Serengeti Law Releases Version 5.2 of Serengeti Tracker

New Release Provides Contract Management, Electronic Foreign Currency Bill Processing, and Practice Group Organization

Seattle – December 16, 2002 – Serengeti Law announced today the release of version 5.2 of its popular Serengeti Tracker service for online collaboration between law departments and their outside counsel. During its first year, Serengeti Tracker has connected more than 1,000 in-house users with over 1,400 law firms in sixteen countries using its online collaborative platform, which provides shared virtual files, electronic bill review, budget management, and on-demand management reports. Serengeti Law provides new releases for all users of Serengeti Tracker every ninety days. This release adds features for corporate law departments to manage contractual obligations, process legal bills in foreign currencies electronically, and organize their virtual working files and reports for their practice groups.

Contract Management
Many law departments are responsible for documenting and tracking the material contractual obligations of their companies. This release of Serengeti Tracker helps law departments conveniently track significant contractual information, including parties, obligations, types of contracts, and material terms. Tracker also provides “tickler” reminders in advance of important deadlines, such as renewal and expiration dates. An electronic copy of each contract is kept in a virtual file, along with all related documents. All data fields are searchable to quickly locate contracts and terms. As with all Tracker virtual files, the lead law department person can permit Internet access to any contractual matter for selected outside counsel as well as corporate team members.

Electronic Foreign Currency Bill Processing and Reports
Serengeti Tracker currently provides electronic legal bill delivery, auditing, review and approval for all users anywhere in the world through an encrypted Internet connection. Unlike many electronic billing services, Serengeti Tracker has the ability to accept not only LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard) electronic bills from law firms, but also non-LEDES file formats (e.g. Word, Adobe Acrobat, etc.). The acceptance of non-LEDES bills permits law departments using Serengeti Tracker to process bills from foreign law firms that have non-U.S. time and billing systems, and from U.S. law firms that are not able to generate LEDES data. However, prior to the current release, all electronic bills had to be denominated in U.S. dollars, so that there would be consistent treatment in the management reports related to spending and budgets, which were in U.S. dollars.

With this release, law firms can submit their bills in over 150 foreign currencies, which are automatically converted into the currency that the law department has chosen for its reporting. In addition, when a foreign law firm bill includes a value added tax (“VAT”) charge, Tracker records the amount for payment purposes, but excludes refundable VAT from spending reports.

With several mouse clicks, individual users can select any currency for their personal reports, even if the law department has selected a different currency for departmental reports. In this increasingly global marketplace, such functionality is crucial for companies that have law firms, or members of their law department, located in foreign countries.

Law Department Practice Groups
For corporate law departments that have practice groups that are performing legal work for multiple company business units, this release facilitates the organization of, and controlled access to, legal information and management reporting. By mirroring the company practice groups and business units in Tracker, law departments can more easily assign and grant access to new matters, virtual files, and reports.

For example, the manager of a legal practice group can view the status of matters and produce management reports (spending, budgeting, litigation exposure, etc.) related to that practice group, while higher level views of all practice groups are available only to the general counsel. When the organization of the law department or company business units changes, Tracker can capture the new organizational structure, without having to change access to individual matters or modify the hundreds of management reports available in the system. The current release makes it easy for Tracker to match each company’s unique organizational structure and levels of access to legal information.

Additional Information

For additional information, or a live demonstration of this new release, please contact Rob Thomas (see contact information below).

About Serengeti Law
Serengeti Law is a d/b/a for Legal Systems Holding Company, which is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Serengeti Law provides its services as an application service provider, and is dedicated solely to helping corporate legal departments and claims departments handle their legal work more efficiently, including their work with their outside counsel at law firms.

Press Contact:
Rob Thomas
Vice-President, Strategic Development
Serengeti Law
(425) 732-5555
rob.thomas@serengetilaw.com

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