How Legal Departments are Turning RFPs into Strategic Levers
At the CLOC Global Institute 2025 Workshop, “The ABCs of RFPs: From Panel Creation to Project Bidding and More,” some of the most respected voices in legal operations and corporate legal departments came together to reframe a foundational but often under-leveraged tool: the RFP. The goal? Rethink the traditional RFP not as a tactical box-checking exercise, but as a strategic lever for departments looking to drive more impact.
Basha Rubin, CEO of Priori, opened with a striking insight: while 76% of legal departments identify RFPs as a top cost-control method, fewer than 25% use a legal-specific RFP tool. That gap points to a massive opportunity. When done right, RFPs do a lot more than uncover competitive rates—they surface innovation, clarify firm capabilities, and bring discipline and data to outside counsel management.
Across each speaker, one consistent theme emerged: how you run your RFP is just as important as who you choose.
Panel RFPs: From Rosters to Relationships
Panel RFPs remain a go-to sourcing strategy, and Erik Perez of Shell shared how to turn them into something more meaningful. At Shell, panel formation begins with careful segmentation (by practice area, geography, or risk level) and focuses on quality over quantity. A quality panel, Perez noted, helps legal teams form deeper relationships with a smaller group of firms who truly understand the business and can scale their support.
He also stressed the importance of refresh cycles driven by performance, not the calendar. Too many panels, he warned, go stale because they are refreshed on autopilot. Instead, Shell reviews panels when internal priorities shift, regulations change, or performance gaps emerge. By keeping panel evaluation flexible and feedback-rich, legal teams maintain control, increase responsiveness, and stay aligned with broader business goals.
This approach repositions panel RFPs as strategic governance tools, rather than static procurement exercises—a mindset shift that elevates how legal departments manage outside counsel over time.
Matter-Level RFPs: Quick Wins, Lasting Impact
Matter-level RFPs, targeted RFPs for individual legal matters, are where many teams can realize the greatest short-term gains. Todd Rovner of RTX explained that while some stakeholders view matters as too minor or too complex for an RFP, the sweet spot lies in the middle: repeatable, moderately scoped matters that allow for true firm comparison.
He recommended starting small—perhaps with employment litigation or standard commercial disputes—and using RFIs (Requests for Information) to ease stakeholders into the process. Starting small and showing internal stakeholders the clear wins, like better pricing and clearer expectations, can help build momentum for broader RFP adoption.
Ewa Bogucki of Cargill added tactical advice for making matter-level RFPs more effective. Too often, she said, legal departments rely on bloated templates filled with generic or duplicative questions. This leads to information overload and inconsistent responses. Instead, she advocated for question banks tailored by matter type and pricing model—e.g., a phased-fee template for litigation or a fixed-fee structure for internal investigations.
When legal departments offer firms clear scope, structured templates, and reasonable expectations, the resulting proposals are more actionable—and easier to compare.
Writing Better RFP Questions: Getting the Information You Actually Need
One of the most overlooked aspects of an effective RFP is the quality of the questions you ask. Poorly worded or overly broad questions frustrate firms, lead to unhelpful responses, and slow down evaluations. Good RFP questions, on the other hand, deliver focused, relevant, and comparable information.
So what separates good from bad?
Good RFP questions not only clarify the firm’s approach—they reveal their priorities, creativity, and understanding of your needs. Good RFP questions often are:
- Specific and clearly tied to the matter at hand
- Free of ambiguity and redundancy
- Designed to eclicit measurable, actionable insights
- Prompting firms to provide concrete examples
Poor RFP questions, by contrast, often:
- Are too vague (“Describe your firm’s experience”)
- Ask for overly general or duplicative information
- Require significant effort without a clear evaluative benefit
- Fail to differentiate one firm from another
Ewa Bogucki recommended building a modular library of vetted, matter-type-specific questions—including reusable core questions on topics like staffing, pricing models, client service philosophy, and innovation. Maintaining this kind of library keeps your RFPs efficient, consistent, and aligned with your goals.
The golden rule? Ask only what you need, and make it easy for firms to answer well.
Related: 35 Sample Questions to Ask in Your Next RFP
Getting Buy-In: Building the Internal and External Case
A recurring topic throughout the day was how to get stakeholders on board with RFP adoption. As both Erik Perez and Ewa Bogucki shared, it’s not just about having the right process, it’s about telling the right story.
- Attorneys need to see RFPs not as roadblocks, but as tools that make their lives easier. Show them how plug-and-play templates, centralized resources, and clear wins make their lives easier—and they’ll become champions.
- Senior leadership responds to metrics: cost predictability, outside counsel performance and the ability to compare vendors across legal and business dimensions. Tie RFPs to these outcomes and you’ll gain lasting support.
- For law firms, fairness and transparency are critical. Set clear expectations up front, from evaluation criteria and submission formats to Q&A timelines and feedback, to build trust, encourage strong participation, and improve the overall quality of firm proposals.
Ultimately, legal ops acts as the conductor, coordinating attorneys, leadership, and vendors toward a more strategic sourcing model.
The Law Firm Perspective: What Happens After You Hit Send
Lindsay Gotwald of Faegre Drinker pulled back the curtain on the law firm response process, and the numbers alone were eye-opening. Her team handles 250+ formal RFPs and 400+ pitches annually, supported by 3.5 dedicated RFP professionals, plus contributors from pricing, innovation, finance, and practice leadership. The average internal cost per response? Anywhere from $25,000 to $140,000 depending on complexity.
Because of this investment, firms are highly selective. Gotwald explained how her team scores incoming RFPs internally, assessing whether the opportunity is strategic, the process fair, and the outcome worth the effort. If a request lacks clarity, appears to be rate-driven, or feels like a renewal negotiation in disguise, they may choose not to participate at all.
Her advice to in-house teams:
- Be transparent about how proposals will be scored
- Share timelines for key decisions and next steps
- Always offer feedback, regardless of the outcome
When legal departments treat firms as partners in the process—and not just vendors—both sides benefit. Clear, respectful, well-run RFPs generate better proposals, deeper alignment, and stronger relationships.
Pricing & Live Auctions: Tools, Not Silver Bullets
One of the more debated RFP tools discussed was the live auction—a live bidding process where firms submit pricing against one another in real time. Dayna Trautwein of Stryker led this session with a nuanced take: live auctions can work, but only under the right conditions.
When properly structured, live auctions can reduce legal costs by up to 20%, especially for commoditized or well-scoped matters. Poorly structured auctions can damage firm relationships.
A key insight: the level of pricing transparency during the auction has minimal impact on savings outcomes. In fact, data shows little variance in cost reduction across the three common visibility models:
- Rankings Only: Firms know how they rank, not what others bid
- Total Price: Firms see the lowest total bid
- Full-Phased Pricing: Firms see a breakdown of bids by task or phase
Trautwein advised teams to choose the model that best fits their relationship strategy and matter complexity, not just their savings target. She also stressed the importance of pre-qualifying firms, aligning on scope beforehand, and running auctions with clear rules, fair timing, and global participation in mind. Used judiciously, live auctions can drive both savings and structure—but they are no substitute for strategic firm engagement.
Evaluation & Feedback: Turning Insight Into Impact
The final theme of the workshop focused on evaluating proposals with intention. As Todd Rovner highlighted, too many legal departments default to subjective or price-only decision-making. A more effective model? Weighted scoring frameworks that quantify what truly matters.
Legal ops teams can define evaluation categories—like pricing, expertise, diversity, or tech enablement—and assign each a percentage weight. Proposals are then scored on a standard scale (1–5 or 1–10), allowing for an apples-to-apples comparison.
From the workshop exercise and participant commentary, common evaluation criteria include:
- Cost consciousness: Is the firm thoughtful about efficiency?
- Budget accuracy: Does the proposal align with expectations and include assumptions?
- Timeliness: How reliable is the proposed timeline?
- Expertise: Is the team appropriately staffed and qualified?
- Actionability: Is the guidance usable by the business?
- Ease of doing business: Billing, collaboration, and compliance with guidelines
- Diversity and inclusion: Team composition and firm commitments
- Technology & AI: Use of tools to drive performance and transparency
- Strategic fit: Alignment with the company’s industry, values, and objectives
- Innovation: Are firms offering fresh ideas or added value?
For less complex matters, a qualitative review may suffice. But for high-stakes work, a multi-round or tiered process—starting with an RFI or initial pricing pass and ending with interviews—can improve outcomes. The golden rule: define your criteria, communicate them upfront, and stick to them.
The Big Takeaway
Across every speaker, one truth became clear: RFPs are no longer administrative exercises.
Handled strategically, RFPs help legal teams:
- Find the right partners
- Set clearer expectations
- Drive innovation
- Measure performance more effectively
Legal operations teams are at the center of this transformation—turning legacy procurement models into disciplined, data-backed, and relationship-oriented sourcing engines.
Done right, RFPs don’t just help legal teams do more with less. They help legal teams do better—with better outcomes, better partners, and better alignment with the business.
Ready to take your RFP process to the next level? Download our guide, “The ABCs of RFPs: Best Practices for Effective Legal RFPs,” for actionable templates, expert tips, and proven strategies to run smarter, more strategic RFPs.
