There is a payoff to the upfront investment of time and money in developing a system for analyzing legal department spending, says Karen Dunning, senior director of legal operations at Motorola. It can make it much easier to deal with the questions from the C-Suite about legal department spending, providing data points that make for effective presentations to justify budgets.
"Maintaining appropriate legal spend is easier if such common questions of CEOs as 'How are we spending our money?' and 'Why in those areas?' can be quickly and accurately answered," she says.
"Analytics and graphic presentation allow us to better communicate our legal issues, opportunities and strategy to Motorola's senior leadership ... and promotes confidence that the law department is diligently managing the corporation's money. Let your CEO know how you have your act together."
