From the CEO’s Desk: 2020 – A Year in Review

It’s been nine months since we last set foot in our New York City office, shared stories with each other “around the water cooler”, grabbed lunch with coworkers, or held company-wide meetings in-person – rather than in “gallery view”.

We could have never predicted how tumultuous 2020 would be: A global pandemic, an economic crisis, civil unrest, racial injustice – all amidst an election year, no less! 

As a startup, we’re accustomed to being scrappy and adapting on the fly, but I think it’s safe to say that 2020 has certainly redefined what that means. As I replay the last several months in my head, I’m in awe. Despite the challenges, the uncertainty, the spotty WiFi connections, the guest appearances by our kids in Zoom meetings, and the journey to maneuver the “new normal”, Bodhala has thrived.

Spend management has never been more important – and it shows. 2020 has undoubtedly been the biggest year yet for our business. I’m incredibly proud of our team’s commitment to our mission, and can’t wait to see what 2021 will hold for Bodhala. 

Check out these highlights from 2020: 

$10M Series A Funding 

In March we closed our first institutional round with a $10M growth investment led by Edison Partners. Edison Partners understood our mission to create a transparent market for legal services by leveraging data to drive price discovery and innovation. Since our funding we’ve expanded our product, accelerated our sales and marketing efforts, and enhanced our machine learning to deliver even more to our clients. Edison has been a fantastic partner over the last several months and we look forward to continued success in our partnership.

New Product Features

We’ve enhanced the product tremendously over the course of the year, rolling out new features that will better serve our clients. Take a look at a few of the new features we launched in 2020 to help clients surface sophisticated insights on their outside counsel spend:

• AmLaw 100 Market Benchmarking – Compare firm rates against relevant AmLaw 100 competitors, on everything from matter-type to partner-hours and gain the upper-hand in your law firm negotiations.

• Internal Benchmarking: Firm Report Cards – Compare individual firms against relevant competitors in your panel, with granular rate analysis by practice area or matter type. Shareable benchmarking reports for each firm drive transparency and encourage better business practices
• Savings Calculator – Instantly calculates overall impact to your spend, allowing you to drill down on rates across firms, practice areas, and matter types to identify savings opportunities.

New Partnership – And More To Come!

We recently launched our partnership with Mitratech, a leading global provider of legal and compliance software. The combination of Mitratech’s robust workflow and eBilling solutions with Bodhala’s proprietary machine-learning engine will allow companies to visualize their legal spend data in new ways and unearth powerful insights that support better business outcomes. Mitratech is a pillar in the legal tech industry, and we are thrilled to integrate Bodhala’s market intelligence with their world-class solutions to deliver sophisticated insights to our customers.

And look out for more exciting partnerships in 2021!

Diversity Report: Dismantling the Barriers to Racial Diversity at Elite Law Firms

At Bodhala, we believe that everyone has a part to play in the fight for equality. We wanted to take action that could help drive real change, going beyond the virtue-signaling we so often see from others. So, we put our minds to addressing the stark lack of diversity in the legal profession, specifically the dismal number of Black equity partners at elite law firms. Our report, “Dismantling the Barriers to Racial Diversity at Elite Law Firms,” takes a deep dive into the history of this issue, the minimal progress that has been made over the past few decades, and offers concrete steps corporate legal departments can take to hold their law firms accountable. I am incredibly proud of the work each member of our team is doing to address this issue and we’re hopeful that true change will come. 

Awards & Recognition

We’re honored and humbled to be recognized as the Legal Spend Management Innovation of the Year by Legal Tech Breakthrough and as an Emerging Startup of Legal Tech by Tracxn. 

Read All About It!

In a year filled with such big news for Bodhala, we’ve been fortunate enough to have numerous media outlets take interest in the work we’re doing to transform the legal industry. From discussing the opacity of the legal services market on Nasdaq Trade Talks to diving into Big Law’s Lebron James problem with Industrial Exchange to sharing insights on hypothetical election outcomes with Radiolab, we’re thrilled to be a source of industry knowledge for such reputable outlets. 

It’s safe to say that we’re all more than ready to bid adieu to 2020, but there’s no denying that this year was a defining moment for Bodhala. Strong teams are the foundation of success and I am incredibly proud of the tireless efforts of each team member here.

Stay tuned because we’ve got more exciting news, new features, and great content coming in 2021! 

Looking forward to a bigger, better, and healthier 2021, 

Raj

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.