Author: Onit

Understanding Legal Process Management

Posted on September 2, 2011 by - Business Process Management

In large corporations, legal departments are largely back-office operations. They handle contact review, employee terminations, litigation, trademarks and patents, and a plethora of other functions. The legal process itself demands a lot of paper, and legal departments often get buried in just the documents required for a project. When you add in the emails, calls and other requests from the front end – the sales department, human resources or other business units – the legal department slows down, trying to sort through not only existing work but also making sure that new requests are routed through the system efficiently. That’s a tall order, given the average amount of work most legal departments have, using less staff than a few years ago.

Legal process management ties together the front and back ends of the business. Here’s an example of how smooth the process could be: using a portal, customized forms and a data entry wizard, the human resources department could request that the legal department review the involuntary termination of an employee. The process would be simple for both sides:

  1. The portal, which could be a part of the legal department’s home page, an intranet page or reside on the legal process management vendor’s server, would include a link to request legal services. The human resources representative would click on the appropriate link, i.e. “Review an involuntary termination.”
  2. The link would bring up an online form that could be customized for the company. The human resources representative would then fill out those fields and attach supporting documentation like performance reviews or inappropriate emails sent by the employee.
  3. Using the data entry wizard, the form could include a drop-down menu for the reason for termination, such as “inappropriate conduct.” Something like this could be flagged so that the termination would need to be reviewed by the general counsel. The request would then be routed to her by the legal process management system to be reviewed before giving approval to HR to terminate the employee.

By utilizing a legal process management system, the legal department gets everything it needs to begin working on an issue in a timely manner. Instead of back-and-forth emails that can easily get overlooked in overflowing inboxes or playing phone tag, the legal department is able to customize forms that ask the right questions from the inception. The department requesting the legal services is able to provide the right information and can track the progress of the legal department through the portal.

This efficient way of legal process management frees up time across the enterprise, allowing everyone to focus on their jobs. It simplifies the legal process, makes sure that the work gets done, and prevents costly, time-consuming lawsuits over missed deadlines. It saves time and money, both important resources in companies that are struggling to do more with less in a turbulent economy.

Watch this video to see how a simple tool like Onit Process can help a general counsel automate a contract review process with a sales manager. To see the tool, sign-up to view the Legal Process Management Onit Premium screencast.

Onit Partners with RedHouse Associates to Accelerate Growth

Posted on August 23, 2011 by - Company News and Events

We announced a partnership today with RedHouse Associates, one of Houston’s newest, startup accelerator teams, and I wanted to share the good news. This partnership is extremely beneficial to Onit for many reasons as it will help us accelerate our product development, add functionality to our existing products and prepare us for growth.

Since the early 1990’s, the partners of RedHouse Associates have been involved as founders, senior executives, angel investors, directors, and advisors with a number of fast growth technology companies. Its team draws on a collective wealth of experience that has assisted Texas-based companies in raising more than $1 billion in growth capital funding, created hundreds of jobs, and participated in many successful exits.

Today, RedHouse Associates provides strategic advice and services to assist clients in developing business plans, devising product strategies, growing sales organizations, preparing senior management teams for interaction with investors, and advising its clients on raising capital and strategic exits.

Some of RedHouse Associates’ impressive portfolio includes PentaSafe (acquired by NetIQ in 2002), RLX Technologies (acquired by HP in 2005), The Planet (acquired by SoftLayer in 2010 and Phurnace (acquired by BMC in 2009). Some current ventures include LiquidFrameworks, Paymetric, GolfNet and Illumitex.

Mike Clark of RedHouse Associates shares our enthusiasm for Onit:

“After our first meeting with Onit, it was clear that they are able to deliver the next generation of Enterprise Process Management. The founders of Onit are proven entrepreneurs and we are excited about the size of the market, the potential sales pipeline, and referenceable customer base.”

6 Steps for Evaluating Legal Project Management Software

Posted on August 19, 2011 by - Business Process Management

Legal project management software can streamline your department’s processes and help you keep track of the large amounts of information that are commonplace in today’s paperwork-intensive legal departments. Whether it’s litigation encompassing e-discovery, keeping track of trademarks and patents, or contract management, a good legal project management tool can increase your efficiency, control costs, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Selecting a legal project management system is a big commitment so you’ll want to evaluate different vendors before making a final decision.

Here are 6 steps to consider when evaluating legal project management tools:

1. Determine your department’s needs. How many users do you have? What features do you need? What legal projects will you be using it for (litigation, contracts, NDAs, etc.)? It may seem very rudimentary but you’ll want to have the basics laid out before you start evaluating vendors.

2. Find out how easy it is to implement. You’re going to have to train your entire legal department on the software, so investigate the vendor’s demos, videos or screencasts. Request an online demo and ask questions specific to your project scope. If you have colleagues who already use legal project management software, ask them for a recommendation and find out how easy it was to implement.

3. Consult with your IT department. Do you need software that resides on servers in-house, or would a “cloud” offering (Software as a Service – SaaS) suffice? Involve your IT team in as much of the software selection as possible. They’ll be able to tell you what will work with your existing systems, what will require additional hardware purchases, and the requirements for installation and implementation. They’ll also be able to quickly access if the tools meet your company’s regulations and are compliant with your data security policies.

4. Review the software’s ability to “play nice” with your existing systems. This goes back to consulting with the IT department. They’ll be able to tell you if the software you’re considering can work with internal systems like Outlook or SharePoint or can integrate with other systems (i.e. document management, contract management, e-billing and matter management, time & billing, etc.)

5. Find out if the software offers the reporting you need. Can the solution you’re considering generate the reports you need on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to manage different projects? Is the user interface easy to use? Can you quickly create a report to check the status of all your projects?

6. Investigate the user interface. As eluded to above, a user-friendly interface makes managing projects and generating reports easier if it doesn’t require much training. Look for an intuitive, simple to use interface that allows you to see the status of different projects on one screen.

By following these 6 basic steps, you’ll be better prepared to select a suitable legal project management system that’s aligned with your company and legal department’s goals.

Want to get started today? Onit Project is a light-weight legal project management tool with full project planning functionality, document management and enterprise-class security. Register today and start tracking all your projects. You’ll be glad you did.

Onit Signs Partnership with Mosaic Consulting

Posted on August 16, 2011 by - Company News and Events

It is with great pleasure that I would like to announce our partnership with Mosaic Consulting, a leading consulting firm in the corporate legal community. The partnership will leverage our technology (Onit Process) while combining Mosaic’s consulting services to give legal departments a powerful solution to automate legal processes, drive legal operational efficiency and extend legal services beyond the legal department.

The Mosaic partnership is a major win for us. Mosaic possesses a unique combination of technical and management skills and has a proven track record in the corporate legal environment. Our goal with this partnership is to allow legal departments to quickly implement new technology and see significant productivity gains and cost savings within weeks of deployment.

Our SaaS offering combined with Mosaic’s consulting expertise will make it easy for any legal department to implement a legal process management initiative. By joining forces, legal departments will have a powerful solution to reduce legal costs, better manage complex workflows and minimize company risk and exposure.

Dan Hamilton, president of Mosaic Consulting agrees that the partnership is a major power play in the industry.

“Legal project and process management are here to stay. Onit truly understands the unique needs of the legal industry and has the technology to make automating legal and business processes standard practice in all legal departments, regardless of their size. The technology is easily customizable and uses a simplified interface unlike any in the industry.”

The partnership will bring real value to legal departments looking to implement processes that have traditionally been paper-based and manual. With this partnership, we are uniquely positioned to make the implementation seamless and produce immediate ROI for your department.

Learn more about Onit Process and watch these screencasts. Contact me if you’d like to schedule a demo.

LPM 101: The Benefits of Legal Project Management Software

Posted on August 15, 2011 by - Business Process Management

If you’re looking for advanced tools to facilitate a more efficient management of ongoing legal projects and open cases, the benefits of using legal project management (LPM) software are many. LPM tools offer users a wide range of benefits, including data collection and management, project planning, collaboration, document management, and much more.

One of the major benefits of LPM tools is that it facilitates easy collaboration. Let’s use a legal project as an example. When a legal matter or “project” is initiated, it is common practice to assign tasks to team members. How are these tasks tracked? Who tracks them? How do you ensure that deadlines are not missed? Is there a project manager? Is project status communicated in Outlook or another internal tracking system?

Creating a project in a legal project management tool alleviates all of these issues. When all team members have access to the same information, it’s easy to share documents, see status updates, assign tasks, and add notes about the project. Not only will your staff be more efficient and happier but it will also reduce their email and phone call loads.

Another major benefit of legal project management software is that it allows project leaders to assign and delegate tasks while supervising the progress of individual team members. This helps increase accountability and promotes a culture of professionalism within the organization.

When it comes to a legal project, there are many moving parts and complexity is commonplace. One of the most beneficial features of legal project management software is that it makes scheduling easy. No longer will you need to worry about missed deadlines or getting clarity on the project scope. All team members have access to the information and can get updates immediately.

In some cases, you may wish to collaborate with professionals or legal experts outside your organization. You need not worry. Legal project management software makes it easy to quickly invite new team members and get them up to speed on the project scope. It can also be advantageous for the training of new employees, as the inherent features of legal project management software make it easy to demonstrate the progression of a project from its initiation to its final resolution.

Most of all, legal project management software helps your organization, whether it’s a corporation, non-profit, hospital or university, save money through the effective deployment of departmental resources and labor. It is an investment that can quite literally pay for itself in a relatively short period of time. How you ask? The ROI can be calculated in labor and resource savings, improved efficiencies and increased accountability and professionalism for starters. Layer in enhanced productivity and projects are more likely to stay within project scope and budget.

There is a wide range of legal project management software tools available and it’s important that you take the time to research the options carefully before making an investment. It’s critical to only pay for the features that your organization wants and needs. From introductory packages to advanced suites and modules, there’s a legal project management software package that’s just right for you.

Interested in learning more? Watch these screencasts to see if Onit Project is the right legal project management tool for your organization.

Legal Project Management – What’s It All About?

Posted on August 9, 2011 by - Business Process Management

Legal project management applies and adapts the business process of project management to the management of legal services. As more law firms adopt alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) over the standard hourly billing model, the management of time and expenses becomes increasingly more important to the law firm’s overall success.

Historically, the practice of law is not about efficiency, but rather research and ingenuity. Project management, a concept from the business world, breaks down the process of law into measurable, systematic goals, which may seem contrary to the creative thinking approach many lawyers take.

However, the legal clients of today expect accountability, communication, and transparency. By having a process in place for documenting and sharing information and expectations, law firms can not only maximize client satisfaction, but profits as well.

The formula for successful project management includes reviewing the objective of the project with clients, defining a system of communication, mapping specific actions required, creating a timeline or schedule with target dates, and scheduling meetings to update or revise the project scope.

A law firm can implement these strategies using legal project management software, LPM training or certification, or both, depending on the size of the firm and the needs of the clients.

Generally, the larger the law firm, the more beneficial it is to have at least one, if not several, project managers. Introducing and adapting this project management discipline within a law firm is a shift in how law firms have typically operated.

Project management introduces targeted goals and accountability in strategic ways geared towards not just maximum profits but client satisfaction. While this may be a difficult philosophical adjustment for some firms and lawyers, the practice is becoming more widely implemented. Legal project management is a new concept that is making its mark on how law is practice.

Don’t wait to get started. Register today for a free Onit account and kick-start your legal project management initiative.

Flip Flops, Beach Balls and Project Management

Posted on June 21, 2011 by - Company News and Events

It’s summer. School’s out. Your family vacation is booked. Your mind is preoccupied with thoughts of pools, parks and picnics.

Before you slip on your figurative flip flops at work, remember that this (traditionally but not always) slower time during the work year is ideal for professional development. This is especially true for project management education. Here is a list of some of the hottest project management courses scheduled for these heat-stroke days.

Onsite, In-depth Training in Chicago

The Hildebrandt Institute revisits legal project management once more by offering a two-day workshop in Chicago on June 21-22. The seminar, geared towards lawyers, practice management professionals and professional development directors (which means anyone else interested in attending), covers best practices, the five phases of legal project management and exercises on how to apply these principles.

ILTA 2011 Conference

The International Legal Technology Association holds its annual conference in Nashville this year on August 21-25. In between healthy (as in size only) portions of ribs and live music at the Grand Ole Opry, make it a point to take in these two sessions:

Legal Project Management: Staff Roles

August 23 at 9:15 a.m.

Four law firm experts – including representatives from Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Borden Ladner Gervais and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey – tackle the basics of legal project management, different approaches and the roles and responsibilities of staff members who support legal project management for attorneys.

Legal Project Management

August 24 at 9:15 a.m.

The benefits and values of legal project management are easy to grasp but rolling it out to your firm may present challenges. This roundtable focuses on legal project management fundamentals, its goals and how to introduce – and implement – it in a legal environment.

Save the Date for these Non-Summer Sessions

You may have to retire your flip flops in the fall, but not your legal project management training opportunities. Though it’s only June, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) already has some informative sessions available.

The ACC Annual Meeting, the largest gathering of in-house counsel, kicks off in Denver on October 23. It offers this session during its first full day of presentations:

Outside Counsel Management – Project Management for Small Law Department Leaders

October 24 at 4:30 p.m.

Although presenters have not been announced just yet, the session promises to cover ideal types of matters and techniques for project management, how to assess outside counsel project management capabilities and how to supervise their work.

Our advice: Definitely make room for this session between the 30+ hours of networking and more than 100 CLE/CPD certified courses provided at the meeting.

What could be the complete opposite of summer dreaming? Try Boston in November. Anti-summer weather aside, Project Management for the In-House Law Department promises to deliver on content. Scheduled for November 8-9, the course will cover the strategic dimensions of project management, concepts and approaches for dealing with various factors such as project team dynamics and risk management.

So, now you have our list of the HOT legal project management courses filling up the summer months. Did we miss any? If so, let us know!

Alternative Fee Arrangements: The Fundamental Advantage is for Law Firms

Posted on June 10, 2011 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Law firms love AFAs. They love them because they make more money using them. Why else would a law firm actively bid on work using AFAs?

How are law firms profiting from AFAs? It’s simple. Strong AFA-oriented firms – regardless of size or specialty – have the data. They know how long projects take, how many personnel are required and the most efficient ways to execute. And they can mine that data across many matters and multiple industries. Additionally, because law firms are still capturing time entries from their staff, they can continually monitor the effectiveness of their AFAs and tweak their “input” costs accordingly if they are at risk of losing money.

Corporate legal departments are at a disadvantage because they likely don’t have the data to inform structuring an AFA and they certainly don’t get the “input” cost data from the law firms to monitor the effectiveness of the AFA from a cost perspective. From a purely cost-focused point of view, to enter into AFA negotiations without data and metrics around necessary resources and time is like going to a negotiation unprepared. The cards are stacked against the corporate legal department before the negotiations begin.

However, there is a way to help level the playing field and it’s pretty simple.

Request a shadow bill.

A shadow bill is exactly what it sounds like: A duplicate copy of the hours that the law firm staff spent on your project. I know that this is controversial, but making sure both parties have the data is the only fair way for AFAs to be entered into and maintained.

These bills are often circulated internally in a law firm so there may be an initial resistance to sharing them with a client. From a corporate perspective, requesting a shadow bill is the ONLY way you’ll be able to analyze the true value you are getting from the AFA. Moreover, law firms have the technology and processes in place that make this a simple task on their side.

Clarity of Results

Now imagine the clarity that ensues when both parties come to the table with a shared understanding of AFA-related results and costs. It extends beyond cost-controlling measures to create stronger ties between in-house and outside counsel – ties that can be used to create mutually beneficial results. In fact, cost savings are only the beginning.

One of the key benefits from AFAs is being able to share in the financial risks. In some instances (depending on the type of AFA – see below), law firms reap the rewards when a certain goal is attained. When alternative fee arrangements focus on results with the emphasis away from the billable hour, lawyers are rewarded for efficiency. AFAs also provide another important benefit to legal departments – clarity of future costs. Having the ability to mine data from other legal cases or matters is a huge incentive when trying to predict future legal spend. Shadow bills provide this transparency of legal spend.

Let’s look at an example. A case settled in mediation might net a law firm a tidy profit under an AFA structure – one that would not be reflected in an hourly structure. But balance this against an AFA-billed case that might have unexpected turns and the arrangement may work in the corporate legal department’s favor.

Shadow bills are the only way to level the AFA-playing field for law firms and corporate legal departments. Get started today. Request a shadow bill from your law firm and start managing your legal department like a business.

Beyond the Billable Hour

Below are some of the common alternatives to hourly billing:

    • Fixed-fee or Flat Rate – An agreed-upon sum for handling a matter or a defined portion of a case.
    • Capped Fee – An hourly rate, but the client is promised the total billing will not exceed a predetermined amount
    • Discounted Hourly – A reduced hourly rate, often tied to a high volume or extended to major clients
    • Blended Hourly – A uniform hourly rate averaged among the partner, associate and support staff rates
    • Project Billing – A flat fee agreed upon in advance, for handing a specific project
    • Incentive Billing – A fixed fee, established at the outset, with an incentive bonus if the law firm obtains specific results
    • Modified Contingency – A reduce hourly rate with additional compensation depending on the outcome of a matter
    • Defense Contingency or Negative Contingency – Defense attorney’s compensation is totally or partially dependent upon the outcome of a matter
    • Hybrid Arrangements – Any billing method that combines two or more alternatives

Want to Learn More?

Take a look at the articles and surveys below to see why alternative fee arrangements are becoming so popular.

Articles

ACC Value Challenge

2010 Surveys

    • Inside Counsel Third Annual Law Department Operations Survey (Link no longer live)

Alternative Fee Arrangements: Smart Law Firms Profit, Smart Law Departments Know It

Posted on June 8, 2011 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Law firms are resilient – one of the most tenacious businesses that exist.

Never mind the (almost) static, partner-centric organizational structure. They’re slow to adopt new technology when compared to businesses in other industries. They often have the reputation of holding onto tradition and responding slowly to new experiences or trends.

What other profession is so well known for charging at an hourly rate – a set-up that essentially rewards lawyers for spending more time (as opposed to only necessary time) on cases?

However, as corporate legal departments strive to drive down costs and minimize risks, an opponent to the hourly bill is steadily growing in popularity and is now (ok, I’m just going to say it) a mainstream practice for many law firms. The common perception is that alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) (think flat-rates or project- or value-based fees) give corporate legal departments a distinct edge when it comes to saving money and puts law firms at a significant (monetary) disadvantage.

That might not be the case.

As billing models change, resilient law firms are adapting. They’re surviving and thriving when it comes to AFAs.

Why are law firms benefiting from AFAs? Because most of them have the experience and (most importantly) the data to reinforce their AFA negotiations. The result is that law firms make more money using AFAs; not less. Counterintuitive? Read our next post.

State of the Nation

That AFAs are gaining more ground in the bout of in-house vs. outside counsel is no surprise to anyone. And, as is usually the case, the battle to keep law department costs down is fueling the movement.

A survey from the BTI Consulting Group cites that corporate legal budgets were expected to decrease 4.3 percent in 2010. This means that corporate legal departments needed to get the same amount (or more) of work done with less money and resources.

According to Fulbright’s 7th Annual Litigation Trends Survey Report, 52 percent of the U.S. corporate legal departments surveyed are using AFAs. One in six of the corporate counsel that responded estimate that AFAs account for 50 percent or more of their billings. Among all respondents using AFAs, fixed fees, conditional/contingent fees, blended rates and capped fees are the most widely used AFA variants.

And the practice is growing. The survey stated that four out of 10 U.S. respondents expect to increase their use of alternative fees and with large companies leading the way and that a majority of U.S. respondents see AFAs – and more stringent cost control measures – as becoming fixtures in the market.

To sum it all up, cost controls demand innovative thinking. As corporate legal embraces AFAs, law firms have to anticipate, adapt to and profit from these arrangements.

And they are.

Corporate legal departments are also embracing it. Read Mark Herrmann’s article – Inside Straight: Alternative Fee Agreements for Beginners in Above the Law to see how your legal department can benefit from project or value-based billing arrangements. Mr. Herrmann is the Vice President and Chief Counsel – Litigation at Aon.

The Dawn of Alternative Legal Fee Standardization

Posted on May 19, 2011 by - Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Alternative fee arrangements bring about a couple of different (ahem) feelings, depending on who you are and where you work. General counsel applaud them as they reduce outside counsel spend. Agile (and often smaller) law firms consider them a nicely sharpened tool in the business development arsenal. Larger firms, which can have ingrained processes and a strong hierarchy, sometimes find themselves a bit behind the curve.

Regardless, alternative billing is pretty much becoming, well, the new standard for billing.

Not that I’m telling you anything new here, folks. We all know how the in-house perspective on alternative billing has evolved over the years. Let’s recap the highlights of the conversation over the past three decades:

    • 1981: Legal work costs what it costs. We can’t control how much we spend or what outside counsel will charge us.
    • 1991: Wait a second. Maybe we can. If only we had the technology to do so.
    • 2011: We’ve got the technology. We see alternative fee arrangements thriving with documented ROI from our own efforts and/or our peers’ efforts.

So what has sparked this blog post? We can thank The Economist for that.

It published an article on May 5 titled “A Less Gilded Future,” which lays out ongoing and growing challenges for law firms. What factors are attributing to these challenges now? Besides technology and outsourcing – which both force a deduction in billable hours – the other “evil beast” is alternative fee arrangements.

In support of this, the article cites feedback from Robert Ruyak on one of the main causes for the demise of the law firm he worked at, Howery:

Howrey had begun acceding to clients’ demands for flat, deferred or contingent fees, causing income to become clumpy and unpredictable.

With this example in mind, and with what you have seen yourself, does the growing strength of alternative fees present a mighty blow to the proliferation of law firms? Or does it just mean an end to the way law firms conceptualize, pitch and measure their billing structures?

And one more (even more thrilling) thought: Are we actually nearing a point where we can apply industry standards to alternative fee arrangements?

The adoption of alternative fees has accelerated these past 5 years alone. The fees have been in use by some pioneers for much longer than that. Thanks to technology (such as legal project management software), is there enough collective data to begin to consider the average fees associated with matters and general tasks from both an in-house and outside counsel point of view? Imagine the implications this could have on negotiations – a basic plateau to start negotiations on that is backed up by both corporate legal departments and law firms alike. Standards such as this could help law firms negotiate on a more level playing field while also affording the necessary cost controls for general counsel.

What do you think? Now that we have (and have had) the technology, do we have the data to begin building standards for alternative billing?

Stay tuned for the next blog where I will discuss how some firms are pushing alternative fee arrangements with their customers because they are finding higher margins there! Sounds counter-intuitive, right?