From Email Threads and Memory to a Structured Process
Before Priori, the legal department managed outside counsel selection through largely manual processes, coordinating RFPs over email and tracking responses in spreadsheets. Attorneys relied on institutional knowledge, peer recommendations, and past experience to evaluate firms, but meaningful comparisons across providers were slow and difficult. As a result, hiring decisions were often driven by relationships rather than any real evaluation.
The challenge was compounded by the size of the department’s network. Knowledge about which firms were approved for which types of work lived informally across teams, making it hard for attorneys to quickly find the right firm for a matter. Too many questions had to be routed through legal operations.
The department needed a centralized, easy-to-use system that would bring transparency to outside counsel selection and give attorneys the information they needed to hire with confidence.
Organizing a Global Firm Network
The department adopted Priori to bring structure, visibility, and consistency to its global roster of firms. The team implemented a tagging structure that segments firms by practice area, geography, and other key criteria, so attorneys can see at a glance which firms are approved for specific types of matters.
Legal operations also built curated firm lists tailored to different teams and practice groups and shared them directly within the platform, streamlining firm discovery. And the department invited its preferred firms to build detailed experience profiles in Priori, giving attorneys richer insight into each firm’s expertise, representative matters, and areas of specialization, alongside internal feedback from colleagues who have worked with them.
Attorneys Running Their Own RFPs
What surprised the team most after launch was how quickly the platform’s intuitive design drove adoption of RFP functionality. Legal operations initially expected only moderate use, but attorneys began launching RFPs independently, often without formal training or help from legal operations.
The team runs RFPs for matters of varying sizes, using both competitive processes and single-firm sourcing events. Even when only one firm is engaged, running the process through Priori centralizes engagement data and keeps selection structured and documented.
Using Market Visibility to Sharpen Pricing
The department also uses Priori’s Live Auction feature opportunistically. When a firm consistently prices above market, a live auction gives it direct visibility into how other firms are pricing similar work, encouraging more competitive proposals without the team having to negotiate every line item manually.
What the Department Gained
A Structured Roster Across Hundreds of Firms
A consistent tagging structure and curated lists make a complex global network navigable, so attorneys can quickly identify approved firms for any matter.
Attorney Self-Service
Attorneys can launch RFPs on their own, reducing the load on legal operations and removing a central bottleneck.
Better-Informed Hiring Decisions
Firm experience profiles and internal feedback give attorneys objective information to weigh alongside relationships and past experience.
Centralized Engagement Data
Competitive and single-firm sourcing events alike are captured in one place, creating a documented record of how and why firms are selected.
More Competitive Pricing
Live Auctions and side-by-side proposal comparisons give the team leverage with firms that price above market.
Where Sourcing Goes From Here
What began as a way to organize outside counsel information has become the foundation for how the department sources legal work. With its network centralized and attorneys comfortable running their own processes, the team is positioned to bring more matters through structured RFPs and build an increasingly data-driven view of firm performance and pricing.
