Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JULY 2015 38 INHOUSE BY JENNIFER BROWN TRACKING LAW FIRM invoices can be a time consuming task for any legal depart- ment, but especially so when you're managing the legal affairs of a pharmaceutical company with many external providers. Catching mis- takes can be a challenge, but reviewing each bill in an effi cient way is critical to getting a real handle on legal spending. "We get a tremendous number of invoices — about 200 a month. To review all of that and to comprehend it means it needs to be in an easy format," says Robert Shapiro, senior global lead patent attorney with Apotex Inc. in Toronto. Last year Shapiro decided it was time to look for a better way to manage and pay the many bills coming from the company's external counsel. He was looking for a more streamlined tool to house and review legal invoices. As a global company, Apotex receives invoices for a range of complicated matters including litigation, patent, and trademark work. Some are billed on hourly rates and some arrive in different currencies. "We wanted something paperless because there are approvers across the globe and it's a lot simpler if we could have an invoice approved by someone in Australia and then immediately available for approval in Canada," he says. Apotex was also looking for a direct link to the company's accounting system because there were concerns about the timely payment of invoices. The department was using a third-party auditing company based in the United States that employs trained lawyers who review le- gal invoices and identify non-compliant costs. "The problem was the cost-benefi t ratio," says Shapiro, "It was very expensive and the third-party lawyers were not as familiar with the cases as our own in-house lawyers were. So we made the decision that it was most effi cient for our own lawyers who are giving out the work to review the work. It's not a great area to outsource. We were not seeing them catch anything we would not have caught ourselves." After considering several options Shapiro decided to go with Serengeti Tracker. (Both Serengeti and Canadian Lawyer are Thomson Reuters businesses.) All of Apotex's global law fi rms were already on the Serengeti system so that meant they were familiar with it. Apotex uses the system primarily for billing but also for some minor matter management. Law fi rms upload their invoices into the Serengeti system and the bills then show up in Shapiro's inbox. The legal department now has all of its invoices going through the Serengeti system, including experts who bill Apotex through the law fi rms. "Invoices can be approved quickly and if I'm not satisfi ed with a particular invoice it's easy to reject or dispute an entire invoice or line item," he says. "We can say we're not paying something or dispute an item — it gives a fi rm a chance to explain. "By giving them a chance to explain it maintains a positive relationship between the client and the law fi rm." Shapiro admits there was some work to do on his end before rolling out the system. It gave Apotex a chance to review the way it manages matters and review and reconsider invoice approval routes. "It took about two months to get it implemented and ready to go live," he says. Now that the legal team is reviewing the invoices, Shapiro says he better understands what the law fi rms are doing with their cases. "It's helped the relationship between in- house lawyers and external counsel because you understand what's going on," he says. Achieving invoice clarity Web-based system gives Apotex better billing predictability. Robert Shapiro, senior global lead patent attorney, Apotex Inc.

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