Image courtesy of LexisNexis
LexisNexis Legal & Professional, a provider of legal content and law practice software, on Tuesday announced the launch of a new consulting service designed to help corporate legal departments improve the predictability of legal costs, manage budgets, and derive greater value from outside counsel.
LexisNexis CounselLink Analytics is available to customers of CounselLink software, a web-based matter management application. counselLink sofware enables corporate law departments to manage matters and legal spending and includes tools for matter management, e-billing, and legal hold. CounselLink Analytics aims to deliver specific recommendations for cost management and negotiations with outside legal counsel. The service includes guidance on the use of alternative fee arrangements as well as data benchmarking and analysis against industry best practices with respect to legal spend on comparable types of matters.
Jonah Paransky, vice president and managing director for LexisNexis CounselLink, says that "The recently released ALM survey on the use of alternative fee arrangements shows that corporate counsel continue to struggle with AFAs. The CounselLink Analytics service offers them a powerful means of understanding, structuring and leveraging alternative fee arrangements to maximum effect."
Typical consulting engagements for CounselLink Analytics draw on one or more of the following areas, but the customer focus can expand or contract based on particular needs:
• Comprehensive Cost Management and Vendor Negotiation: Delivers specific recommendations for a broad range of cost saving opportunities based on similar matters in the past.
• Alternative Fee Arrangements: Identifies the types of matters that best lend themselves to alternative fee arrangements and models the impact of different pricing scenarios and fee structures on bottom-line legal costs.
• Benchmarking Analysis: Compares client budget and performance data against comparable legal departments and industry averages to identify specific areas for improvement.
• Matter Forecasting: Leverages historic cost trends and drivers of those costs to generate more accurate forecasts of future matter-specific legal costs.
• Custom Projects: Tailored to the specific needs and objectives of each legal department.
"By combining the power of our CounselLink software with the new consulting service, inside counsel can better manage all of their legal matters and costs -- and quantify those improvements -- without sacrificing quality."
LexisNexis CounselLink software enables corporate law departments to more effectively and efficiently manage their matters and legal spend, while at the same time optimizing their outside counsel relationships. The offering consists of comprehensive matter management functionality, robust e-billing capabilities, actionable reporting and benchmarking tools, and various outside counsel collaboration features.
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More information about CounselLink matter management and e-billing software, see www.counsellink.com.
Attorney Sean Doherty is LTN's technology editor.
