On My Departure from the LEDES Board

Posted on by in LEDES Oversight Committee

This was distributed last week to LEDES members regarding my decision to not run for the LEDES board in 2014:

“… After leading this organization since 2006, I decided not to run for the Board  again this year.    The principal reason is a rule in our by-laws that states that, after the maximum number of consecutive years of service, a Board member must drop off the Board and is not eligible to rerun for a 2 year period.  Although I have not reached my maximum number of years of service, if I choose not to run this year, I will be eligible to rerun again next year.  I believe any rule that limits the participation of members in a voluntary organization is arbitrary and ridiculous especially at a time when the ability of members to volunteer is so limited.  Nonetheless, instead of attempting to change the rule for my own purposes, I have chosen to follow it.

During my tenure as President both the organization and our discipline have evolved significantly.  The LEDES ebilling standards are now globally recognized as industry-specific EDI standards for electronic invoicing.  This is a really big deal!   The LOC leads the industry in creating and updating UTBMS standards, with the release of the Patent, Trademark, revised Project, eDiscovery, revised Activity and Expense codes and with two other UTBMS projects underway.  We established utbms.com as the definitive resource for finding information on all known UTBMS standards, and added the ability to “Contact LEDES” or “Contact UTBMS” on our web sites.  Participation by the LOC has been sought in a number of global and industry-wide efforts, most notably the Jackson project in the UK.

I am immensely proud of the achievements of this organization and believe our success is based on three things.  One of the basic tenets of the organization is that no single constituency within our membership drives the conversation in the creation of standards, each perspective is given equal voice.   This, coupled with the  independence of the organization as a standards body, gives us credibility.   Lastly, our success is due to the members who volunteer their time and expertise in participating in our efforts and let us know about initiatives under consideration by other organizations and get us a seat at the table.

I have been fortunate to meet and work with many of you during my period of leadership.  I want to thank you for your generosity and trust in sharing what often is proprietary information in order to make our standards better.  Long ago I stopped being surprised at how smart you are.  It has been a privilege to work with you and to lead this organization.”

Datacert Acquired

Posted on by in EBMM, Product Acquisition

In yet another blow to the shrinking gene pool of EBMM solutions available in the marketplace, it was reported yesterday that Wolters Kluwer has acquired the remaining shares of Third Coast Holdings, Inc., whose holdings include the Datacert Passport EBMM system.  The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.

WK is the owner of CT Corporation and therefore the corporate parent of TyMetrix, another leading EBMM vendor system.  Both companies have been staunch competitors in the ELM marketpace.

CT Corporation acquired Tripoint in 2005 and within a few years the system disappeared from the EBMM landscape.  It will be very interesting to see how this acquisition evolves.

Update from The Association of Cost Lawyers

Posted on by in Jackson Review Project

The Association of Cost Lawyers has released an update on the status of the Jackson Project that includes a recap of the steps undertaken by the project team to create an electronic form bill of costs data exchange standard.  They indicate that testing will begin in March followed by an industry consultation stage, and expect final approval some time in June or July of this year.

I want to commend my LEDES Oversight Committee colleague David Nelson for his great work PM’ing the work of the project team.

Acquisition of LT Online by Mitratech

Posted on by in EBMM, Product Acquisition

I constantly hear rumors of MMEB vendor systems for sale, and the rumor mill has been buzzing for the past few months.

I read today that LT Online Corporation, who offers the Lawtrac system, has been acquired by Mitratech.  Congratulations to Frank Orzo and his team.

This follows acquisitions in the past few years of TyMetrix by CT Corporation, Tripoint by CT Corporation, Mitratech by Vista Equity Partners, Serengeti by Thomson Reuters, Visabillity by Bottomline Technologies and Allegient also by Bottomline Technologies.

It is always interesting to see what the new owner will do with these systems once acquired.  Many don’t fully understand the lengthy sales cycle.  Others lack product vision or the commitment necessary to evolve the product.  Others still see acquisition as the opportunity to acquire customers and, after a short period of stasis, stop selling and eventually withdraw support for the product.  It will be interesting to see what happens in this case.

New Ebilling Administration and LEDES Generation Tools

Posted on by in LEDES Editor, LEDES Invoice Generator, LF EB Administration Tool

In the last few months I have heard about quite a few new products for law firms to create LEDES invoice files or to administer ebilling.  Halleluiah!  We need more alternatives to generate the more complex LEDES formats and to make ebilling administration within the law firm more efficient.  What am I talking about?

Over the summer I learned about Kestrel’s eBillingFlow, a tool for law firms to create, track and report on ebills.  Looks like a great solution to help administer ebilling.

BillBlast is another ebilling administration tool that looks fabulous and offers back analytics to the law firm.  The product development team has actual experience with client requirements and the lack of technology for law firm billers to deliver and manage ebills efficiently.

TyMetrix will soon release a rebranded version of the old LEDESense program that they purchased a couple years back, now called eBillingDesk.  The program facilitates the creation of the more complex LEDES invoice formats and is a great invoice editing tool.  I was fortunate to get an advanced peek at the tool and liked what I saw.

New Legal Ebilling Offering for Law Departments

Posted on by in EBMM, General, New Product

There is a new ebilling offering for law departments called Viewabill is a very new take on the client’s desire to manage better.  The system gives clients the ability to monitor work performed by outside counsel real time.  It allows clients to monitor services provided while work is underway instead of discovering four or more weeks later when a bill is submitted that the work deviated from the agreed to plan.  With this system there should never be any surprises.

I am intrigued by this product for a couple of reasons:  it completely eliminates the need to provide accrual information, and it provides insight into the actual services performed under a flat fee instead of producing a shadow invoice.   These are two of the most cumbersome manual processes in ebilling today and with Viewabill they are not a factor.

More importantly, it represents a new take on ebilling.  I always have been intellectually interested to see how ebilling will evolve.  Will this be a better mouse trap?  I can’t wait to see.

I do feel the need to caution law firms.  Now is the time to get your billing practices in order.  Because Viewabill allows clients to see real time data, time must be entered on a timely (daily) basis, as cleanly as possible and in accordance with the client’s billing guidelines.  You don’t have the luxury of the billing process to massage raw entries under this system.  I suggest you don’t wait until one of your clients requests your firm to use this kind of system before you start to put your timekeeping practices in order.

Expert Group Forms to Create UTBMS Knowledge Management Codes

Posted on by in New Standards Initiative, UTBMS

Old friends Corinna Codd and Rajitha Boer at Yerra Solutions (www.yerrasolutions.com) have been in contact about creating an UTBMS code set specific to knowledge management services.  They are forming an expert group and will start work on the codes this summer.  They expect to have a final set to present at their conference in London in late October.  Thereafter the work of the expert group will be presented to the LEDES Oversight Committee for review and ratification.

It is helpful when expert groups like this form to consider subject matter that may be outside the mainstream expertise of the LEDES membership.

I was pleased to be invited to participate in this effort and look forward to working with their global expert group.

LOC Reconsiders Timekeeper Classifications

Posted on by in LEDES Oversight Committee, New Standards Initiative

I have been appointed by the LEDES Oversight Committee to lead a new effort to reconsider the timekeeper positions used in the LEDES invoice standards.

The project originates from the LOC’s commitment to extending the LEDES schema to support the billing of eDiscovery services.  You may recall that the LOC released eDiscovery Task codes in 2011.  Earlier this year the LOC released revised Activity and Expense Codes, another project led by me, that considered not only changes necessary to support eDiscovery but also changes needed across all of legal.

Like the Activity and Expense Code effort, the timekeeper revision project will look at changes necessary to support eDiscovery and also global legal needs associated with timekeeper positions.  We have a small group of volunteers to staff this effort.  I have timekeeper position considered by the Jackson Review project and the subcommittee will be reaching out to colleagues in different jurisdictions for suggestions for inclusion.

It is also expected that the LOC’s Timekeeper Attributes Standard ratified in 2007 will be updated as part of this project.  More information on the Timekeeper Attributes Standard can be found here.

Look for more on this as the effort proceeds.

Jackson Review Project in England and Wales

Posted on by in Jackson Review Project, UTBMS

I was honored to be included in the short list of individuals requested to provide feedback on the UTBMS code set drafted by the Jackson Review team.   The full project team includes participants local to the England and Wales jurisdictions and, considering that I am based in the US, it was a particular honor to be asked to review their work product.

The draft code set reflects a different way of considering the services provided by law firms and other legal vendors on litigation matters as compared to the original sets set forth in the US.  I found the beta set to be very thoughtful and provided a few comments for consideration by the team as they move toward finalizing their recommendations.  I am anxious to see their final work product released for public use later this summer.

This project marks a new era in legal ebilling.

  • The original constituencies involved in setting standards for legal ebilling were law departments, law firms, consultants, time and billing vendors and the third-party ebilling vendors, and resulted in the formation of the LEDES Oversight Committee.
  • We have seen tax authorities in Latin America get involved, legally requiring XML files with electronic invoicing information to run through systems hosted by the tax authority or its designees in order to ensure the government receives appropriate tax payments.
  • The Jackson project marks the first jurisdictional-specific UTBMS code set whose usage will be codified into law.

I expect we will see more efforts like this in the future.