CLOC Solution Lab: The 2026 Legal Ops Playbook for Outside Counsel Rate Control presented by PERSUIT

Rate season feels like a negotiation problem. It isn't. By the time your team is at the table with outside counsel, the structural decisions that determine your cost trajectory have already been made, or left unmade. 

In this session, PERSUIT brings together the data and operational frameworks legal ops professionals need to stop playing defense on rates and start building systems that deliver durable cost control. 

Drawing on findings from PERSUIT's 2026 Global Outside Counsel Rate Trends Report, which analyzed rate patterns across hundreds of law departments, we'll unpack why standard rates have overtaken discounts as the primary driver of spend, why double-digit increases are no longer isolated to elite firms, and what legal ops teams are actually doing differently to get ahead of it. 

What you'll walk away with: 

• A framework for rate governance as a year-round operational discipline, not an annual event 

• Practical guidance on panel design and timekeeper management to reduce concentration risk and structural inflation 

• The data infrastructure you need, including benchmarking, billing analytics, and approval workflows, to negotiate from a position of strength 

• How to align rate governance programs across legal, finance, and procurement to drive lasting accountability 

Whether you're building your rate strategy from scratch or looking to sharpen what you have, this session will give you the operational playbook to take ownership of one of legal's biggest cost levers in 2026.