The Billable Hour is Not Dead, but Many Would Like to Kill it

An article in The Economist entitled, Curbing those long, lucrative hours: The billable hour is not dead, but many people would like to kill it, quotes Exari Partner Seth Rowland, President of Basha Systems, on the value of document assembly.

He cites an example where document assembly software reduced the time needed to put together a certain type of real-estate lease from 40 hours to one. Seth says," Automating the automatable stuff allows lawyers to spend more time talking to the client, so everyone wins."

The Economist Article goes on to say, "More and more firms’ in-house lawyers, who typically hire and manage outside lawyers, have turned to alternatives to the billable hour since the beginning of the global recession in 2008. According to a survey by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), which represents companies’ in-house lawyers, 44% of members asked their lawyers for alternative billing to cut costs in 2009, more than any other cost-reducing measure. Susan Hackett, the ACC’s general counsel, says that just a few years ago what she calls “value-based” billing was only 3% of her members’ legal spending. Now, she says, surveys show the average client laying out between 15% and 30% of their legal spending this way."

Technology in general, and document assembly/document automation software in particular, is just one tool that law firms can use to move to profitable alternative billing arrangements. Try a demo of the software and see for yourself what document assembly can do.

Legal Technology Glossary: 17 Terms Explained

Sometimes, talking about technology feels like speaking (or listening to) a foreign language, and you're just not sure you quite understand what's going on. To try to help, below is a glossary of 17 commonly used legal technology terms defined in plain English.

1. Knowledge Management (KM): Succinctly put, KM is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves codifying what employees, partners and customers know, and sharing that information among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices. More…
   
   
2. Document Assembly: Every document created by a law firm or legal department is “assembled” as the product of a discrete set of questions and answers used to guide the appropriate language for the document. Document assembly (1) codifies the questions, (2) structures the answers, and (3) rationalizes the outputs. By building a branching “decision-tree” out of hundreds of potential questions, an automated system can achieve the same (or better results) in a fraction of the time. More…
   
   
3. Document Assembly System: allows business people to create contracts using a repository of pre-approved alternative clauses, rather than cutting and pasting from old contracts or creating new language themselves. This speeds up the sales process, and allows the law department to manage legal risk without getting involved in reviewing individual contracts. More…
   
   
4. Template: A template is a file that serves as a starting point for a new document. When you open a template, it is pre-formatted in some way. For example, you might use template that is formatted as a business letter. The template would likely have a space for your name and address in the upper left corner, an area for the recipient's address a little below that on the left site, an area for the message body below that, and a spot for your signature at the bottom. More…
   
   
5. Electronic Discovery: Discovery is the term used for the initial phase of litigation where the parties in a dispute are required to provide each other relevant information and records, along with all other evidence related to the case. In 2006 amendments to the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, codified the requirement to provide electronic information and records, referred to as electronically stored information (ESI). These changes brought about the term eDiscovery or Electronic Discovery and includes all electronic information. More…
   
   
6. Legacy System: Legacy systems utilize outmoded programming languages, software and/or hardware that typically are no longer supported by the respective vendors. Legacy systems persist because of the expense, effort and potential risk of business interruption associated with the movement of data and key business processes to more advanced and contemporary technologies. More…
   
   
7. Data Repository: a logical (and sometimes physical) partitioning of data where multiple databases which apply to specific applications or sets of applications reside. More…
   
   
8. Document Management System: controls the life cycle of documents in your organization — how they are created, reviewed, and published, and how they are ultimately disposed of or retained. More…
   
   
9. Application Integration: (sometimes called enterprise application integration or EAI) is the process of bringing data or a function from one application program together with that of another application program. More…
   
   
10. Contract Lifecycle Management: a systematic process for the creation, execution, compliance, and analysis of corporate contracts for the purpose of reducing costs, maximizing operational efficiency, and minimizing risk. More…
    
    
11. Application Service Provider (ASP): a business that offers software services to customers, using computer networks and the Internet as the mechanism to deliver and manage the service. More…
    
    
12. Extensible Markup Language (XML): XML is a markup language for documents containing structured information. Structured information contains both content and some indication of what role that content plays (for example, content in a section heading has a different meaning from content in a footnote) A markup language is a mechanism to identify structures in a document. The XML specification defines a standard way to add markup to documents. More…
    
    
13. Semantic Tag/Markup: When you format text to be printed (or displayed on a computer or TV), you need to distinguish between the text itself and the instructions for printing the text. The markup is the instructions for the text. Markup can also indicate information about the text. More…
    
    
14. Application Programming Interface (API): a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer then puts the blocks together. More…
    
    
15. Workflow: a term used to describe the tasks, procedural steps, people, systems, inputs and outputs of information in a business process. More…
    
    
16. Cloud Computing: Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. More…
    
    
17. Software as a Service (SaaS): a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. More…

What terms/definitions would you add to this list?

Best of The Exari Blog, Part 1

About this series: The Exari team has worked for nearly five years to make this blog a complete resource for information about contracts and document assembly. With more than 180 published articles, we thought we would introduce our newer readers to the most popular articles from the archive.

In January, 2006, Exari founder Jamie Wodetzki started a blog called Pactum: News and views on contracts, agreements and all the fine print in between. In an excerpt from his first post, Wodetzki outlines his intentions for the new blog:

Why blog about contracts? Because there's always something useful to learn from a contract scandal, and there's lots to keep up with when it comes to drafting, negotiating, closing, signing, managing, enforcing and renewing the contracts we deal with every day.

In 2007, Pactum became The Exari Blog. Here are the most popular articles from 2006, Exari's first year in the blogosphere:

1) Everything you ever wanted to know about precedent automation

But were too afraid to ask. Precedent automation. Document assembly. Online legal services. Disruptive innovation. Precedent economics. It was all under the microscope in Sydney last week at the Precedent Automation Conference. A rare gathering (physical and virtual) of document automation experts came together to reflect on the past, present and future, and made some interesting predictions about the coming revolution in the way documents (especially legal documents) are produced, delivered and consumed...read full article

2) A three step plan for legal IT

Lawyers like doing "high end" legal work. They hate losing clients. And they like to argue about the value of IT. But as Bruce MacEwan writes on his blog Adam Smith, Esquire, this month has witnessed some kind of consensus about how law firms can best use technology for a sustainable competitive advantage...read full article

3) Paperclips are like, so last year

That's right. A career in procurement no longer means you're "in charge of paperclips". In somewhat provocative terms, the Financial Times reckons that procurement has undergone a revolution. It's no longer a career dead-end. No longer a mere support service. The modern procurement department is experienced, professional and respected, and it's being unleashed on an ever wider array of goods, and services. Not just stationery, furniture and laptops, but lawyers, accountants and consultants...read full article

We hope you've enjoyed this look back at the humble beginnings of the Exari Blog. Please stay tuned throughout the summer (here in Boston, anyway) as we share the rest of the "best of" posts.

Photo courtesy of Globevisions.

Win The Argument For Standard Contracts

IACCM President Tim Cummins recently blogged about this topic saying,

"Standard templates improve business control, reduce risk and increase efficiency. They have been adopted by more than 70% of large companies. Specific benefits include:

Reduced operational costs (managing variations)

Reduced cycle times for contract review and approval

Scarce, highly skilled resources (such as Legal) able to focus on important issues and agreements

Change management simplified (because you know what is in the base agreements)

Business control increased (variations can be identified; new policies/procedures simplified)"

Creating and managing standard templates within an enterprise document assembly system provides the additional benefits of:

- Ensuring that all users have access to the templates and "best practices" are adhered to in all contracts/documents

- Storing the contract terms, providing visibility into and reporting on the company's obligations

- Providing guidance on negotiated fall backs so users create contracts most favorable to the company

- Empowering business users to create pre-approved working first drafts.

Cummins went on to say,

"The volatility of today’s economy has made it critical for the law department to know what is in their contracts. Executive management expect them to know whether particular actions can or cannot be taken. For example, during the recession, many companies unilaterally changed payment terms, or sought to exercise termination rights. Without standard templates, this became a time-consuming – and risky – task.

Law departments in many businesses are increasingly looking at ways to automate their contracts. They want reliable repositories; they want to be confident about the competitiveness of their terms; they want easy access to what has been negotiated; and they do not want to be seen as an inhibitor to getting business done."

Document assembly is the way to accomplish these goals and win the argument for standard contracts.

Photo courtesy of NobMouse