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“Having a strong relationship with outside counsel is critical to ensuring that our company gets the best outside legal services it can,” says Urmila Paranjpe Baumann, Assistant General Counsel, Litigation, Express Scripts. “It is the Chief Litigation Officer’s job to make sure those relationships are strong -- that way we can leverage the best talent in the marketplace and negotiate cost-effective fee arrangements to control spend. There are many facets to developing a strong relationship; internally, we have spent years streamlining our legal operations and processes and this work has enabled us to share information and resources with our outside counsel more effectively,” she elaborates.

Baumann is a speaker at the marcus evans Chief Litigation Officer Summit Spring 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 11-13.

How do you select your outside counsel?

It is different for every company. Healthcare in the United States is a highly regulated space. For us, we need to work with lawyers who understand the pharmacy benefit management (“PBM”) industry, otherwise it would be virtually impossible to get the right support for litigation matters.

My advice to law firms is that it can never be a one-size-fits-all approach; not every firm will be the right fit for a particular corporate client. If a law firm wants a corporate client’s business, they must demonstrate a sincere desire to learn the client’s business, learn what they do, what they are about, and the company’s mission. Having a deep understanding of the company’s business is key to providing the highest caliber legal support.

What innovative alternative fee arrangements would you recommend and why?

Many industry experts say that the billable hour is on its way out, and this is particularly true for corporate clients that strive to manage legal spend. We are constantly working with our law firm partners to negotiate alternative fee arrangements on a variety of cases. All our partnering law firms have been open to negotiating alternative fee arrangements. These arrangements have proven themselves to increase efficiencies and manage spend -- and we are doing more alternative fee arrangements now than ever before.

From my perspective, it is very important for outside law firms to be open to negotiating alternative fee arrangements with their clients. They need to understand that their clients’ objective is to achieve the best result in a lawsuit while controlling the spend, not just throw dollars at a lawsuit with no accountability for the result. We understand that law firms need to make money too, but the Chief Litigation Officer’s job is to ensure that our company gets the best deal (and the best result). Both sides must be open to the prospect of alternative fee arrangements and open to discussing what would be a win-win for all.

What trends should Chief Litigation Officers prepare for?

I believe that the litigation market is very concentrated right now with less litigation work than before. Law firms that want to partner with corporate clients need to demonstrate a desire to learn about a prospective client’s business and their needs. They should also not be so fixated on the traditional billable hour. They need to market themselves, their talent and industry expertise, and show that they are the right team to handle the case. Many law firms out there are willing to do the work. However, for corporate clients, it is about finding the right firm that can provide the best service at a cost-effective price point.