An Interview with Organon's Chief of Staff to the General Counsel
We talked to Stacy Lettie, Chief of Staff to the General Counsel, Director of Strategic Planning, Organon, about how she uses Priori's talent and software solutions to find the right legal professional for every project. Having worked with Priori throughout her career, Stacy shares her unique perspective on how our vetted flex talent and global law firm marketplace and panel management software have helped her legal departments streamline outside counsel management.
How did you first come to use Priori?
Stacy Lettie: I was a newly minted legal operations director and we were doing major budget work. We needed targeted help on some projects and we had previous experiences with some of our temporary attorney providers where we received rates that were just outrageous and we weren't getting terrific service.
So we went to Priori and from the first person that we brought on, it ended up being a long-term relationship. She became a part of the team and I loved the model and we had such great success that we continued. As I've moved on in my career, I've tried to take Priori along with me to three companies because I'm a believer in the people and the model.
How does Priori compare to traditional talent models?
Stacy Lettie: Under the traditional model, when I hire an attorney from a temp agency, their goal is to come in, make money and roll off a project. They're not invested in learning about my company or the people that they're working with. There's no intent to create a relationship and that impacts the quality of the work.
As someone who manages staffing from a budgeting and headcount perspective, when you can have an external person come in and act like a full-time employee, there’s tremendous value. With Priori attorneys, that’s what you get. It’s like having an employee starting with your company, or a seconded attorney from your outside counsel, who knows your business and is invested in the quality of the work.
What made you decide to bring Priori software?
Stacy Lettie: Priori allows us to take all of our historical data and scorecard our current and future vendors on a regular basis. We can view all kinds of useful data which is helping us make the right decisions about the law firms we use. And, we’re able to use the data we generate from Priori to analyze what we’re currently doing, look at what we used to do and track the improvements we make year over year.
Where do you see the most value in Priori software?
Stacy Lettie: There are a couple of ways that we see value. One is timeliness. We have issues with getting our firms to deliver projects on time. One of the things we’ve built out is a way to show timeliness data coming out of our billing system into our dashboard. To get that same information out of our billing system, our attorneys have to dig for it.
We’re encouraging more business-focused approaches to our relationships with law firms, and allowing our attorneys to see that data on their dashboards and address it is really going to help with that.
The other way is in our panel program. We’re in the midst of drawing a new panel and I’m hoping our relationships with our firms will evolve over time—whether in certain practice areas or with processes like RFPs—and Priori will give us the flexibility to manage that. Having all of that data available in one place is a huge value.
What brings you back to Priori for multiple engagements?
Stacy Lettie: Usually, I am focused on quality and value. We definitely save money using Priori attorneys, but that’s not what really drives the decision for me. I’m getting more value for my dollar when I’m using Priori attorneys. When you’re engaging a temporary attorney, you have a real need and you don’t come to that decision lightly. You should be getting the most you can for the hourly rate.
Priori attorneys are able to ramp up quickly and that’s incredibly important. Using them in place of some of our larger firms has helped with cost containment. For example, we’ve examined tasks that are repetitive or hour-intensive and determined that we were overpaying for work that somebody equally as capable could be doing for us. In my experience, just because an attorney doesn’t work for a big-name law firm doesn’t mean they’re not a really talented, educated and capable attorney who chose a different path. Priori gives us the opportunity to work with people with unique perspectives.
What makes Priori attorneys stand out?
Stacy Lettie: It has to do with the vetting process Priori uses, because the people that I have had experiences with have knowledge that is head and shoulders above other options. One of the things I have noticed is that many, if not all, run their own firm or have their own business and Priori is a part of how they are making money. I think that makes a difference compared to someone who is just rolling on and off projects with no investment in the relationship. Priori’s attorneys are professionals and that affects how they approach relationships with us as a client and the projects they take on.
What are the advantages of a flexible legal talent model?
Stacy Lettie: Being flexible is terrific, especially in the economy we’re all working in. When you have restructuring or reductions and a new big project comes in, how do you staff that? It’s not a good look to pare down to make a headcount number and then spend that same money in another place by using temps. Having people who can come in and do the work efficiently within a timeframe and a budget is really helpful.
For example, we had someone from Priori that we used who could roll off projects and roll back on. Creating a relationship with someone who has that flexibility is great. That’s something we wouldn’t get from using a traditional temp agency because if we roll someone off for six months and then we need to call them back, the chance is they won’t be available. With Priori, we can have that type of recall relationship and that is valuable both to us and the attorneys we work with.
I’ve had situations where a request has come across my desk to approve 40 hours a week at ‘X’ amount of dollars an hour—usually a ridiculous amount of money—to bring in someone from a law firm. I’ll say, ‘This seems like a lot of money, I think we need to do a comparison.’ And we talk about whether we really need 40 hours a week. The truth is, in a lot of situations, bringing someone in at 20 hours a week for half the cost can get the job done. But we won’t get the option of bringing someone in for less than 40 hours a week if we go to a law firm. With Priori, we have that option.
What feedback have you received about Priori attorneys?
Stacy Lettie: I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. With one of the first attorneys I worked with through Priori, we were working on a corporate merger deal and we were short attorneys on the team. We didn’t have the time or budget to hire someone new. So, we brought in a Priori attorney who worked with us for about a year and half and she had a lot of touch points with the business. We got so much positive feedback, not only internally from the legal team but also from the business folks who she was working on the deal with. They didn’t even realize that the Priori attorney wasn’t a full-time employee!
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