ACC Value Challenge

WMACCA Roundtable Discussion (see videos right)

In support of the Association of Corporate Counsel's Value Challenge initiative to realign the legal business model, Womble Carlyle recently hosted a Roundtable discussion with leadership from the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association (WMACCA) to discuss how to convert the clearly defined challenges into action items for success. The groups addressed the Business Model Misalignment, Personal Misalignment and Commercial Misalignment concerns and ultimately asked, how do we stop talking and start working together for each other?

To hear clear and concise suggestions from thought leaders, please listen to the three videos from members of each working session who provide suggestions we can all embrace to stop talking and starting walking! By making a commitment to work together, we can transform the way the legal industry serves the corporate community.

The ACC Value Challenge

Given today's rapidly evolving economy, the complexity of the law today and a setting where legal issues can make or break a company, it makes sense for companies and their legal counsel to examine fresh, mutually beneficial, relationships.

Womble Carlyle is proud to support the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Value Challenge. According to the ACC, this campaign has several goals, but primary among them is to improve working relationships between companies and their legal counsel and to help ensure that both parties clearly understand the value of working together. The ACC believes traditional law firm practices and attorney training often can be better aligned with the expectations and needs of corporate clients.

In many instances, the traditional approach, in which outside law firms bill corporate clients by the hour for services provided, continues to work just fine. But in other cases, a company may prefer a different arrangement. For example, perhaps they want greater cost certainty on the front end of a project, rather than receiving a bill after the work is completed.

Teaming with its clients, Womble Carlyle has long been a pioneer in providing innovative billing solutions. Building on a 135-year tradition of experience and experience in client service, the firm now is working alongside the ACC during its Value Challenge campaign.

According to the ACC, the Value Challenge initiative seeks to:

• Create a national dialog about the need to discuss the relationship between value and cost.
• Identify core groups of leaders in the in-house and outside firm communities to drive this discussion.
• Offer tool kits for use by in-house counsel and outside firms focusing on cutting-edge practices and models for managing value.
• Nourish the development of an in-house client community that gives law firms reasonable comfort that their efforts to implement change will be supported and rewarded.
• Encourage law firms to focus on retention of talent valued by clients.
• Develop lawyers as counselors, advocates and professional partners.

The Value Challenge is just the latest in a long line of ACC efforts that Womble Carlyle strongly supports. For example, the firm is the national sponsor of the ACC's New to In-House Committee, and is an active supporter of every ACC chapter within Womble Carlyle’s geography.

The Association of Corporate Counsel serves the needs of attorneys who practice in the legal departments of corporations and private sector organizations worldwide. The ACC has nearly 24,000 members in 81 countries, employed by more than 10,000 organizations.