Legal departments can benchmark the strength of their billing guidelines using AI-enabled tools such as ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer

Many corporate legal departments (CLDs) have outside counsel billing guidelines in place that dictate where and how a law firm is able to charge for its services. But while strong billing guidelines can help organizations save millions of dollars, a new installment of Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions’ Legal Leaders Exchange Podcast explores why many of those parameters either go unenforced or open unintended loopholes.

Sharon Horozaniecki, Director of Operations for ELM Solutions’ AI-powered LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer spend management tool, and Michele Pratt, Associate Director for LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer, offer tips for drafting clear and concise billing guidelines that can serve as an effective roadmap for outside counsel. For example, successful billing guidelines will not only specify that administrative functions are non-billable, but also provide a comprehensive matrix of all the tasks that typically are billable. To help CLDs fortify their billing parameters, LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer includes an AI-enabled guideline benchmarking analysis service that allows clients to compare their outside counsel billing guidelines against those of industry peers.

“Legal departments want their firms to be compliant with outside counsel billing guidelines but are often unsure how to articulate that message,” Horozaniecki said. “There can also be large gaps in many legal department guidelines concerning tasks that are well-known in the industry to be non-billable.”

“Quality guidelines truly help to lay the groundwork for expectations when you are collaborating with a law firm,” said Pratt. “They are critical to building the strong relationship that law departments need to have with their outside counsel.”

ELM Solutions recently celebrated the five-year anniversary of LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer and the tool’s underlying AI algorithm, which has reviewed task-based billing patterns spanning 225 practice areas and 20 different industries. This diverse range of experience empowers LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer to create more nuanced and accurate outputs.

ELM Solutions, part of Wolters Kluwer GRC, is a market-leading global provider of enterprise legal spend and matter management, contract lifecycle management and legal analytics solutions. The company provides a comprehensive suite of tools that address the growing needs of corporate legal operations departments to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. Corporate legal and insurance claims departments trust its innovative technology and end-to-end customer experience to drive world-class business outcomes. The other legal solutions business of Wolters Kluwer GRC is CT Corporation. The division’s banking and regulatory compliance businesses are Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions and Wolters Kluwer Finance, Risk & Regulatory Reporting.

Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions was named a leader in both the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Legal Spend Management 2020 Vendor Assessment and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Matter Management 2020 Vendor Assessment. The company’s award-winning products include Passport®, one of the highest rated ELM solutions in the latest Hyperion MarketView™ Legal Market Intelligence Report and TyMetrix® 360°, the industry’s leading SaaS-based e-billing and matter management solution. CLM Matrix, meanwhile, was named a “strong performer” in The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management For All Contracts, Q1 2021 report. ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW® portfolio of legal analytics solutions is based upon the industry’s largest and most comprehensive legal spend database, with more than $150 billion in invoices.

About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance

Governance, Risk & Compliance is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to help ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance.

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of €4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,800 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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