Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
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to it and you realize all the advantages it represents, why on earth would you go back to a system that was time-con- suming and not as precise as the one that I have got right now. To me this is just not an option." A competing e-billing and docu- ment-management platform offered by U.S.-based CT TyMetrix has proven to be a popular option for some of the than 30 per cent each year for the first three years, a combination of work- ing with fewer, typically larger firms; requiring outside law firms to adhere to a new, U.S.-style billing system; and having better information about the bank's legal spending on a real-time basis. "The TyMetrix is just part of an overall solution to managing legal work," says Aziz. "It allowed us to sort It is surprising that it has taken so long to catch on because you do save money, but people are reluctant to change from what is comfortable. BOB AZIZ to the matter." Browser-based, e-billing systems are designed to be easy to install with little, if any, requirement for support from a corporate IT department, says Lee Matthews, another principal consult- ant with CT TyMetrix. "If you can use e-mail and search the Internet, you can use one of these systems," he says. E-billing platforms can also typically be set up with little or no involvement of the IT group. "The appeal to the smaller end of the market right now is honestly the legal department in-house is usually on the last of the list of IT's priorities." While going paperless is the most biggest legal departments in Canada, in particular the country's big banks. In March, Royal Bank of Canada announced it had engaged CT TyMetrix, following earlier implementation of the system by the Bank of Nova Scotia and TD Bank. The first to adopt CT TyMetrix's system was TD, which began the imple- mentation process in 2002-03, says Bob Aziz, TD's former senior vice presi- dent and assistant general counsel. "I looked at different [systems]" after first thinking TD would have to create such a platform from scratch, recalls Aziz, who is currently executive vice president and chief legal counsel with Oxford Properties Group. At the time he started the process, TD was working with about 850 outside law firms, which the bank was determined to pare down. As part of the process of implementing the new electronic system, it sent out a request for proposals to a much smaller group, just 200 firms, to compare their rates and specialties, and informed internal business units that they would in the end have far fewer outside firms to deal with. The RFP process helped TD reduce its roster of law firms to less than 120. It also trimmed its legal bill by more of get a hold of the data that we didn't have. We knew that we were buying legal services, but we didn't know whether we were buying work for loans or litigation or work for leases. There was no breakdown." Ultimately, embracing e-billing resulted in better file management at the bank, says Aziz. The system gave TD the information necessary to deter- mine if files were staffed properly and by the appropriate level of outside legal staff. "It's a task-based billing system which is common in the U.S., less com- mon in Canada, although it's becoming more common." Connecticut-based TyMetrix says the most obvious benefit of platforms such as its T360 system to potential corporate clients is getting rid of the paper. Keith Brown, a principal busi- ness consultant with the software firm who practised at a Boston law firm prior to joining the company, recalls working in front of a wall of red legal file folders. "You take those folders and turn them into something called 'matter management,' where everything around the case that goes on is moved into an electronic file box. Documents can be uploaded against it and e-mails from outside counsel can be associated obvious pitch to in-house counsel, Brown says in the end the ability to manipulate the data and examine spending is where the value of the system really comes into play. "The legal department begins to have the ability to look at its vendors and where it is spending in lots of different ways," he says. That's done "in ways that are sometimes eye-opening" and in ways that sometimes just confirm the law- yer's gut feeling "from having worked as an in-house lawyer for 10 years." Aziz put TD Bank on the map not just in Canada but also in the U.S. with its early implementation of e-billing. But it's getting easier as suppliers fine- tune their systems and, perhaps more importantly, outside legal firms grow accustomed to using electronic plat- forms. "It is surprising that it has taken so long to catch on because you do save money, but people are reluctant to change from what is comfortable," he says. "TD had a more difficult time of it because we were asking the law firms to make big changes to the way they did things. By the time Bank of Nova Scotia came along, they used a lot of the same firms but they had some pushback, but not as much, and Royal is going to have it even easier." Despite his early adopter status, Aziz does not have an e-billing and docu- ment-management platform at Oxford. "We don't, partly because we just don't spend that much. I haven't been con- vinced we need it here yet." IH INHOUSE FEBRUARY 2011 • 29