ACC Value Challenge Resource Library - The 2012 ACC Value Champions

Target & Nilan Johnson Lewis P.A.

mary judgment, and up to trial). They also agreed upon flat fees for major advisory projects, on a project-by-project basis. Finally, they arrived at a significant volume-based discount on class and collective litigation or related matters. Nilan Johnson Lewis also agreed not to charge Target for various costs, including online legal research.

“We have designed a program that is not unrealistic,” Rowader says. “We don’t squeeze the firms with cost restrictions, but rather reward them for a great level of service and quality. Performance scorecards allow them to see all of our metrics, not just cost. We provide holistic feedback that helps the firms understand the importance we place on the overall working experience.”

Results have been impressive. Whereas Target’s previous costs for a single-plaintiff litigation might vary within a range of up to $200,000, the company now is able to budget for each case with certainty. Day-to-day advisory questions, which formerly ranged in cost from $3,400 to more than $15,000 a month, now can be budgeted predictably. Further, there’s the intellectual capital that is gained and shared: Target Labor and Employment Relations attorneys and paralegals are encouraged to call Nilan Johnson Lewis counsel without any concern for cost if they have a difficult discipline or termination issue, unusual leave question or thorny compliance concern.

From Nilan Johnson Lewis’s perspective, the monthly retainer and project-based flat fees allow the firm’s attorneys and paralegals a unique opportunity to learn Target’s business and become more effective partners. The firm’s attorneys become involved in significant matters at a very early stage as part of the compliance and preventative processes, and learn Target’s policies and practices from the ground up.

This also allows them to be a more effective partner in litigation.

The most significant results achieved, however, were in the reduction of legal cost. Target and Nilan Johnson Lewis monitored the amount spent in each of the areas covered by the project, and compared those figures to the amount that Target would have spent in a standard hourly arrangement. Cumulative savings over the three completed years of the project total almost $1.2 million, about 5 percent of total spend.

“We are humbled and pleased to be recognized as an ACC Value Champion,” says Rowader.

“This recognition is an indicator of a great partnership,” adds Petouvis. “We look forward to learning what other companies are doing.” vc

“We have designed a program that is not unrealistic. We don’t squeeze the firms with cost restrictions, but rather reward them for a great level of service and quality.

Performance scorecards allow them to see all of our metrics, not just cost. We provide holistic feedback that helps the firms understand the importance we place on the overall working experience.”