Legal Mosaic Essays on Legal Delivery

<strong>Legal</strong> <strong>Mosaic</strong>: <strong>Essays</strong> on <strong>Legal</strong> Delivery
(4) 2014: “Alternative Fee Arrangements” (“AFA’s”) became the standard
fee arrangement for Shell outside firms handling aggregated legacy
asbestos and environmental product liability cases. Result: $9M
saved as well as reduced cost of internal monitoring;
(5) 2014: Donny Ching appointed Shell’s <strong>Legal</strong> Director. Mr. Ching had
spent his entire professional career in-house at Shell, but has certainly
not been bashful about effecting additional changes in the way Shell
conducts its legal operations. Ching has already: (i) instituted an inhouse
support group to conduct research, handle training, and knowledge
management for the in-house team; (ii) proclaimed that “AFA’s
are standard, not alternative arrangements with outside counsel” (at
least for Shell), dubbing them “Appropriate Fee Arrangements”; (iii)
oversaw Shell’s 2014 divestment of over $5B of US assets and spent
less than $100,000 on outside counsel; (iv) proposed more aggressive
AFA arrangements with outside counsel (making clear that firms who
do not get with the program will count Shell as a former client); (v)
his internal team project-managed the legal side of Shell’s bid for BG,
another energy giant (serving notice that Shell’s in-house legal team
handles not just more of the company’s “routine” legal work but is
also front and center in “bet the company” M&A and litigation work).
Should it come as a surprise that Mr. Ching’s penultimate position at
Shell was GC of Projects and Technology? Clearly, the man knows
about process, efficiency, and how technology can be utilized to drive
it in the delivery of legal services.
What Does This Mean and Portend?
Shell is an example of an in-house legal team, led by powerful and business-minded
lawyers, not waiting for outside counsel to make good on
the precatory changes enunciated in the ACC’s “Value Challenge.” Instead,
Shell is exercising its client prerogative (and vast resources) to
drive change internally as well as to demand it from its outside legal
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