ACC Value Challenge and ACC Value Index

Important ACC Initiative: Reconnection of Value and Costs for Legal Services

ACC believes that many traditional law firm business models and many of the approaches to lawyer training and cost management are not aligned with what corporate clients want and need: value-driven, high-quality legal services that deliver solutions for a reasonable cost and develop lawyers as counselors (not just content-providers), advocates (not just process-doers) and professional partners.  

ACC has launched an initiative to reconnect value and costs for legal services and which will:  

• Promote dialog among corporate counsel, law firms, law schools, and others who are interested in driving an alignment and focus on value;  
• Develop methodologies and metrics that corporate counsel can use to assess the strengths and weaknesses of law firm vendors;
• Create tools that in-house counsel and firms can share to drive change in the performance of value-based legal services; and  
• Enhance awareness and communicate success stories in achieving value and alignment.

As part of ACC Value Challenge, the Association has developed the ACC Value Index, a client satisfaction measurement tool that helps ACC members share meaningful information about the value they get from their outside counsel. It is a component of the larger ACC Value Challenge initiative, reconnecting the cost of legal services to the value provided.

The Value Index is a service for ACC members, by in‐house counsel, for in‐house counsel, which of course means that its depth and breadth depends on member contributions. ACC has received nearly 2000 reviews of more than 600 firms, so it’s already a valuable tool, but the more volume the better. 

We ask all DELVACCA members to get on board and start sharing evaluations of the firms you engage, at the close of every matter. Then, next time you are seeking new outside counsel, you can use the ACC Value Index as a tool to find a firm that delivers on efficiency and service without compromising expertise, thanks to your fellow ACC members.

Please go to ACC Value Index to get started---ACC anticipates that this is a successful step in the Value Challenge, giving ACC members the ability to produce a metric of law firms.   Those firms that actively participate in the Value Challenge are noted in the Index as well--this is important because participating law firms understand the Value Challenge and have expressed a commitment towards value and costs to legal services.