The new technology also promises to give law departments a quick way to assess and compare performance of legal service providers so they can maximise the business value to their companies as well as affording legal service providers a means to understand client needs, allowing them to improve their performance and competitiveness. ‘Qualmet changes everything the legal industry has come to accept about the relationship between law departments and their law firms,’ said Qualmet CEO Jim Beckett. ‘It provides both sides with a common framework for setting expectations, for collaboration, and for creating clear accountability to improve business value.’

Benchmarking

By aggregating the evaluations of individuals within each law department, using metrics that measure value, Qualmet provides the ability to benchmark legal services across industry sectors, firms, lawyers and practice areas -  eliminating the guesswork involved in measuring the value delivered by legal service providers. Ekumene Lysonge, CafePress General Counsel (one of the other companies which is utilising the technology) and President of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s  Kentucky chapter, said that the new technology would provide 'a level of transparency and accountability which could not be achieved without inventing a new internal process' as well as the prospect of  longer-term prospect of benchmarking against an industry database of legal service providers including law firms and lawyers. These would be independently evaluated by industry peers.