The LEDES Board has ratified the GRC UTBMS Code set developed more than a year ago. The new codes are available here on UTBMS.com.
Mitratech (Also) Acquires CaseTrack
CaseTrack, by Economic Analysis Group, has been acquired by Mitratech.
This acquisition, the latest in a dizzying 2015 acquisition schedule by Mitratech, brings yet another ELM product within the Mitratech ELM system portfolio.
Back on the Board!
I am happy to announce that I have been reelected to the LEDES Oversight Committee Board of Directors and will be filling the position of Vice President.
Major Award for GettingContractsDone
GettingContractsDone (“GCD”) has been named a PC Magazine Editor’s Choice solution for 2015. Legal solutions seldom receive this kind of attention from the tech mags, so this is a huge deal.
GCD is among the Bridgeway portfolio suite of products acquired earlier this summer by Mitratech.
My congratulations on this important award go out to Cathi Collins, the current LEDES Oversight Committee President, who was the driving force behind the conception and development of the product, and who has been primarily responsible for its sales and support.
Bridgeway Acquired
Mitratech announced today that it has acquired Bridgeway Software, who provides LawManager, eCounsel, Corridor, Secretariat and Getting Contracts Done (among other systems).
This acquisition expands Mitratech’s suite of top-line ELM products, which already includes TeamConnect, Collaborati and Lawtrac.
We are anxious to see how this acquisition proceeds. It was reassuring to learn that Mitratech has a plan for the different products in their portfolio.
New LEDES Standard Initiative
The LEDES Oversight Committee has formed a development subcommittee to consider UTBMS codes for Mergers & Acquisitions transactions. Go to LEDES,org for more information on how to volunteer for this important initiative.
Sky Analytics Acquired
It was announced today that Sky Analytics has been acquired by Huron Consulting Group. Sky’s business analytics platform is added to Huron’s legal products and services portfolio that includes eDiscovery and contract management solutions.
This is a very good move for Sky. By remaining product agnostic, the acquisition keeps open a much larger potential marketplace than if Sky had gone to one of the matter management/ebilling solution vendors.
See You At Legal Tech!
GLE founder Jane Bennitt will attend Legal Tech in February.
On Tuesday 3 Feb Jane will speak at an ILTA-track session with current LEDES Oversight Committee President Cathi Collins. The session will be an open forum where the audience is encouraged to speak about what is right or wrong with ebilling today. Our intent is to frankly discuss ebilling, see if there are projects that should be undertaken by the LOC, and to set priorities. The session will be held at 12:30 in the Mercury Ballroom.
The LOC annual members meeting is on Wednesday 4 Feb and is open to the general public, not just LOC members.
Other than these commitments, we are setting up meetings during the show. As a rule, Legal Tech meetings are free, so take advantage of this opportunity to talk with GLE about your issues, concerns and needs. See you there!
Seasons Greetings 2014
Twenty Years In – Reflections on Ebilling
My 20th anniversary in ebilling has come and gone and I think it worthwhile to reflect back on the industry.
In 1994 law firms didn’t use Windows. Heck, some legal finance people didn’t use a mouse until after 2000! TyMetrix’s founder believed there had to be a way for law departments to understand their legal spend. We worked on the prototype system and held back until the ABA/ACCA UTBMS Codes were released. We installed the system at the first 13 firms before the end of 1995. I spent most of 1996 on the road and by May more than 220 firms had been on-boarded. We quickly learned that law firms would not provide electronic billing data unless it was tied to payment of their invoices so, after some redesign, we began receiving invoices in August of 1996 electronically using the model still used today for ebilling.
Once the LEDES 98B format was released, it was amazing to see so many new system offerings. We were the only company operating with a business model that required professionals from within the client company to review invoices. And how fortunate for us. As State Bar Associations issued ethics opinions about breach of confidentiality when invoices are released to third parties for review (intended to crush legal ebilling altogether), our business model ensured no breach of confidentiality would occur.
On the client side, streamlining the receipt, review and payment of invoices within the system made for a much more efficient process. While some matter information was necessary to administer ebilling, by adding more fulsome matter management functionality there would be far greater ability to manipulate the paid billing data, especially if we included information on how a matter was resolved. System functionality absolutely exploded with the addition of budgeting, case planning, timekeeper and rate management, scorecarding, accruals, global features, etc. It was dizzying expanding in so many directions in so short a period.
I can wax nostalgic about this period because there were many visionaries working on solutions. Really, there were a lot of smart people involved. Many of the ebilling third-party vendor solutions have been sold, and the new owners focus on retaining clients and increasing market-share. Today I see many caretakers, not innovators. Except for adding BI and cross-industry metrics, not much has changed with these systems in the past decade. And much of the functionality provided for law firms is shameful.
In the past few years there have been a couple new takes on ebilling: project management with ebilling features (like OnIt or AlignMatters), or Viewabill’s real-time connection to WIP. But mainstream legal ebilling exists much the same as it did in 2000.
It’s time to throw out the ebilling playbook and reenvision the industry. If this is on your roadmap, I would be thrilled to help.