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CCCA_V2No3_Dept-Technology-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No2_Dept-CourtLeg-V1.qxd 9/18/08 11:12 AM Page 14 In-House Technology Streamlining your invoices Electronic billing is growing more and more popular with in-house lawyers. -billing technology — the ability to Esend, receive and process invoices electronically — has been around for years, but many law firms have been slow adopters, much to the chagrin of corporate counsel who use these firms’ services. Recognizing the advantages of e-billing, corporate counsel are begin- ning to push harder for their outside counsel to get on board. Dominic Jaar, a Montreal-based legal technology consultant and most recently legal counsel (litigation) with Bell Canada, says the first step in implement- ing an e-billing system is to identify the type of services you’re billed for and develop a uniform language to apply to these services. Once you have a standard- ized language, outside counsel attaches a code to each task. This goes into a tem- plate for billing purposes that the corpo- rate counsel provides to the outside firm. A third-party service provider receives the invoices from the outside firm and review,” Jaar explains. The system recog- mortem on work you’ve done, but also to enters them into the system to be nizes errors in invoices, such as the wrong make more informed decisions on what processed. David Cambria, director of legal service code. Similarly, you can assign time you’re doing on the next matter.” operations at Aon Risk Management in thresholds to specific tasks, and the system Jaar also highlights the fact that using e- Chicago, describes the third-party provider will alert you when the time stated on the billing educates outside counsel on how as “the pipeline between the law firm and bill exceeds the threshold. This significant- you run your business. “They become the corporate law department.” Most of ly reduces time spent reviewing invoices. aware of what you don’t like to see on the these service providers use LEDES, a legal Second, since everything has a specific bill,” he says. “For example, I’m a paperless electronic data exchange standard. code, the system can track the work done lawyer, so I go completely ballistic when- To ease the pain of law firm on-board- and who did it, helping the department ever I see line entries such as ‘filing docu- ing, Cambria turned to Aon’s e-billing plan and make decisions. “Based on that ments’ or a disbursement entry for ‘print- provider DataCert, whose law firm sup- data, we’re able to make strategic forward- ing documents.’” port team contacted each of Aon’s law looking decisions about staffing of our While e-billing offers attractive benefits, firms to walk them through the e-billing matters, about the relationships we have experts emphasize that it is only one part process. This relieved Aon of a particular- with our law firms, and our ability to bet- of successful legal operations management. ly time-consuming burden. ter manage our litigation based on past “The benefits increase substantially when The primary advantage of e-billing is experiences,” Cambria says. you combine e-billing and legal spend time saved. “By automating the process, “It’s looking at qualitative and quantita- management with a matter management GETTY IMAGES many e-billing platforms offer automated tive measures, to not only do a post- solution,” says Don Schad, general manager 14 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association FALL 2008