firms produce equal amounts of work more cost-effectively (e.g. in less time if you are paying hourly), and (2) identifying which firms consistently propose tighter plans and budgets with little or no extraneous or low value work.

Third, our refined approach to project management and unit cost tracking creates an unrivaled data set to track financial management on your matters – both dollars and scope assumptions. With this information, we build a customized cost model for you, showing a baseline view of what you would expect to pay for various items of work within your portfolio. This is a powerful tool, enabling you to consider fixed fees where appropriate, and/or pressure test law firm budget proposals on new or existing matters. It also enables you to better track savings delivered to show your success back to Finance or Business Unit Heads.