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TECH SUPPORT wrong hourly rate, or simply doesn't add the bill up correctly. It won't pay non-compliant items. And while there are procedures — fair and equitable, says French — for law firms to appeal such decisions, 98 per cent of Legalbill adjustments stand. The software, at the same time, com- piles statistics and reports about how each customer spends on legal servic- es, and how the entire customer base spends. Companies use intelligence about their own spend for budgeting and strategic planning. It can result in significant savings, says French. Molins' group, for example, spotted a trend to more litigation over damaged cargo and alerted Lufthansa customer service, which took remedial action. The result: reduced legal spending down the road. The data on spending across the entire customer base, updated daily, produces benchmarks for fees and time spent on activities — the average hourly rate for a litigation lawyer in San Francisco with 15 years' experience, for example. Legalbill also offers peer review. "The software, as sophisticated as it is, cannot read a bill experientially," admits French. So the company has 300 lawyers on call, with an average 25 years' experience each. They look at bills from lawyers practising in their own fields and say, yes, this is reasonable, or no, this isn't. It's not that clients distrust outside counsel, stresses French. "It's not about a witch hunt to punish lawyers." But the way firms charge — for every minute of every lawyer and paralegal's time — means clients bear all the risk in the relationship. "And when there is no risk component [for the law firm], that lends itself to people not being as concerned about accuracy and efficiency." Law firms faced with a client who decides to use Legalbill, aren't necessarily happy about it. Some, Molins admits, "are quite frankly irritated at first. 'How could you take this away? Haven't we always done a good job for you?' But airlines have to be very responsible financially." Most ultimately learn the new pro- cedures and standards and accept them gracefully. Lufthansa did part ways with one firm in the United States "by mutual accord" after the firm, as Molins puts it, ntitled-5 1 repeatedly got "a bit of a haircut" on its bills thanks to Legalbill. It usually takes about two years for everything to settle down, by which time contention virtually disappears, claims French. "[Law firms] may not love us," he says. "But they trust us to be fair and reasonable and rational." Molins says the same. His post-Legalbill relationships with outside counsel are fine. "No one is mad at me," he says. "No one wants to stop working for Lufthansa." Sure. But that doesn't mean anyone likes it. It just means law firms are smart enough to realize that reduced revenues — thanks, again, to technology — are better than no revenues. Gerry Blackwell is a freelance tech- nology writer based in London, Ont. Read his blog at http://afterbyte. blogspot.com. Practice Management PCLaw™ LexisNexis® Accounting software that SPEAKS LEGALESE. PCLaw™ billing and accounting software combines what you need to track your time and money all in one system — from time and billing to trust accounting, cheque writing, fi nancial statements, client identifi cation and verifi cation, automatic backup, offl ine fi le management, advanced reporting tools and more. Best of all, it's easy to use and ready to go to work instantly. For more information, call 1-800-328-2898 or visit www.lexisnexis.ca/pclaw. Download and Try PCLaw for FREE* * Download PCLaw free for 30 days. Certain conditions apply. LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under licence. PCLaw is a trademark of LexisNexis Practice Management Systems Inc. © 2009 LexisNexis Canada Inc. All rights reserved. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 27 11/3/09 2:54:41 PM