Results-Based Legal Spend Analysis
LegalBillReview.com eliminates the burden of reviewing bills from in-house legal teams and reduces outside counsel spend.
AS SEEN IN:
LBR SAVES YOU TIME
We’re a “people and process” extension of your legal ops team. We analyze every charge on every outside counsel bill so your team doesn’t have to comb through mountains of time entries every month.
LBR REDUCES YOUR LEGAL EXPENSES
Each and every charge, on every bill, is personally reviewed by experienced,
US-based attorneys to ensure that each time entry and expense charge adds value for you, the client.
LBR IMPROVES YOUR ATTORNEY RELATIONSHIPS
We work cooperatively with your law firms to correct specific billing errors and excessive charges. By removing the friction surrounding financial issues, the client and lawyer avoid uncomfortable conversations and can focus on the legal issues, not the legal bills.
Our US-based attorneys analyze every charge, on every legal bill, to make sure that each and every time entry and expense charge adds value and complies with industry-standard billing guidelines.
HOW IT WORKS
COMMON BILLING DISCREPANCIES
Excessive Time
This is the most common complaint of clients, yet historically has been the hardest to nail down. Many clients have a “feeling” that a certain task took too long, but cannot explain why. LBR’s analysts have worked in law firms of all sizes know all the hallmarks of hourly time inflation. When a discrepancy is found, LBR explains in detail the reasons the time spent was excessive and how exactly a law firm should revise the bill. Here is an example:
The law firm charged 5.1 hours for work on a confidentiality agreement where opposing counsel had already provided a comprehensive draft agreement for comment and markup. We propose the charge be revised to a total of 2.5 hours: 2.0 for analysis and markup of the draft agreement, and 0.5 for negotiation of points with opposing counsel.
Junior-Lawyer Training
Law firms often find ways to charge for a junior lawyer’s on-the-job training. But the law firm carries the financial responsibility for training its lawyers; it is for the law firm’s benefit, not the client’s. Most of the time, this is an honest mistake that occurs because most junior lawyers are not adequately taught the difference between time that is billable to the client and time that is not. When this happens, LBR discusses the specific time entries with the billing attorney so the law firm can revise the bill accordingly.
Higher-Rate Staff Used Inappropriately
Sometimes lawyers will do work that is more appropriate for a lower-rate attorney or a paralegal. As one court quipped: “Michelangelo should not charge Sistine Chapel rates for painting a farmer's barn." Ursic v. Bethlehem Mines, 710 F. 2d 670, 677 (3rd Cir. 1983). In these cases, LBR identifies the staff that should have been assigned that task so the law firm can adjust its charges.
Administrative Tasks
Sometimes law firms will charge attorney or paralegal rates for tasks that could and should be done by administrative staff. For example, the client should not pay $300 an hour for filing a court document. That type of task should be done by a legal secretary at no charge, as part of the firm’s overhead costs.
Overstaffing a Given Task
A client should not have to pay three attorneys to accomplish a task that requires only one lawyer. Worse yet, sometimes overstaffing actually increases the time it takes to complete a task because there are "too many cooks in the kitchen." LBR adjusts these charges to match a more appropriate staffing level.
Inadequate Description
When a lawyer does not adequately describe his or her activity, there is no way for the client to determine if that activity added value for the client or if the charges for that activity are reasonable. Attorneys are paid to be precise in their language. It is not unreasonable to require lawyers to accurately describe how they spent their time and the client’s money. In these cases, LBR will investigate to determine the correct amount.
Factual Inconsistencies Between Time Entries
Sometimes two lawyers attend the same meeting but have differing accounts of how long the meeting lasted. Sometimes one lawyer charges for an in-office task when another time entry shows she was not in the office that day. The variations of inconsistent time entries are many, but the conclusion is singular: one of the two time entries is probably inaccurate. When this happens, LBR will investigate to determine the proper charge.
Duplicative Work
Duplicative work usually results from an honest mistake; at the end of one month and the beginning of the next, an attorney may charge for the same task twice, across two billing periods. In other instances, two attorneys may both perform the same task in the same billing period, failing to coordinate with each other and divide responsibilities. Here is our response to an instance of duplicative work:
[Junior lawyer] charged 25.1 hours to draft the motion for summary judgment. [Senior lawyer] charged 14.6 hours to draft the same motion at a later date. The client did not receive 39.7 hours of value in this scenario and we propose that only the 14.6-hour entry be charged.
Block Billing
Block billing is when a lawyer enters multiple unrelated tasks under one time period, without separating the time each task took. Block billing obscures the value to the client and the reasonableness of the charges for a given task, and courts around the United States have condemned the practice. Studies have shown that lawyers who enter their time in blocks tend to overestimate the actual time they worked, which is why LBR discourages this practice.
Intra-Office Communications
This is when multiple attorneys within the same firm discuss the client’s matter with each other or seek advice from a colleague about a legal issue. A major selling point for larger law firms is that they have a breadth of knowledge in specialized subjects. But when a lawyer seeks a colleague’s advice, the client should not have to pay for one attorney to educate another -- just have the knowledgeable attorney handle that part of the matter. When a law firm charges for intra-office communications, LBR will suggest corrections that are appropriate for the specific situation.
Clients Like Us Because…
LBR Saves The Client Time
CLOs, General Counsel, and In-House Attorneys like us because we save them time. LBR reviews every charge on every legal bill so our clients' in-house legal teams don’t have to comb through mountains of time entries every month. In fact, a recent survey of general counsel found that the leading reason "companies do not always carefully review legal bills" is that they are "too busy." LBR takes that burden off the legal team's shoulders so they can focus on legal issues instead of legal bills.
LBR Improves Relationships With Outside Attorneys
Legal Departments like us because we protect and improve their relationships with outside counsel. Most of our clients have strong, long-term relationships with their attorneys. That is precisely why they have LBR discuss their legal bills with their law firms: they don’t need to have those uncomfortable conversations about the charges. By removing the friction surrounding financial issues, both client and attorney can focus on the legal issues. Plus, having an outside expert like LBR confirms for other departments that the client received full and fair value from its law firms, which eases internal tensions over the legal spend.
LBR Reduces Legal Expenses
CEOs, CLOs, and CFOs like us because we save them money. LBR ensures that the client is paying only for the value it received from its law firms. If the amount billed exceeds the value delivered, LBR cooperatively works with the lawyers to adjust their bills to the correct amount.
LBR Saves The Client’s Internal Resources
Legal Operations and Accounting Teams like us because we save them work. LBR handles the bill review, appeal/adjustment, and approval process, and then sends the client payment release statements with the correct cost-center codes in "ready-to-enter" format. No more chasing down legal team members to determine the correct cost allocation.
LBR’s Service Is Invaluable, Yet Risk-Free
Our full-scope, people-and-process service results in deep cost savings and significantly reduces the legal and accounting departments’ administrative burdens. And yet our fee is guaranteed to never exceed the savings we create, meaning the client will never be responsible for paying more than the original, unadjusted bill amounts – and will usually pay much less.
Law Firms Like Us Because…
LBR Gets Law Firms Paid Faster
Law firms like us because we get them paid faster. Our analysis of a legal bill starts as soon as we receive it, and we usually submit our comments to the law firm within a week. As soon as the law firm addresses any needed adjustments, LBR notifies the client to pay the adjusted amount. Since LBR has the capacity to promptly review and process a large volume of legal bills, we facilitate fast and consistent payment to the law firms.
LBR Improves Law Firms' Relationships With Clients
Law firms like us because we protect and improve their relationships with clients. In-house legal teams usually appreciate their outside attorneys. But they are not the only client stakeholders a law firm must satisfy. Oftentimes, leaders in other departments will view outside law firm bills as an excessive and unjustified expense. Here's how we help: every month, LBR confirms that the client received full and fair value from its law firms, whether the firm’s bills were clean or whether they responded reasonably to correct overcharges. LBR's stamp of approval on a legal bill eliminates the natural suspicion of some client stakeholders that they are paying too much.
LBR Catches Billing Errors That Harm Law Firms' Relationships With Clients
Sometimes the billing attorney misses a time entry that should not have been charged to the client. Many clients feel resentment toward attorneys for unjustified charges, but oftentimes won’t say anything. These simple misunderstandings and errors can be catastrophic to the relationship. LBR is a second set of eyes that helps the billing attorney catch these mistakes and correct them, which is much better than the client finding them and assuming the worst.
LBR Never Asks For A Blanket Discount Or A Discount On Rates
LBR focuses on a lawyer’s hours, not their rates. LBR's analysts are experienced attorneys, so they know how to identify specific errors and overcharges, and support their findings with evidence. But we invite attorneys to respond with additional facts to demonstrate that a seemingly high charge is justified by the circumstances. When that happens, LBR will revise its adjustments to show that the charges equaled the value.
Implementation Time
Ongoing Responsibilities
The exact time savings LBR yields varies from organization to organization. We guarantee we will not increase your time processing legal bills.