Serengeti in the News - Tracker E-Invoicing & Matter Management

Firms must 'smarten up' to embrace e-billing
03.08.08 | Jonathan Rayner

A change in the legal status of electronic bills is set to increase pressure on corporate firms to offer e-billing, the Gazette learned this week.

Provisions in the Legal Services Act 2007, which come into force this week, will give electronic bills the same legal status as paper bills. ■ open

In-house counsel pay closer attention to bottom line
02.15.08 | Mary K. Pratt

In-house legal departments have always felt pressure to keep costs from spiraling upward, but a recent study shows that in-house counsel are becoming much more aggressive in managing their relationships with -- and payments to -- outside counsel, which experts said is a sign of the budget concerns they're facing. ■ open

Technology alternatives for the legal department
01.01.08 | Karen Santagata

About five years ago, our choice was Serengeti Tracker (“Serengeti”). Serengeti is a web-based matter management, electronic billing, contract management and on-demand reporting package. At the very beginning of our utilization of Serengeti, we primarily used it for a basic matter management system for our litigation matters. As time went on, and with the assistance of the staff of Serengeti, we were able to include the majority of all of our in-house legal work, including corporate, securities, intellectual property, contracts, and environmental — to name a few areas. ■ open

Building Better Relationships
11.01.07 | Michael Reilly

Surging compliance requirements are driving corporate general counsel to find better methods to improve management of their legal departments, especially when it comes to outside counsel and related matters. But it will take more than better management to conquer difficulties in the relationship? ■ open

Survey Reveals In-House Counsel Are Requiring More of Their Outside Counsel
10.31.07 | The Associated Press

Gone are the days when in-house counsel send out major projects to outside counsel, pay vague bills "for services rendered," and remain uninvolved while outside counsel determine what is necessary, according to the results of the 2007 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey, a collaboration between the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and Serengeti Law, released at ACC's Annual Meeting on Monday in Chicago. The survey requested information about the ways in which in-house counsel are managing the work handled by outside counsel, and gathered metrics regarding the management techniques being used. It also collected data on hourly rates corporate clients are paying for specific types of work in the largest metropolitan areas across the country. ■ open

The Changing Business of Law
10.01.07 | Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Helping in-house and outside counsel work together more efficiently is also the goal of Web-based platforms like Serengeti Law, founded by Rob Thomas '78 and Tom Melling '94, which enable law departments to process bills, budgets, status reports, and documents online. According to Thomas, Serengeti Tracker connects more than 11,000 in-house counsel (including Stanford's law department) with more than 12,000 law firms in 125 countries worldwide.

"When outside counsel provides key information directly into an online management system for in-house clients, the clients become much more effective managers of legal services," says Thomas. "For the first time, law departments see not only what they are spending but also the results achieved, cycle time, and other objective measures to identify best practices. This permits them to serve as the focal point for sharing work product and lessons learned with the multiple law firms who represent them." ■ open

Preparing for the e-billing revolution
06.29.07 | Gerry Blackwell

A change is coming. If your firm works for large or medium-sized corporate clients, chances are some will soon be demanding that you submit bills electronically - if they haven't started already. It's called e-billing, and it's the way of the future.

What will it mean to your firm? That depends on which e-billing service or system your clients adopt. There are several, and many law firms will find themselves having to use more than one. The impact e-billing will have on your firm also depends on the time and billing system you currently use internally, and on your firm's level of technological expertise. ■ open

1° Law - Leveraging hardware, software and human technology to create new legal service delivery systems for a complex world
06.01.07 | Jeff Carr

The FMC Technologies legal team is relentless in trying to find new and better ways to deliver legal services to our customers – the FMC Technologies business units. Key tenets of the team’s approach are to focus on three core functions: acting as the trusted strategic advisor to the business, managing risks and protecting assets while maintaining the company’s ethical compass, and delivering cost-effective legal services appropriate to the business. This is done by looking at strategic alignment of services with objectives, value rather than just cost savings, proactive practices, and continuous improvement. ■ open

Selecting an E-billing Vendor
Requires due diligence
05.01.07 | Rob Thomas

All is not working perfectly in the legal e-billing world. Last year, the General Counsel Roundtable, an organization of more than 600 law departments, conducted a technology survey which asked law departments to rate their electronic billing systems. Their report showed significant differences in the ratings of the most widely-used systems.

Similarly for law firms, American Lawyer Media Research conducted a recent survey in which more than 600 law firms gave their opinions regarding the benefits and problems of e-billing, as well as their evaluations of specific vendors. The significant differences in ratings among the vendors indicate clear and strong preferences for a very small number of the e-billing vendors. ■ open

After the Case, Analyze the Results
Tracking outcomes can help companies choose the right law firm and save money on bills.
12.18.06 | Rob Thomas

A primary duty of most in-house counsel is managing the work that is performed by outside counsel. Much attention is devoted to controlling the fees and expenses in legal bills. Electronic billing systems have been widely adopted by in-house counsel to monitor spending, track budgets, and enforce client billing guidelines.

When major projects are completed, however, in-house counsel often miss even greater opportunities for savings. They don’t take the time to analyze the outcome, including settlements, awards, and other amounts paid or received. And yet those numbers often turn out to be much larger than legal fees. ■ open

Top ten Methods to Manage Outside Counsel
12.01.06 | Rob Thomas

The successful management of the relationship with outside counsel often involves a delicate balance between cooperation and oversight. Outside counsel generally offer special expertise, an independent perspective, and sheer numbers to address challenging problems. In-house counsel contribute team coordination, experience, and a thorough understanding of the needs of the corporate client. How can in-house counsel ensure that they are effectively managing outside counsel? The following recommended policies (which address criticisms raised in the Audit Report) are a good start. ■ open

ANOTHER REASON FOR BETTER LEGAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Now It's a Compliance Issue
11.01.06 | Rob Thomas

The main challenge for most law departments is that they must base their reports on information that comes from the law firms that handle their legal work. Law departments must regularly poll their law firms
for legal spending information, as well as information regarding significant changes in the company’s legal exposure for pending and threatened claims.

Getting their law firms to provide this information reliably and promptly is often a major challenge for in-house counsel, who may have to waste significant time tracking which firms have responded and which have not and then follow up, sometimes repeatedly, with information requests. The result is that it’s often impossible for law departments to maintain up-to-date and accurate reports. ■ open

Compliance, Not Legal Fees, GCs’ Chief Concern
10.30.06 | Martin Daks

General counsel are most anxious about compliance matters, a worry that is surpassing their concern about outside counsel costs, according to a new study.

The study, released last Monday, shows that 86 percent of 169 companies surveyed in 2005 say their main concern is “keeping track of company activities that might have legal implications.”

Compliance was the top concern in the 2004 survey as well, cited by 80 percent of respondents the same year the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted. For the previous four years, the chief worry had been legal costs. But that fell to No. 2, cited by 68.7 percent in 2005 and 75.7 percent in 2004. ■ open

Electronic Billing Enters the Mainstream
How to Ensure a Successful Launch for your Law Department
05.01.06 | Rick Levers, James Sheets, and Rob Thomas

What is driving the rapid adoption of ebilling in a profession that is notorious for slow acceptance of new technology? Savings and control. Law departments with ebilling report savings of 5 to 15 percent or more of their outside legal spending which, when compared to system costs of 1 percent or less, make a compelling business case. Law departments gain control by having instant access to what they are spending and where. Ebilling generates up-to-date reports with a couple of mouse clicks—a vast improvement over the fire drills traditionally triggered by queries from management, auditors, or the
board’s audit committee. ■ open

CHOOSING AN E-BILLING SYSTEM
Measure Twice, Cut Once
12.02.05 | Rob Thomas

Choosing electronic billing and matter management systems are among the most important technology decisions that a law department can make, with significant potential consequences— both positive and negative. The old carpenters’ adage, “measure twice, cut once,” also applies to taking the time to conduct careful due diligence in this area. In other words, it’s better to ask the hard questions now than to have to answer them later when things aren’t going well. ■ open

PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Serengeti Tracker 7.0
12.01.05

Serengeti Law, based in Bellevue, Wash., reports that the latest version of its web-based electronic billing and matter management system adds more than 50 enhancements. Tracker 7.0 helps general counsel and other users track different types of data from multiple sources, says president Donald Murray. ■ open

E-BILLING: FRIEND OR FOE?
What you should know about the newest trend in legal billing
09.01.05 | Brett Burney

Just as e-mail has become an electronic replacement for a pen and paper note, electronic billing, the paperless automation of sending the bill to a client, is becoming an alternative for generating a detailed paper invoice. Most of the time, however, no real bill actually is sent. E-billing is more of a process for sharing data between a law firm and a client. If your firm is not submitting electronic bills, chances are you are using some kind of software to generate bills before printing them out on paper and snail mailing them to the client — an extra and unnecessary step. ■ open

Matter Management 101
07.01.05 | Ronald F. Pol

Do you deal with a large number of transactions? Do they involve a wide range of issues and lots of different interests? Are you part of a large legal team, with multiple interactions and related responsibilities? Or are you a member of a small team, managing the legal issues on seemingly countless transactions across a large organization? Do you use an effective matter management system? If you answered no only to the last question, I would never suggest that you might be dicing with disaster, nor that it’s great that you have an understanding insurer. Truly, your juggling talents may be extraordinary. Or you might be superhuman, really. ■ open

ALL EYES ON THE TAB
General Counsel fret about what they spend on outside counsel
12.20.04 | Rob Thomas

For the past four years, the e-billing/matter management company Serengeti Law has surveyed members of the Association of Corporate Counsel to learn about the ways law departments retain, manage, evaluate, compensate, and terminate outside counsel. Each year, approximately 300 law departments respond to the survey. The recently released 2004 survey report (based on the data from 2003) offers some interesting findings. ■ open

E-BILLING WITHOUT THE PAIN
Get involved in the selection process to find a system everyone likes
02.02.04 | Howard Janis

You may not know it, but your firm is probably sending electronic bills to some corporate clients, whose systems audit, analyze, revise, and report on every charge. Like many others, our firm has multiple clients who have asked us to use several different e-billing systems. This year’s annual Association of Corporate Counsel/Serengeti Law survey of several hundred law departments found that while use of electronic billing is still low (roughly 6 percent of law departments), it has tripled since last year. And, with more than 28% of law departments currently considering e-billing, this exponential growth is likely to continue. ■ open

RESPONSE OF SERENGETI LAW
Regarding Proposed Changes to the LEDES 1998B Standard
01.12.04 | Tom Melling

Thousands of U.S. law firms, corporate clients, and vendors are successfully using the LEDES 1998B standard for electronic invoicing. These users have invested significant time and money to implement the current standard. While it certainly makes sense to create a standard for international users, the thousands of U.S. users do not need international functionality. Therefore, it would be counterproductive to require the large installed base to change systems for such features. ■ open

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