Canadian Lawyer InHouse

august 2014 40 INHOUSE launch of Gowlings Practical LPM. There is no single software solution that will meet the needs of the entire industry. "There are a number of internal and ex- ternal pressures that led us to what we think is . . . a structured approach to legal servic- es," he says. "If larger clients are asking us to do this, we'll try mightily to do it. The RFP process has become very much a part of the fabric of how work gets doled out." Value billing is effectively a fi xed-fee quote. It's like going to your general con- tractor; if they're wasting time on the job or make a mistake, you're either not going to pay or you'll renegotiate. "An hour of lawyer time has always been assumed to have a value," says Tamminga. But, he says, an hourly rate is really a mea- sure of cost and not a measure of value. So the project management discipline is about making sure value is properly deliv- ered. If the client thinks a matter is worth $100,000, that shifts the risk entirely to the law fi rm, and it's up to the law fi rm to source the work effectively. "We understood that project manage- ment is a very specifi c discipline and meth- odology and it can in fact be artfully applied to the practice of law," said Tamminga. By spending time upfront planning what you're going to do, you can actually reduce the end cost to the client, says Rick Kathu- ria, national director of project management and legal logistics with Gowlings. "We've seen cases where we were able to drop (the cost) by $100,000 by spending time upfront planning the matter." A more effi ciently planned process, he said, can see up to a 20 per cent reduction in costs. While they're still in the early days of ana- lytics, they're collecting data and key param- eters on every matter. "We will get there; it's defi nitely part of our plan," says Kathuria. Though there isn't a magic bullet, Tam- minga says the system has a "quasi magic feel." Human realities are such that things can slip between the cracks. "With this sys- tem, all that is revealed immediately rather than weeks later when it's too late to fi x." While some are taking a lead, many oth- ers still don't fully understand e-billing. They think it's about getting a bill in elec- tronic form rather than paper form, says Rob Thomas, vice president of the market development group with Serengeti, a pro- vider of legal matter management, e-billing, and performance analytics for corporations and law fi rms. "Most in-house counsel have heard about it — they've heard they need to do more with metrics and reporting and just aren't sure where to get started," he says, adding that it's generally a year or two before they have enough of a data set to start seeing trends and gaining insights. "It's not just a picture of a paper bill," says Thomas. There is a ton of data locked up in paper bills; by unlocking that data, the cli- ent can use it to run reports and analytics. It's designed to give in-house counsel more visibility and control. "Many feel like they're fl ying blind," says Thomas. "How many outside fi rms do you work with a year and how much do you spend with them? If you're working with 50 law fi rms on 200 projects and you've got paper fi les and bills coming in from all over, how do you pull it all together?" TIME: EVENT: 12-month, part-time, executive LL.M. for lawyers and business professionals Advance your career to the next level! Learn important legal and business concepts that can be immediately applied to better serve your clients. Explore the implications of real-life cases in an increasingly complex global business environment. Acquire in-depth knowledge of how the law interacts with both the private and public sectors. For more information please contact Jane Kidner, Assistant Dean Professional Legal Education at j.kidner@utoronto.ca http://www.law.utoronto.ca/programs/GPLLM.html or visit our website: ntitled-4 1 14-06-30 10:24 AM

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