Measuring the quality and value of legal advice is a difficult proposition in boom, but an absolutely vital requirement in a harsh and hard economic environment. With corporate cost centres under brutal pressure to be hyper-efficient, heads of legal departments are constantly having to demonstrate the value their teams and their external advisers provide to the business. We asked a range of international general counsel how they assess law firm performance and a surprisingly a huge number are still relying predominantly on informal means. How long will that unscientific method last?