Drafts, reviews, and maintains outside counsel guidelines (OCGs) — the operational document that sets expectations for how external law firms bill, staff, communicate, and deliver legal services. OCGs are the single lowest-cost, highest-impact intervention available to an in-house legal ops function. 60% of in-house teams don't have them. Of the 40% that do, 87% barely enforce them. This skill encodes the methodology for building OCGs calibrated to the team's maturity level and producing the internal business case to get them adopted.
engagement-terms-billing-guidelines
OCM Skills Plugin — Skill 1 of 8
Status: Complete — Phase 1 and Phase 2 tested
What this skill does
Drafts, reviews, and maintains outside counsel guidelines (OCGs) — the operational document that sets expectations for how external law firms bill, staff, communicate, and deliver legal services.
OCGs are the single lowest-cost, highest-impact intervention available to an in-house legal ops function. 60% of in-house teams don't have them. Of the 40% that do, 87% barely enforce them. This skill encodes the methodology for building OCGs calibrated to the team's maturity level and producing the internal business case to get them adopted.
Modes
| Mode | Trigger | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Draft OCG | "Draft billing guidelines" / "We don't have billing guidelines" / "Write an OCG" | OCG document + GC Briefing Note + cover email |
| 2 — Review and Gap Analysis | "Review our guidelines" / "What's missing from our OCG" | Gap Analysis + GC Briefing Note |
| 3 — Targeted Update | "Update the AI clause" / "Add D&I requirements" / "Strengthen the rate review terms" | Replacement section text + GC Note |
| 4 — Internal Business Case | "GC briefing on billing guidelines" / "How do I get buy-in for OCGs" | GC Decision Memo |
Key design decisions
Maturity calibration. Output length, component coverage, and enforcement intensity are driven by maturity level (Early / Intermediate / Advanced). An Early-stage team gets a concise, collaborative OCG. An Advanced team gets comprehensive provisions with formal enforcement. Start low — escalating maturity is easier than retreating from terms firms have already pushed back on.
15-component framework. Gap analysis (Mode 2) assesses against a structured best-practice framework covering rate governance, billing format, prohibited fees, staffing, AI transparency, D&I, and more. Item-level assessment, not an overall score — the user needs to know which specific provisions to fix.
GC-facing output in every mode. Every mode produces both the operational document and the GC/leadership-facing document. The user needs the tool and the internal case for using it.
AI billing clause. All maturity levels include AI policy provisions. 59% of in-house counsel don't know whether firms are using AI on their matters. The OCG is where disclosure requirements and AI billing rules get established.
Existing OCG routing. If the user provides existing OCGs, the skill defaults to Mode 2 (gap analysis) even if they say "help me draft guidelines." Improving what exists is faster and less disruptive than starting from scratch.
Placement in the OCM lifecycle
| Stage | Skill |
|---|---|
| Billing rules | engagement-terms-billing-guidelines (Skill 1) ← this skill |
| Panel design | panel-design-selection (Skill 2) |
| Firm selection | rfp-pitch-management (Skill 3) |
| Fee arrangements | fee-arrangement-structuring (Skill 4) |
| Matter instruction | matter-allocation-instruction (Skill 5) |
| Invoice review | invoice-review-compliance (Skill 6) |
| Performance management | performance-scorecard (Skill 7) |
| Panel review | panel-review-rationalisation (Skill 8) |
Cross-skill connections
| Skill | Connection |
|---|---|
| fee-arrangement-structuring (Skill 4) | OCG sets AFA policy preferences. Skill 4 designs the specific arrangement for a matter. |
| matter-allocation-instruction (Skill 5) | OCG is the standing document; the matter instruction references it per engagement. |
| invoice-review-compliance (Skill 6) | OCG defines the rules that invoice review enforces. Weak OCG = nothing to measure against. |
| performance-scorecard (Skill 7) | OCG compliance rate is a scorecard metric. Scorecard identifies non-compliance → OCG update strengthens the provision. |
| panel-review-rationalisation (Skill 8) | OCG adherence is a panel retention criterion. |
Testing
Phase 1 and Phase 2 test prompts and assertion sets are in the build log.
Files
engagement-terms-billing-guidelines/SKILL.md— skill instructionsengagement-terms-billing-guidelines-README.md— this document
Licence
Apache 2.0 — LegalOps Consulting Limited