Articles / WhitePapers
At PensEra we take pride in keeping current on the evolving business practices in the professional services industry including legal. As such we are proud to offer you articles and white papers dealing with new trends and best practices. Some of these also relate directly to the capture and management of time, the professional service firms most important asset.
We will be adding new material regularly, so please check back often.
Time Tracking contributes to Better Law Firm Client Relationships
- white paper by Altman Weil
Corporate counsel need to be armed with detailed, accurate and timely spending information on the use of their law firms. As such law firms must step to the plate by delivering timely and accurate billing information including delivery via electronic medium(e-billing). Read this white paper to see how Law Firms are changing their processes and technologies, including time tracking, to address this modern day business reality.
Source: Charles Maddock, Altman Weil - April 2008
Large Firms' Billing Rates Continue to Climb
Attorney billing rates shot up in 2007, with approximately three-quarters of the law firms that participated in The National Law Journal's annual survey boosting the amounts they charged for partner and associate services. At the same time, the average firm wide billing rates, which included partner and associate rates, climbed by 7.7 percent, while the firm wide median rates rose by 7.1 percent, compared to the firms that reported billing data in 2006.
Source: Leigh Jones The National Law Journal December 11, 2007
Hourly Billing: It's Business As Usual
The use of alternative fee arrangements (AFA) in the legal profession has been discussed for decades. Yet, my day-to-day dealings with General Counsel and law firms suggest continuing high level of discomfort with the topic. There is a struggle to identify opportunities for AFAs. And even if such opportunities are identified, they are often seen as too time consuming, too risky, or simply too unfamiliar to pursue.
Statistical data from recent editions of the Altman Weil Law Department Metrics Benchmarking Survey shows some increase in AFAs over the last half dozen years, but the hourly rate (including reduced hourly rates) still represents the predominant billing method employed by law firms.
Source: Altman and Weil Direct - November/December, 2007
BlackBerry® web cast on TimeKM™ Mobile
This March 2007 webcast features TimeKM™ Mobile as one of the leading providers of time capture solutions on BlackBerry® smartphones for law firms. The presentation describes the time capture process used by most law firms today and contrasts it with how this critical function can be revolutionized with time capture solutions for BlackBerry smartphones that simplify time capture, increase billable hours and reduce revenue leakage.
Feeding the Beast - Improving Time Tracking
PensEra article from LJN's Legal Tech Newsletter, October 2003
Recent surveys show 98% of lawyers have and use computers, but less than 25% use computers to capture time or activity. Clearly something is wrong. Time is still the law firm's main currency, but clerical or complex processes drive away busy lawyers. Time-tracking must be reinvented to connect to the lawyer's work process.
Leading Litigation Firm stays in sync with palmOne and PensEra
A PalmOne Case study about how one law firm increased productivity and maximized ROI using Treo Smartphones with unique TimeKM time and knowledge tracking software.
Tapping the Value of Mobile Activity
PensEra article from The Lawyers' Competitive Edge - The Journal of Law Office Economics and Management, August 2004
A wireless mobile strategy must help mobile lawyers recover more of the value of outside activity. Mobile e-mail only begins to tap the potential of mobile computing. To be effective, the mobile lawyer must also have effortless access to the two essential ingredients of any professional practice: activity tracking (revenue) and knowledge exchange.
The Virtues of Chitchat
An article on the value of collective project logs from CIO.com
There is a growing recognition of the value of capturing information about a case (project), a client, or a department (practice area) as it happens. This closely aligns with PensEra's approach to capturing actionable knowledge when, where and while you work. The article outlines the benefits of leveraging experience, learning from war stories, coordinating activity, quickly orienting new members and identifying related resources. (TimeKM makes capture, control and consumption part of the attorney's work process.)
PensEra is not affiliated with CIO or CXO Media, but this article is an informative look at the best approaches to knowledge management.