Track the people working on each matter
Individuals, teams and groups can be assigned to matters in LegalNet® and can be given different security and access rights depending on their involvement in the matter. In the event that there is a change in the team or group dynamics, the "Team Swap-out" function can be used to reassign matters and workloads to other individuals, teams or groups.
Detailed contact information regarding the lawyers at your panel firms can also be stored in LegalNet®. Against each externally briefed matter you can capture information such as, designation, charge out rates, agreed fee and disbursement rates, and their involvement on the matter. All the information recorded against external lawyers can be used to validate the invoices you receive from that firm.
Track the status of a matter
LegalNet® allows you to record and report on the status of matters at any given time. The Matter Status screen is continually updated during the life of the matter, thus providing you with a full history of the different status' that have been assigned to the matter. Both your internal legal team as well as external lawyers can update the status of a matter thus providing an accurate real time assessment of its current status. A large percentage of our clients are required to perform either weekly, monthly, or quarterly status reporting for both internal and external matters, this reporting task is achieved effortlessly in LegalNet®.
Track key events through milestones
The milestone functionality in LegalNet® is a very powerful risk management tool.
When a milestone task is created in LegalNet®, the requested recipients are notified by an email that they are required to attend to that milestone. Each user of LegalNet® can search the database and report on the milestones that they have to attend.
In addition to searching LegalNet® for relevant milestones, each milestone can be sent to your email calendar whether in Outlook or Lotus Notes. This added functionality ensures that critical dates are never missed.
In the event that there is a change to the date and time for a milestone or the team or group dynamics, each milestone can be modified or resent to additional LegalNet® users. Existing recipients will be notified if a milestone has been rescheduled.
Time Recording
LegalNet® comes with a fully integrated Time Recording system. Time entries both chargeable and non chargeable can be recorded against matters.
All task codes and length of time in units are customisable allowing for flexible tracking and reporting of productivity.
Track your legal billing
LegalNet® enables you to manage and monitor all your internal and external legal billing. Users can nominate internal business units against matters allowing for accurate analysis of which departments the legal team is performing work for. In the case where internal business units are charged for work performed by the legal team reports can be generated displaying time and/or costs associated with the matter.
LegalNet®'s real-time invoicing functionality allows you to receive panel firm invoices electronically.
LegalNet® stores panel firm information such as fee earners, legal designation, charge out rates, disbursements rates etc... (It's up to the individual client as to how much detail they capture on their panel firms).
When a panel firm uploads an invoice into LegalNet®, the system performs a validation process based on a list of criteria that has been designed by the in-house counsel. For example, "does the estimated spend recorded for the matter equal the actual spend incurred". Each time an invoice is loaded into the system it will check whether estimated spend recorded is equal to actual spend.
Once the validation process is complete and the invoice is loaded in to LegalNet®, an 'Invoice Details Report' is compiled. This report is reviewed by the in-house counsel and outlines any warnings or errors that arose from the validation of the invoice. Once reviewed, an invoice status is assigned to the invoice; the status can be Query Approved, Rejected or Pending. If an invoice is rejected it gets sent back to the firm for review and resubmission. If the invoice is approved an email notification is sent to the relevant business unit, as well as the accounts department for processing. The below explains the invoice workflow diagrammatically.
Reporting on all matter information
LegalNet® comes complete with a suite of management, financial, productivity, and person reporting for both the internal practice and external panel firms.
Reporting in LegalNet® is quick, easy and accurate. The reporting is set up so that users determine the data that is used for the report. Some reports such as the Matter Ledger report are structured in a 'layered' format so that users can continue to drill down through different layers of information depending on the level of detail they require.
The powerful report filter within LegalNet® allows individual users to customise any of the reports in LegalNet® in order to produce timely and accurate reports. Users can aslo distribute customised reports to other people within the legal team. All reports can be outputted in either PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, Crystal, and CSV formats.