Billing Right
Five law firms share their time and billing program picks.
By Lynn Penkingcarn
With so many time and billing programs to choose from, how does a firm decide which one is right for its attorneys? A firm’s size, location and practice areas all are factors in selecting a program. Law Office Computing asked firms in its readers’ top five most popular practice areas according to the 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards — civil litigation, corporate law, family law, real estate and estate planning — to discuss their preferences for time and billing programs and how their choices have affected their practices.
A Civil Action
Cowles and Thompson, a general practice firm that specializes in commercial and personal injury defense litigation as well as corporate, bankruptcy, banking and real estate law, has used Thomson Elite for time and billing since September 2004. With offices in Dallas, Addison and Tyler, Texas, the firm employs 70 attorneys and 12 paralegals.
“We chose Elite because it was a widely used time and billing product in the legal market, and we had been aware of its reputation in the legal community,” said senior counsel Tom Mighell.
Prior to implementing Elite, the firm used Omega Legal for time and billing. Mighell said the firm planned to upgrade to a newer version of the product, but a delay in its release caused the firm to look into a replacement.
“The features provided by Elite are much more comprehensive than our previous time and billing package,” Mighell said. “The timekeepers use the Elite WebView product, and say that the top feature is the ease with which time can be entered. Attorneys also report that it’s very easy to retrieve statistics about their individual billing, as well as data for client matters. Users also are reporting that conflict searches are faster and more comprehensive.”
Many of the firm’s attorneys use Elite’s “Timer” feature, and users have reported it has helped them capture more time, Mighell said. “For the attorneys, the time entry features are extremely easy to use; as a result, more attorneys are entering their own time directly into the system, where previously they would type or write up their time so that the secretary could enter the time,” Mighell said. “This allows many of our timekeepers to be more efficient in billing their time. Our attorneys also appreciate being able to enter their time out of the office, while on the road or at home.”
Something Corporate
At the Chicago law firm of Levin Ginsburg, where 10 attorneys and two paralegals specialize in corporate transactional and commercial litigation law, legal administrator Marie Fiorito said the firm implemented PerfectLaw by Executive Data Systems Inc. last year for its time and billing system. Previously, the firm used Juris DOS but “needed to make the switch because there was a sunset for Juris DOS,” Fiorito said.
Key features of PerfectLaw, according to Fiorito, are access to financials for clients, the ability to view someone’s hours, the accounts payable portion, and the document management and reporting module.
“Our bills still go out in a timely matter. Our clients seem to like the new billing formats,” Fiorito said. “Everyone seems to like the program, but I will say there is so much more to learn. Like any new system, it takes a while to find your way through things.”
However, Fiorito said PerfectLaw has not necessarily helped attorneys capture more time. “I don’t believe it has helped us to capture more time; I believe it has just helped us in general to have everything encompassed into one program,” Fiorito said. “The timekeepers are able to view more of their own productivity, and our Information Technology person has been extremely instrumental in providing us with the information we are always looking for.”
The Family Plan
The Staten Island, N.Y., law firm of William J. Leininger, which specializes in family law and employs two attorneys and two paralegals, uses PCLaw Pro by LexisNexis to capture its time and billing.
“PCLaw is rock solid. The program has never crashed in seven years,” said attorney William J. Leininger. He said some of the best PCLaw features are:
- the ability to have different bill formats for each client;
- the ability to have two legends that are customizable at the bottom of every bill; and
- the ability to have automatic trust to general bank account transfers when the bill is generated.
Prior to using PCLaw, the firm used Sage Software’s Timeslips for more than 10 years. “After version 7 or 8, [the company] used a new computer language and redid the entire program, and we went through 12 or 13 service releases in the course of a few months,” Leininger said. “The software became so unreliable that we became desperate to find a better time and billing system.”
One feature Leininger found more accessible in Timeslips than in PCLaw is the “taxi meter,” which allows users to see the accruing fee for a client as they are talking to the client on the telephone. “Trust me, there is nothing that makes dealing with an unpleasant client more palatable than seeing that as the telephone conversation continues, you have earned $40, $50, $60, $70, etc. Rather than having to hate to return the phone call from the ‘client from hell,’ we used to eagerly look forward to it in Timeslips because we saw how much money we made by talking to that client.” Leininger said while PCLaw can provide the same information, it doesn’t offer the same easy-to-read meter-style screen.
Overall, Leininger said PCLaw has been the right time and billing choice for his firm. “The attorneys, paralegals and the office manager in my firm all appreciate how we can prepare reports that show where each new client has come from, and whether we are meeting our budgeted estimates for the amount of billable hours we will have in any particular week,” Leininger said. “All in all, PCLaw Pro is probably the best time and billing package for the money in the legal market at the present time.”
Real Estate Law
Schulman and Kissel, with offices in Suffern, N.Y., and Ramsey, N.J., is a general practice specializing in real estate law, personal injury collection and litigation. The firm, which employs four attorneys and four paralegals, has used LexisNexis Time Matters for practice management for more than five years, and Billing Matters for billing for one year after switching from Timeslips.
“We switched to Billing Matters from Timeslips because we found that Timeslips crashed often, and didn’t integrate effectively enough with Time Matters, which we have come to rely on,” said attorney Marc Kissel.
Kissel cited integration with the calendar in Time Matters as the top feature of the program. “It was too much work having the calendar and case management separate from the billing. We wanted to integrate the two, and are very sold on Time Matters as a great program,” he said. “Time Matters is quick and comprehensive, but still flexible.”
However, Kissel noted areas for improvement in the time and billing program. “The reporting needs some work. The interface could be more streamlined, even at the expense of some versatility, in my opinion,” he said. “Regenerating bills could be easier, and billing for various matters for one client is cumbersome.”
As for others in his office, Kissel said they all like Time Matters and Billing Matters, “but they don’t have to deal with the reporting and other issues which I, as the [attorney/IT person], must deal with.”
Estate Planning
Sorenson Law Office in Ripon, Wis., a transaction firm with emphases in estate planning, real estate and small business operations, has used Software Technology Inc.’s Tabs3 billing and accounting system for the past 16 years. The firm employs two attorneys, three legal assistants and two interns.
“It’s somewhat difficult to remember why we chose it, but I believe it was the only legal billing system available at that time that integrated the general ledger, billing and trust accounting,” said Lynn Lemiesz, legal assistant for attorney Steven Sorenson. “Tech support maintenance, although a bit pricey to renew every year, is very competent and helpful.”
Lemiesz said the top feature of Tabs3 is its user-friendliness. “Bills can be generated at any time for any client by any of the staff. It’s very easy to change the format of the bills to show only time and hourly charge, or neither,” she said.
The firm tried Timeslips for a short period, but switched back because the program didn’t have a general ledger. “Payments received could only be applied to balances due on bills and then a separate software system was needed for the general ledger,” Lemiesz said.
Prior to both these programs, the firm manually generated bills. “[Tabs3] is very easy to use, and files are coded as to how often a bill is generated,” Lemiesz said. “Previously, bills for some files were overlooked for long periods of time, and the work sometimes had to be written off because of the untimeliness. This happens rarely, if ever, now.”
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