Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP has deployed PensEra's TimeKM as its global time tracking system. BLP's Director of IT, Janet Day, said there had been a 'virtually 100%' take-up of the system by lawyers. "We're hearing a lot of good things about TimeKM from other PMS vendors who see it as a successor to Carpe Diem."

Legal Technology Insider (209) May 2008

Articles / White Papers


Legacy vs. 21st Century Time Capture System


    Legacy: Time entry is facilitated via a time entry application, just like word processing is facilitated by an application.
    21st Century: Time entry is facilitated by a capture environment that distributes mechanisms where ever the attorney works.

    Legacy: Attorneys will not enter time as they work.
    21st Century: Attorneys will enter time if given the right tools.

    Legacy: Time entry is just an extension of the firms Practice Management System.
    21st Century: The perfect time capture system is a derivative of the work habits of the attorneys.

    Legacy: The system validates and ensures a perfect complete time entry, as the attorney enters time.
    21st Century: An incomplete entry (with minimal data) is good in that it engages the attorney in contemporaneous capture, with the assistant involved in the administrative effort (COLLABORATION.

    Legacy: The billable hour is the ONLY unit of measure in billing law firm clients.
    21st Century: Both the billable hour as well as flat fee arrangements are methods for billing law firms clients. Firms that are able to accurately estimate their "cost-of-work" (via accurate hours tracking) will be better positioned to win legal mandates.

    Legacy: On line real time is the most efficient form of time entry.
    21st Century: The delay (in days/hours) from actual work to "ready to bill" is the real measure of efficiency.

    Legacy: Attorneys must go to the time entry application.
    21st Century: Time capture is always present wherever and whenever the attorneys work (in e-mail, on phone, on PDA, etc...).

    Legacy: A desktop application with a local data base is the architectural model.
    21st Century: Time capture for enterprise firms must model the movement to web (RIA) applications and leverage the ubiquitos state of the mobile, wireless, and Wi-Fi movements thereby lowering the cost of ownership for firms.

    Legacy: Time capture success is measured by firm billings and revenue.
    21st Century: Time capture success is measured objectively using measures directly related to the capture process (i.e. "velocity of capture" and "velocity to billing state").

    Legacy: Improved time capture solves firm's WIP issues.
    21st Century: Improved capture is the first step, management of time inventory, including awareness, metrics and attorney ownership all contribute to optimizing the WIP asset for the firm.