Congratulations! You have implemented a legal spend management solution, the legal department is saving money, and legal spend metrics are starting to positively impact department processes. Breaking legal spend into fees and costs, viewing information by firm and case, and identifying trends have never been easier with the new system in place.
Decades ago, as the data revolution gained momentum, the legal industry lagged behind other industries in mining data for analytics. This was, in part, because the legal industry is notoriously conservative and slow to change. Also, legal data was thought to be too variable in nature—making predictions based on historical statistics would be difficult because outcomes and measurables are on a case-by-case basis. But the main reason why the legal industry was late to the data revolution was that law firms had their own unique billing habits, which made comparisons across firms impossible. There was a need for a common, unifying language and method for tracking legal spend.
To our clients, partners, families, and friends all around the world: Thank you for your help in making this year successful and memorable. We hope that you join us in celebrating the merriment of this holly, jolly season, and we wish you all a happy and prosperous 2017.
From our family to yours, Happy Holidays!
First impressions are important. When it comes to creating legal spend management software, it’s easy to say that achieving success starts with a well-thought-out design, but what does that actually mean? A users’ experience within the application is vital to its success. Here are three concepts I keep in mind while designing.
Most General Counsel or Risk Managers have probably considered implementing an ebilling solution for help with managing legal spend. If you have, you’re probably familiar with just how many challenges the implementation of such solutions can present, and how difficult those challenges may be to overcome.
Hourly billing is the most common fee arrangement you will encounter when working with law firms. The concept of a “billable hour” can seem a bit strange at first, especially for clients more accustomed to dealing with other professions.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and we wanted to take a moment to appreciate the things that matter most to us.
The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) is the most widely used electronic data transmission standard in the legal industry. If your organization receives bills electronically from your law firms, there's a very good chance the firms are using LEDES. The LEDES standard has undergone several revisions over the years, but the most commonly used and easily accessed version is LEDES 1998B.
Relationships with outside counsel have taken on increased scrutiny as companies become more focused on the administration of their legal departments in addition to the legal work they do. General counsel are looking more closely at the law firms they hire, what they pay those firms, and the outcomes of the cases they’ve handled.
Alternative fee agreements (AFAs), which include all fee agreements that are not based purely on hourly rates, are being used more frequently by companies as an effective tool to manage their legal spend. When law firms bill on an hourly basis, costs can often get out of control and AFAs help keep legal bills more predictable and offer the clients additional benefits.
