Law Firm Billing Gets Smart with Tech

For law firms to get smart about bidding on work, they need a legal management infrastructure with deep knowledge and understanding of their matters, staffing resources, billing rates and spending data. This knowledge infrastructure, or business intelligence (BI), goes beyond a stand-alone matter management application to include historical and real-time information on billing rates, invoices and costs, and incorporates a facility to calculate alternative fee arrangements and use third-party data to compare law firm metrics to the larger legal industry.

A legal management infrastructure also requires integration with existing firm systems dealing with accounting, billing, human resources, and more. Although law firm BI tools from the likes of LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer support a legal management infrastructure, the tools presuppose firm resources contain sufficient data to extract and analyze to drive law firm decisions.

Software offerings to manage the lifecycle of matters in law firms range from midsize to large firms. Offerings to manage matters in corporate legal departments are slightly different due to the nature of the corporate client. Third-party data services market to law firms and corporate clients.

Large Law Firm Systems

TyMetrix 360, by Datacert | TyMetrix, a Wolters Kluwer business, is a platform with two modules for electronic billing and matter management. The E-Billing module includes cost management features to manage outside vendors, calculate alternative fee arrangements, and manage timekeeper rates. It supports an Invoice Testing Process that automatically tests invoices against business rules that dictate the firm's best practices in matter-based rates, deal-based billing and billing caps. Once invoices pass the ITP, they are automatically routed to invoice reviewers for quality assurance.

The matter handling module in TyMetrix 360 includes matter management across all practice areas with support for matter profiles and details, dates and time lines, risk assessment, progress notes, predictions, issues, contacts, etc. Features include calendar and task management, e-mail integration, outside counsel assessment and assignment, and case planning and monitoring to resolution and closure. Matter handling supports a document management application that stores documents with matters or cases, in invoices or in a document library.

TyMetrix 360 Mobile is designed for e-billing and matter management tasks. The mobile app facilitates invoice approval and helps manage legal spending on the go. Systems and applications that TyMetrix 360 integrates with include Anaqua, IBM's Atlas eDiscovery, EMC Corp.'s Documentum, Exterro Inc.'s Fusion, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s' Autonomy Worksite, Oracle Corp.'s Peoplesoft, SAP products, and SharePoint.

3E by Thomson Reuters. The 3E Web-based system offers financial and practice management features with built-in workflow, application development and collaboration support. Each webpage in 3E allows user input and comment.

The 3E system supports financial, performance and practice management and support for mobile device input, such as time entries, and access to data analysis. The system integrates with SharePoint.

Financial management in 3e includes support for accounts payable, collections, general ledger, time tracking and trust accounting. Performance management tools allow you to set goals and evaluate operating objectives using metrics and reporting and analytical tools. Practice management support includes a conflicts search with case, records and calendar management.

3E is built on the Microsoft .NET framework that allows integration with third-party applications. With Microsoft Biztalk Server, the Elite Integration Framework enables third-party applications to collaborate with 3E and simplify business processes. Customers can also use 3E's integrated development environment to embed processes into 3E, change 3E screens, create new database tables and columns, and change business logic.

Midsize to Large'Law Firm Systems

Aderant Expert by Aderant Holdings Inc. is an integrated suite of legal software applications that help law firms manage operations to maximize profitability. Built on the Expert Framework and a Service Oriented Architecture, Expert uses standards-based technologies and support for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 R2 to give clients control to extend the product to new technologies and maintain support for existing firm infrastructure, data capture and extraction technologies.

Expert comprises modules for time and billing, financial and practice management and business intelligence and development. These modules support features for time and expense management, billing and rate management, case calendars and dockets, general ledger and accounts payable and receivable, and collections and cash management. Expert's BI module includes inquiry, reporting and analysis features to analyze firmwide performance metrics in dashboards and reports.

Redwood Analytics, also by Aderant, is a performance analytics suite of tools that analyzes financial data and metrics from multiple accounting and financial systems including general ledger, billing, payroll and human resources. It includes predictive analytics to assess alternative scenarios and calculate likely financial outcomes and results.

Analytics surfaces information on billings, collections, costs, changes in client performance and lawyer productivity into dashboard displays, customized reports and alerts to support firm growth and profitability objectives.

Orion by Orion Law Management Systems Inc. supports software modules for financial, practice and firm management. Financial management is the backbone of the Orion system. It contains numerous tools for trust accounting, general ledger, cost recovery, time management, and accounts payable and receivable, and more. Orion Practice Management supports calendar and docket management, document assemble, and contact and matter management. It integrates with Microsoft Exchange, Worldox of Office productivity tools.

Orion Firm Management goes beyond accounting and finance to support conflicts of interest, collections, marketing and business intelligence reporting. The iOrion mobile app is a native iOS app that sets up an encrypted point-to-point connection with the firm's Orion database. The mobile app includes support for contacts management, time capture, and processing receipts for reimbursement.

For law firms with software for accounting, finance, human resources, and matter management that does not interface neatly with off-the-shelf systems may develop their own software to accomplish business intelligence and AFAs. As early as 2010 Reed Smith had built its own budgeting system and workflow tools to manage the lifecycle of matters and added a home-grown collaboration system based on Microsoft SharePoint extranets called OuRSite, which allows clients to access matters and drill down to work products-documents, events, pleadings, tasks, etc. The extranet also shows attorneys and clients the budget used in relation to tasks completed.

Third-Party Data Resources

'The 2014 Real Rate Report,' by Datacert | TyMetrix, a Wolters Kluwer business and the Corporate Executive Board (CEB). The Rate Report examines law firm rates from actual rates charged on invoices submitted by legal professionals and approved for payment. The report identifies rates over time and by firm criteria and numerates variables that drive rates up or down, such as law firm size and market, lawyer experience, timekeeper role (e.g., partner, associate), practice area and industry. Although the data is collected by corporate legal departments using Datacert | TyMetix's Passport application, law firms can use the information to understand the priorities of corporate clients and gain insight into communicating with a company's decision-makers, said William Sowinski, director of decision support, Datacert | TyMetrix. The report indicates that corporate legal departments are data driven and that the growth of BI, electronic invoices and matter management has given corporations in-depth knowledge of outside counsel to compare and contrast services.

The National Law Journal's 2014 'Survey of Law Firm Economics,' by ALM Legal Intelligence. The annual survey contains law firm economic statistics and financial data. It helps measure a firm against its competitors to bill rates and hours, financials, compensation, and staffing ratios. The Survey provides a baseline to assess a firm's performance and profitability.

Peer Monitor by Thomson Reuters. Peer Monitor is a benchmarking program with access to real-time economic data from selected law firms that allows you to compare and contrast a firm's performance with its competitors. The monitor offers in-depth analysis on key metrics such as legal work demand, rates, productivity and expenses. Data is broken down by practice group, location, and timekeeper roles. Firm subscribers receive an unlimited number of user credentials to access via the Web customized dashboards with dynamic data query results in visual graphs and heat maps.

Tymetrix Legal Analytics by Datacert | TyMetrix. Legal Analytics is powered by the company's LegalVIEW data warehouse that contains data generated from actual invoices of 17,000 law firms worldwide. The offering includes analysis and insight into firm practice areas, matter types, matter phases, matter duration, staff experience and allocation, timekeepers, geography, firm size, hours, rates and fees. This offering includes regular publications of benchmarks, insights and analysis; online tools to provide customers with current market data and their performance data; and custom analytics to analyze law firm data and peer-related benchmark data to identify anomalies, patterns and trends.

Corporate Legal'Departments

Matter management software offerings for corporate legal departments differ from law firm matter management. Corporate legal departments aim to streamline legal processes with their corporate client, analyze its legal risks and reduce the company's overall legal spending. Managing matter lifecycles in corporations also calls for interfacing a procurement systems and managing outside counsel as preferred vendors. These systems differ slightly from law firm matter management systems but firms are looking at these systems for their integration with existing infrastructure.

Sean Doherty is an attorney and the Technology Editor of Law Technology News, an ALM sibling of Accounting and Financial Planning for Law Firms. Follow him on Twitter @LTNSeanDoherty.

For law firms to get smart about bidding on work, they need a legal management infrastructure with deep knowledge and understanding of their matters, staffing resources, billing rates and spending data. This knowledge infrastructure, or business intelligence (BI), goes beyond a stand-alone matter management application to include historical and real-time information on billing rates, invoices and costs, and incorporates a facility to calculate alternative fee arrangements and use third-party data to compare law firm metrics to the larger legal industry.

A legal management infrastructure also requires integration with existing firm systems dealing with accounting, billing, human resources, and more. Although law firm BI tools from the likes of LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer support a legal management infrastructure, the tools presuppose firm resources contain sufficient data to extract and analyze to drive law firm decisions.

Software offerings to manage the lifecycle of matters in law firms range from midsize to large firms. Offerings to manage matters in corporate legal departments are slightly different due to the nature of the corporate client. Third-party data services market to law firms and corporate clients.

Large Law Firm Systems

TyMetrix 360, by Datacert | TyMetrix, a Wolters Kluwer business, is a platform with two modules for electronic billing and matter management. The E-Billing module includes cost management features to manage outside vendors, calculate alternative fee arrangements, and manage timekeeper rates. It supports an Invoice Testing Process that automatically tests invoices against business rules that dictate the firm's best practices in matter-based rates, deal-based billing and billing caps. Once invoices pass the ITP, they are automatically routed to invoice reviewers for quality assurance.

The matter handling module in TyMetrix 360 includes matter management across all practice areas with support for matter profiles and details, dates and time lines, risk assessment, progress notes, predictions, issues, contacts, etc. Features include calendar and task management, e-mail integration, outside counsel assessment and assignment, and case planning and monitoring to resolution and closure. Matter handling supports a document management application that stores documents with matters or cases, in invoices or in a document library.

TyMetrix 360 Mobile is designed for e-billing and matter management tasks. The mobile app facilitates invoice approval and helps manage legal spending on the go. Systems and applications that TyMetrix 360 integrates with include Anaqua, IBM's Atlas eDiscovery, EMC Corp.'s Documentum, Exterro Inc.'s Fusion, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s' Autonomy Worksite, Oracle Corp.'s Peoplesoft, SAP products, and SharePoint.

3E by Thomson Reuters. The 3E Web-based system offers financial and practice management features with built-in workflow, application development and collaboration support. Each webpage in 3E allows user input and comment.

The 3E system supports financial, performance and practice management and support for mobile device input, such as time entries, and access to data analysis. The system integrates with SharePoint.

Financial management in 3e includes support for accounts payable, collections, general ledger, time tracking and trust accounting. Performance management tools allow you to set goals and evaluate operating objectives using metrics and reporting and analytical tools. Practice management support includes a conflicts search with case, records and calendar management.

3E is built on the Microsoft .NET framework that allows integration with third-party applications. With Microsoft Biztalk Server, the Elite Integration Framework enables third-party applications to collaborate with 3E and simplify business processes. Customers can also use 3E's integrated development environment to embed processes into 3E, change 3E screens, create new database tables and columns, and change business logic.

Midsize to Large'Law Firm Systems

Aderant Expert by Aderant Holdings Inc. is an integrated suite of legal software applications that help law firms manage operations to maximize profitability. Built on the Expert Framework and a Service Oriented Architecture, Expert uses standards-based technologies and support for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 R2 to give clients control to extend the product to new technologies and maintain support for existing firm infrastructure, data capture and extraction technologies.

Expert comprises modules for time and billing, financial and practice management and business intelligence and development. These modules support features for time and expense management, billing and rate management, case calendars and dockets, general ledger and accounts payable and receivable, and collections and cash management. Expert's BI module includes inquiry, reporting and analysis features to analyze firmwide performance metrics in dashboards and reports.

Redwood Analytics, also by Aderant, is a performance analytics suite of tools that analyzes financial data and metrics from multiple accounting and financial systems including general ledger, billing, payroll and human resources. It includes predictive analytics to assess alternative scenarios and calculate likely financial outcomes and results.

Analytics surfaces information on billings, collections, costs, changes in client performance and lawyer productivity into dashboard displays, customized reports and alerts to support firm growth and profitability objectives.

Orion by Orion Law Management Systems Inc. supports software modules for financial, practice and firm management. Financial management is the backbone of the Orion system. It contains numerous tools for trust accounting, general ledger, cost recovery, time management, and accounts payable and receivable, and more. Orion Practice Management supports calendar and docket management, document assemble, and contact and matter management. It integrates with Microsoft Exchange, Worldox of Office productivity tools.

Orion Firm Management goes beyond accounting and finance to support conflicts of interest, collections, marketing and business intelligence reporting. The iOrion mobile app is a native iOS app that sets up an encrypted point-to-point connection with the firm's Orion database. The mobile app includes support for contacts management, time capture, and processing receipts for reimbursement.

For law firms with software for accounting, finance, human resources, and matter management that does not interface neatly with off-the-shelf systems may develop their own software to accomplish business intelligence and AFAs. As early as 2010 Reed Smith had built its own budgeting system and workflow tools to manage the lifecycle of matters and added a home-grown collaboration system based on Microsoft SharePoint extranets called OuRSite, which allows clients to access matters and drill down to work products-documents, events, pleadings, tasks, etc. The extranet also shows attorneys and clients the budget used in relation to tasks completed.

Third-Party Data Resources

'The 2014 Real Rate Report,' by Datacert | TyMetrix, a Wolters Kluwer business and the Corporate Executive Board (CEB). The Rate Report examines law firm rates from actual rates charged on invoices submitted by legal professionals and approved for payment. The report identifies rates over time and by firm criteria and numerates variables that drive rates up or down, such as law firm size and market, lawyer experience, timekeeper role (e.g., partner, associate), practice area and industry. Although the data is collected by corporate legal departments using Datacert | TyMetix's Passport application, law firms can use the information to understand the priorities of corporate clients and gain insight into communicating with a company's decision-makers, said William Sowinski, director of decision support, Datacert | TyMetrix. The report indicates that corporate legal departments are data driven and that the growth of BI, electronic invoices and matter management has given corporations in-depth knowledge of outside counsel to compare and contrast services.

The National Law Journal's 2014 'Survey of Law Firm Economics,' by ALM Legal Intelligence. The annual survey contains law firm economic statistics and financial data. It helps measure a firm against its competitors to bill rates and hours, financials, compensation, and staffing ratios. The Survey provides a baseline to assess a firm's performance and profitability.

Peer Monitor by Thomson Reuters. Peer Monitor is a benchmarking program with access to real-time economic data from selected law firms that allows you to compare and contrast a firm's performance with its competitors. The monitor offers in-depth analysis on key metrics such as legal work demand, rates, productivity and expenses. Data is broken down by practice group, location, and timekeeper roles. Firm subscribers receive an unlimited number of user credentials to access via the Web customized dashboards with dynamic data query results in visual graphs and heat maps.

Tymetrix Legal Analytics by Datacert | TyMetrix. Legal Analytics is powered by the company's LegalVIEW data warehouse that contains data generated from actual invoices of 17,000 law firms worldwide. The offering includes analysis and insight into firm practice areas, matter types, matter phases, matter duration, staff experience and allocation, timekeepers, geography, firm size, hours, rates and fees. This offering includes regular publications of benchmarks, insights and analysis; online tools to provide customers with current market data and their performance data; and custom analytics to analyze law firm data and peer-related benchmark data to identify anomalies, patterns and trends.

Corporate Legal'Departments

Matter management software offerings for corporate legal departments differ from law firm matter management. Corporate legal departments aim to streamline legal processes with their corporate client, analyze its legal risks and reduce the company's overall legal spending. Managing matter lifecycles in corporations also calls for interfacing a procurement systems and managing outside counsel as preferred vendors. These systems differ slightly from law firm matter management systems but firms are looking at these systems for their integration with existing infrastructure.

Sean Doherty is an attorney and the Technology Editor of Law Technology News, an ALM sibling of Accounting and Financial Planning for Law Firms. Follow him on Twitter @LTNSeanDoherty.