Canadian Lawyer InHouse

41 canadianLawyErmag.com/inhousE august 2014 A conservative return-on-investment is fi ve to 15 per cent savings, but for most companies it's more than that, says Thomas. Down the road they can fi nd savings of a different kind — such as using analytics to see which exter- nal lawyers or fi rms are top performers and reallocating the work accordingly. "Many in-house counsel are not practic- ing law . . . they are managing the business of these projects being handled outside the company by other law fi rms," he said. "This gives them visibility so they can be better managers of the legal work being done by outside counsel." It goes beyond analytics — it's about in- sight, being able to dissect matters at a very granular level, and get instant visibility into your legal spend, says Doug Ventola, presi- dent of Sky Analytics, a provider of legal spend management software that allows cli- ents to benchmark rates and matters against their peers. "The interest is on the rise in Canada but our core success to date has been within the U.S.," he says. "We've actually done some work with a very large Canadian organiza- tion and we have smaller ongoing Canadian clients." The system allows clients to identify where they've overspent in the past, but also to select lawyers and fi rms for upcom- ing matters in a smarter way because they have intelligence to support that decision, he says. "We have tools that allow you to investigate fi rms and/or attorneys for future matter planning." Historically, billing and matter manage- ment were handled separately, because billing systems tended to be more aligned with the accounting side of the business whereas mat- Firms will always say that they see this as a good development, it's the right way to go. PEtER gutELIus, RBC '' '' ter management systems were more aligned with the operation of the organization. But connecting the two makes more sense these days, and a number of LCM or matter management vendors offer integrat- ed billing modules within their systems, which provides new insights to support decision-making. Canada is not quite there yet, though. "If we were looking at the spectrum of invoicing, hourly at one extreme and value billing at the other extreme, we're very far from value billing," says KPMG's Jaar. Right now they're seeing more task-based or phased pricing, he adds. "From what we currently see there are very few organizations that have the matu- rity to do that," says Jaar. "We've been in the beginning phase for the last seven years — the market has evolved extremely slowly." But it seems at least perspectives and at- titudes are changing. "Firms will always say that they see this as a good development, it's the right way to go," says Gutelius, "but it is more in the last year or two where that's not just a speaking note over the lunch table." IH LIVE EVENTS DESIGNED FOR CORPORATE LEGAL DEPARTMENTS Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute is the leading provider of CLE events for the legal industry. Below you'll find upcoming live conferences that might be of interest to you and your team. You can register for yourself and any members of your department. Registration can be applied to anyone in your company – a different person could attend each event. Drafting Clearer Contracts September 11 – Boston, MA October 9 – Minneapolis, MN October 30– Washington DC November 6 – New York , NY Decmeber 11 – San Francisco, CA $895 Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach September 17 – New York, NY $795 DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE Individual Discount – Receive 15% off any individual program. Use promo code 15CORPORATE at checkout. Group Discounts – We have great group discounts available for you and your colleagues. The more events you purchase, the more you save: ȕ1VSDIBTFSFHJTUSBUJPOTHFUPGG ȕ1VSDIBTFSFHJTUSBUJPOTHFUPGG Call 1-800-308-1700 for more information or to register. 2014 Corporate Whistleblowing Forum September 30 - New York $595 The 2014 Thomson Reuters Supply Chain Sustainability Summit October 15 – New York , NY $795 ThomsonRueters_IH_June_14.indd 1 14-04-29 3:02 PM

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