Lawcadia, the legal spend platform, has a sensible guide to legal department metrics for general counsel and legal ops leaders who keep reporting matter counts and wondering why the C-suite shrugs. Its framework: start with the decision a metric should inform, use five types of measures (activity, efficiency, quality, risk and outcome), and pair them so one does not quietly wreck another.
The pairing point is the keeper. A target for matters closed rewards closing matters early. A tight turnaround target pushes hard work through too fast. We covered the gap between how GCs and the rest of the C-suite see legal department value last week, and our guide to being a good in-house lawyer has more on reporting it. Legal ops pros who can build this are hiring targets on our legal operations jobs page.
As Lawcadia puts it: “Every metric should answer a business question. Before adding a measure to a GC dashboard, ask what decision it will inform and who is expected to act.”
Read: How To Measure The Performance Of Your In-House Legal Team at Lawcadia