Shared billing information expected to be major theme of 2015

Activity appears to be increasing in the shared billing sector - with Apperio claiming to help GCs cut bills by an average of 12%, Viewabill about to run a round table on 'improving the attorney-client relationship thorugh innovation' and AdvanceLaw predicting major strides forward this year for the sector. 

Replace poor and average performers

In a prediction for 2015, listed on the LexisNexis 'Business of Law Blog', Firoz Dattu of Advance Law said: 'General counsel will increasingly combine insights from their billing data (e.g., hourly rates, adherence to budgets) with outside counsel performance scores (on things like quality, responsiveness, expertise, efficiency) to identify the best lawyers and firms for their work – this will help in-house lawyers replace not just poor performers, but even “average” performers with much stronger ones, thereby increasing legal market competition. Related, general counsel reliance on law firm pedigree will continue to decline.'

Big names

Olswang is involved in the Apperio system. Viewabill includes Reed Smith and Benesch amongst the firms which contribute to its data. LinkedIn and MGM are also on the Viewabill system. Source: Business of Law blog