Legal Budgeting and E-Billing in Corporate Law Departments

Transcription

1 Legal Budgeting and E-Billing in Corporate Law Departments Presented by Jeffery Hodge SESSION IV 10/15/2014 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM The handouts and presentations attached are copyright and trademark protected and provided for individual use only.

2 Legal Budgeting and E-Billing in Corporate Law Departments October, 15, 2014 Jeff Hodge Senior Director Huron Consulting Group group.com Overview of Huron Services Huron Legal Contract Management Law Department Optimization with Impact Outside Counsel Management Huron Legal provides advisory and business services to assist law departments and law firms enhance organizational effectiveness and reduce legal spend. Intellectual Property Management Records & Document Management Law Firm Management Legal Legal Consulting Consulting Collections with R3con Integrated ediscovery with V3locity Matter Management & E-Billing Discovery Managed Services with Sp3ctrum Huron Legal advises on and implements strategy, organizational design and development, outside counsel management, operational efficiency, discovery solutions, and provides services relating to the management of matters, contracts, documents, records, digital evidence and e-discovery. Delivering Value Driving Results Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness and Reducing Legal Spend 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 2 1

3 Objective and Agenda Objective Provide an overview of how ebilling and budgeting are used together effectively inside of corporate legal departments. Agenda Challenges & Trends Matter Management & E-Billing: Benefits Spend Management; Evolution of the Combined Solution Using E-Billing Data To Assess Your Effectiveness Budgeting Basics Wrap-up 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 3 Challenges and Trends: Drivers for ebilling and a Defined Budgeting Process 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 4 2

4 Changing, Growing Workload Cost Discipline and Growing Responsibilities Stretch Law Departments Thin I Era of Strategic Engagement Era of Cost- Consciousn ess 2002-Current Era of Corporate Responsibility Legal Demands Legal Demands and Resourc es Legal Resources How to manage the gap? xx Source: ACCA Poll, (2001); Lawyer s Weekly USA ( ); Corporate Legal Times/Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, 5th Annual Report of Corporate Law Departments (May 2002); GCR General Counsel Survey, 2003; General Counsel Roundtable research. 5 Cost Control Tope of Mind for General Counsel Invoice Data and Budgets Fundamental to a Solution Cost Control Limited Resources (Optimal Utilization) Compliance (Regulatory & Internal) Globalization Lawyer Recruitment & Retention Litigation / Risk Management IP / Patent Issues Client Service ediscovery / Records Management The Economy Lawyer Career Progression Law Dept. Leadership Succession Privacy Lawyer Compensation Other 14.4% 12.6% 8.1% 6.3% 5.4% 4.5% 4.5% 3.6% 3.6% 3.6% 2.7% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 27.9% Source: Chief Legal Officer Survey 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 6 6 3

5 Challenges in Today s Legal Department An Argument for ebilling and Budgeting Defining and articulating the department s value in business terms to the CEO, CFO and other leadership. Justifying increasing legal costs compared to budget cuts for other functions and departments. Balancing corporate practices with regulatory changes Acting as a strategic business partner offering proactive advice and business risk management. Finding the right service delivery model; the right mix of internal and external resources. Impact of economy on the cost of resources and law firm model. Fully leveraging knowledge capital through work product re-use, internal contribution and collaboration with outside counsel. Establishing appropriate metrics and measurements to drive the desired behavior. Organizing as a single, global Department with co-located resources and alignment with compatible functions 7 7 Matter Management and ebilling (Spend Management) What is the Benefit? 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 8 4

6 ebilling/spend Management Benefits Faster and more accurate invoice review, approval and payment Track tasks and upcoming appointments All information related to a case is easily available, with appropriate security, to all attorneys, legal assistants and staff A single source of data entry and retrieval for all data related to a matter Improve business management of the law department Enhance management of internal and external resources Reduce ramp-up costs associated with bringing internal and external resources up-to-speed on matters/cases Increase response time to client inquiries/resolution Improved reporting for administrative, operational and leadership Why ebilling? Process efficiency and personal productivity Informed invoice review and matter-level management Informed departmental decisions through metrics Support effective design of budgets and a budgeting process A high ROI compared to other legal technologies 5-8% ROI year one 2-5% continuing ROI Ease of integration to existing systems Accounts Payable General Ledger IP, and others 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 10 5

7 Why Budgeting Makes Sense? Built into existing ebilling systems Economic pressures Law department expected to focus on financial accountability Encourages clearer scoping of a matter at the outset and creates a shared understanding of objectives Need for transparency, forecasting, measurement and value Encourages efficiency on the part of the law firms and vendors Creates predictability in outside spend 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 11 EBILLING, SPEND MANAGEMENT AND BUDGETING THE EVOLUTION OF A COMBINED SOLUTION 6

8 Trend Towards Matter-Centric Legal Technology Convergence of Matter Management and E-Billing Spend Management Emerges Before Automation Manual invoice receipt Manual invoice handling Lack of electronic systems, data exchange standards Mid-Late 90 s 1995 Development of UTBMS codes 1998 LEDES standard developed (1998 format) 1999 LEDES standard created Electronic invoicing systems used only by largest law departments Cumbersome reporting and lack of integration with Matters 14 Early 2000 s Ebilling and Matter Management Converge (Spend Management) Convergence of Matter Management and EBilling systems Maturing reporting; but no ad-hoc reporting or BI capability Customizations and system maintenance costly Limited collaboration via electronic billing modules Extended collaboration on matters, TJs, budgets, etc. Matter management becomes platform for related modules, e.g. legal hold, compliance and contracts management Improved controls simplify customizations Tighter integrations with and calendaring Updated UTBMS Code set Improved international invoicing support (e.g. VAT, GST, etc.) 7

9 Technology Usage Benchmarks Huron 2013 IMPACT Benchmarking Report Technology Benchmarks 15 Legal Function Assessment l September 2014 Using ebilling Data to Assess Effectiveness 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 16 8

10 Managing and Controlling Spend A Maturity Model for Managing Spend Difficult or Impossible without Metrics Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. Traditional Law Firm Spend Analysis Is the price point and leverage model aligned with the type of work? Need to consider at the matter type and sub-matter type level Leverage Practice Group Total % % % WABR Spend Partner Assoc. Para. Litigation $ 13,195,642 $ % 60% 16% Bankruptcy $ 7,843,749 $ % 43% 11% Intellectual Property $ 4,708,910 $ % 65% 12% EHS $ 1,600,486 $ % 15% 12% Real Estate $ 1,178,308 $ % 38% 26% M&A $ 788,527 $ % 49% 8% Commercial IT $,776,577 $ % 41% 30% Overall Totals $ % 50% 15% 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 18 9

11 Evolved Law Firm Scorecard Litigation Comparison Law Firms Analyzed 2007 Total Fees WABR Partner Hours Leverage Associate Hours Other TKs Hours ATTY Efficiency Ratio Attorney FTEs Attorney TKs # TKs = 1 FTE Firm 1 $5,911,143 $407 66% 26% 8% Firm 2 $3,114,055 $170 20% 24% 46% Firm 3 $1,476,187 $385 53% 44% 3% Firm 4 $1,330,996 $283 66% 32% 2% Firm 5 $711,095 $478 40% 35% 25% Firm 6 $653,395 $283 77% 20% 3% Firm 7 $481,403 $439 56% 37% 7% Firm 8 $329,529 $344 77% 17% 6% Firm 9 $170,843 $ % 0% 0% Firm 10 $59,898 $471 99% 1% 0% All Firms $14,238,544 $296 59% 23% 18% Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 19 Leading Law Departments Value by Matter Type Lower Value Medium Value Higher Value % Total FTE* 38% 49% 14% Total Sub Types Legal Department - Risk Alignment Matrix - All Roles Calibrated High 0 Sub Types 0 FTEs 4 Sub Types 6 FTEs 21 Sub Types 64 FTEs Risk Potential Medium 0.00% 1.00% 10.02% 5 Sub Types 2 FTEs 160 Sub Types 301 FTEs 24 Sub Types 17 FTEs 0.24% 46.99% 2.69% Low 62 Sub Types 130 FTEs 37 Sub Types 110 FTEs 18 Sub Types 10 FTEs * Total FTE: % 17.21% 1.55% Low Medium High Strategic Alignment 20 10

12 Budgeting Basics 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential. 21 Budgeting Best Practices Driven by leadership Managed by in-house legal teams with support from ebilling Perpetual requirement Focus on matters with significant dollar value thresholds Keep templates simple most prepared by law firm finance or billing personnel and reviewed/approved by counsel Consider e-billing/matter management systems with advanced budgeting modules and AFA tools Schedule quarterly matter updates with law firms to review performance against budget Communication is key 11

13 Budgeting Common Sense Setting and Managing Budgets: Each budget manager within the law department should be responsible for entering the budget into the matter management/e-billing system. All outside counsel bills are paid through the e-billing system, and no bills are paid without a budget. Real-case budgeting is expected- emphasis on setting real case budgets (and not worst case budgets) Measure Budgeting skills- Assess results compared to plan; determine who beats the budget/closeness to plan; Review qualitative results- budgets are important but so are results; assess who is getting the best qualitative results managing to budget isn t of value if the results are not good. Budgeting Process Checklist Taking a Reasonable Approach Checklist for Budget Evaluation Category Considerations Comments Assumptions Are the matter/task level assumptions planning for the best-case, worse-case, or most likely outcome in terms of case status? # of TKs Does the number of TKs proposed seem appropriate? TKs Identified Mix of Hours Do all of the TKs identified seem like the correct team? Is there an appropriate leverage of hours down to attorneys and paralegals or is the majority of work concentrated in partners and attorneys? Is there too much partner time on the matter? Hours by Phase Does the allocation of time between phases seem appropriate? Total Hours Total Fees Expenses Do the total hours/hours per week seem appropriate for the phase of the case and the tasks being conducted? Are the total fees in line with what you had expected? More or less? Do the expenses Sample seem Negotiating reasonable? Levers - Updating assumptions and associated hours/fees from worse-case to likely-case - Discounting rates for Associates on blended rate with high number of hours - Leveraging work from attorneys down to paralegals - Leveraging work from partners down to associates (where not on a blended rate) - Reducing/eliminating hours for timekeepers not providing direct value to the matter - Reducing the number of timekeepers in total - Excluding expenses considered "firm overhead" either reduced or eliminated from budgets 2012 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential

14 Budgeting by Matter Budget to Actual All in One Place 13

15 Budgets Tell Stories Numbers in Millions Budget as of 11/1/ Total Matters 5 Matters constitute more than 30% of this budget Two IP filings drive 11% of total spend are they worth it? 71% of budget is applied to 212 matters this seems high why? 2 litigation matters made up 11% of budget Why didn t we settle? Leading ebilling and Spend Management Solutions Legend Vendor/Product at Comcast / NBCUniversal Other Vendor/Product

16 Wrap Up Law departments continue to be under increasing pressure to manage outside spend The biggest part of most budgets Matter management and ebilling have converged to address these increasing pressures Spend Management Spend Management automatically matches incoming invoices to remaining budget Together, spend management and budgeting enable spend control, matter insight and portfolio management Spend Management combined with budgeting is fundamental to managing outside spend 2011 Huron Consulting Group. All rights reserved. Proprietary & Confidential