Are We Ready for Billing Guidelines? A Practical Roadmap for In-House Teams
Wednesday, January 28th • 12:00 PM – 1:45 PM ET
Billing guidelines can be a powerful lever for controlling outside counsel spend, improving invoice quality, and reducing the “surprise factor” that shows up at month-end—but only if they’re designed for how your legal team and firms actually operate. This session breaks down how to tell whether your team is ready, what “reasonable” guidelines look like in practice, and how to roll them out in a way that drives adoption (instead of friction).
Join us on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT as Jesse Soslow (Co-Founder, Poppy Legal) and Katie Dunne (Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel, Crate and Barrel) explore a practical, step-by-step approach to billing guidelines—from making the business case internally to communicating expectations with firms and handling the issues that inevitably arise after launch. Attendees will also receive a guide to drafting billing guidelines plus a billing guidelines template to help you move faster.
Key takeaways:
A readiness checklist: when billing guidelines will work—and when they’ll backfire
What “reasonable” looks like (and how to avoid overly rigid rules that create noise)
How to structure guidelines so they’re easy for firms to follow and easy for your team to enforce
Rollout playbooks: messaging, timing, and how to drive compliance without burning goodwill
What to do if you’re not fully ready: interim controls and quick wins you can implement now
Who Should Attend:
This program is designed for in-house legal professionals who manage outside counsel relationships and legal spend—especially legal ops leaders, in-house counsel overseeing budgets or high-volume matters, and department leaders looking to standardize billing practices across firms while maintaining strong working relationships.
