Sub-function
Outside Counsel Management
Owns engagement work end to end inside Legal. Runs 3 lines across 16 stations, drains the repeatable share into the LEGAL tower, and holds 4 human gates.
Estate rating
A
80 / 100
Guideline enforcement on legal invoices is exactly the kind of high-volume rules work agents do better than people. Engagement of a firm remains a human commitment.
Agents
8
Lines
3
Units / wk
8,028
Timetable vs actual
18.0h → 17.4h
Cost / unit
$8.34
was $29
Run-rate saving
$8.6M
annualized at this volume
The 8 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Outside Counsel Orchestrator
Owns the outside counsel management lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Panel Management Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of outside counsel management inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Invoice Review Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of outside counsel management inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Matter Assignment Agent
Executes the outside counsel management step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Billing Guideline Agent
Executes the outside counsel management step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Rate Negotiation Agent
Executes the outside counsel management step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Performance Scoring Agent
Executes the outside counsel management step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Legal Operations when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Outside Counsel Management Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for outside counsel management. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Redeployed into cross-function process redesign.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
Outside Counsel Management Operating Position
Draftv4Where should the autonomy ceiling for outside counsel management sit over the next four quarters, and what evidence would justify moving it?
Hold the ceiling at A3 for outside counsel management. Guideline enforcement on legal invoices is exactly the kind of high-volume rules work agents do better than people. Engagement of a firm remains a human commitment. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
86%
The challenge — Outside Counsel Management Challenger Agent
Outside Counsel Management Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 2 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 15 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per engagement stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $6k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $735k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | live |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $1077k to build controls | Override rate is 13 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $572k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | under review |
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LG10-POL-200 | Outside Counsel Management Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the engagement sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 6 agents · EU · UK | envelope | Outside Counsel Orchestrator | Director, Legal Operations | v3.8 | Active |
| LG10-POL-201 | Outside Counsel Management Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 6 agents · EU · UK | evidence | Outside Counsel Orchestrator | Director, Legal Operations | v5.8 | Active |
| LG10-POL-202 | Outside Counsel Management Escalation Rule Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. Director, Legal Operations owns the response clock. binds 6 agents · Global · EU | escalation | Outside Counsel Orchestrator | Director, Legal Operations | v4.9 | Active |
| LG10-POL-203 | Outside Counsel Management Autonomy Ceiling The ceiling for this lane is 85 on the platform scale. Guideline enforcement on legal invoices is exactly the kind of high-volume rules work agents do better than people. Engagement of a firm remains a human commitment. The ceiling is a governance decision, not a technical limit, and only Director, Legal Operations can propose moving it. binds 6 agents · US · Canada | ceiling | Outside Counsel Orchestrator | Director, Legal Operations | v2.1 | Active |