Association of Corporate Counsel Recognizes Seyfarth Shaw Among 2012 “ACC Value Champions”

Contacts: 
Brian Kiefer, Director of Public Relations
(312) 460-6401, bkiefer@seyfarth.com

Ivette Delgado, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, idelgado@seyfarth.com

Seyfarth Shaw and Client Rockwell Collins Team Up, Earn Inaugural “Value Champion” Honor

CHICAGO (June 21, 2012) — The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) announced today that Seyfarth Shaw LLP and its client Rockwell Collins have been recognized as 2012 “ACC Value Champions” for their collaboration in making a difference for their organizations through creativity and value-based legal management skills.

A component of the ACC Value Challenge, this new program recognized five law departments and seven law department/law firm collaborations that delivered substantial value to their client organizations by cutting spending, improving predictability and achieving better legal outcomes.

Seyfarth Shaw was recognized for joining forces with Rockwell Collins to reengineer how its legal department selects, engages, manages and evaluates outside counsel while employing "Lean Six Sigma" to drive efficiency in-house along the way.

“We are happy to celebrate Rockwell Collins and Seyfarth Shaw for implementing initiatives to affect positive change within their respective organizations,” explained Veta T. Richardson, President & CEO of ACC. “The reengineering process they undertook showed impressive results, and we appreciate that they developed – and shared – simple tools that others can adopt to support their value-focused initiatives.”

“We’ve been able to better align our outside counsel interests with those of our corporation,” said Gary Chadick, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Rockwell Collins. “In the short time we’ve been using these alternative fee arrangements, we’ve realized significant cost savings while also improving our relationships with law firms.”

“Working with Gary Chadick and the amazing lawyers and staff in the Rockwell Collins Legal Department was an inspiring engagement for Seyfarth,” noted Lisa Damon, chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s Labor & Employment Department. “We witnessed their team work closely together, as they reinvented the way they collaborate internally and with their outside counsel. We also admired their focus on achieving superb outcomes for Rockwell, while managing costs, creating efficiencies and increasing value. Gary's vision and relentless focus were clearly the catalyst and drivers for success.”

With an emphasis on ensuring that client expectations - not hourly-based legal spend - drive the legal services equation, the 2012 ACC Value Champions nomination process elicited significant initiatives that improved the cost efficiency of the legal function, both in-house and in partnership with outside counsel.

A panel drawn from the ACC Value Challenge Steering Committee reviewed 61 nominations as submitted by law departments and/or sections within organizations, along with law firm practice groups, from around the world. Visit www.acc.com/valuechampions for additional details.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 800 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as internationally in London. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate and real estate. The firm’s clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, and our practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the economy. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com .