Dive Brief:
- With today's growing layers of compliance and government regulation, HR leaders are encountering rising legal expenses. One employer, Indianapolis-based hhgregg, decided it had enough, racking up more than $70,000 a month in employment-related legal expenses.
- According to an article at Indiana Lawyer, the consumer appliance and electronics retailer went the request for proposal (RFP) route to cut costs and improve service, eventually choosing Ogletree Deakins, the national law firm. Charlie Young, CHRO at hhgregg, told Indiana Lawyer that Ogletree Deakins had everything his company wanted.
- For the law firm's part, the hhgregg deal represented a very different strategy for the way law firms typically work and charge fees. It collaborated with hhgregg to create “OD Advantage,” a flat-fee agreement for legal and employment services that the firm launched 15 years ago.
Dive Insight:
Put simply, the new arrangement made it much easier for hhgregg to get its employment law questions answered, according to the article. Ogletree Deakins provided information for HR managers and employees when they needed it and solutions for both the company and workers that could help both sides avoid litigation.
From the start, the program met with success. Questions were resolved in a matter of minutes instead of eight to nine days, employment claims dropped by 60% and litigation fell by 74%. More importantly, Hhgregg’s settlement amount is 27% of the national average. Cost-wise, hhgregg is spending 44% less by taking advantage of Ogletree Deakins' "value-based and volume-based pricing."
While Ogletree Deakins' program is not new for the firm, the bundling of services may be "the future of law, especially in larger legal matters such as those faced by hhgregg," according to Chuck Baldwin, managing director at Ogletree Deakins in Indianapolis, who worked with hhgregg.
