- The document discusses how legal projects can improve operational and matter metrics that are important for law firm management. It provides examples of how implementing standardized checklists, deal profiling processes, and dedicating resources like due diligence specialists can improve matter budget accuracy and increase profits. Metrics like cost per terabyte stored, percentage of stale data, and client file completeness are examples of operational metrics that can be improved through data cleanup projects. The document advocates tying technology and information solutions to measurable impacts on metrics and business value.

1. 50 Shades… of Metrics
ILTA Annual Conference
August 20, 2013
(SFW Version)

2. Today’s goal
Boost your ability to make a metrics-based case
Metrics  projects
Projects  metrics

3. Metrics
CIO/CKOControl
Low
High
Operational
Management
Firm
Management
Level
Leverage
Profit per
Partner
Practice
Realization
Revenue
per Lawyer
Matter realization Margin
Resource usage
and utility
Matter Budget
Accuracy
Anecdotal
feedback
Matter profile
completeness
Client File
Completeness
Integration of
Lateral Lawyers
Ratio of Stale
Data
Systems
Ease of Use
eDiscovery value
Sample document
completion
Litigation Hold
Completeness
Client Self-service
Resources
RTO / RPO Practice area sites
Search
Relevance
Regulatory
Compliance
PC Reliability
Storage Costs
per Tb
Support Service
Levels

4. How Projects Can Improve Operational Metrics
Data Cleanup
Getting the “house in order” for compliance and cost
Complement to records; replacement for archive
Potential to clean up 60%+ of data; $1M in savings over time
Metrics: $ per Tb, ratio of stale data
Document Management
Evolved into strategic resource of documents, e-mail,
precedent, research, peer documents, etc.
Metric: completeness of and access to client file
Metric: regulatory compliance
Metric: Integration of lateral lawyers

5. How Projects Can Improve Matter Metrics
Fees collected / matter realization
Ability to show fees from similar past matters
Internal marketing of fee data
Matter budget accuracy
Case and deal metadata
Checklists and precedents
Client file completeness
Defined matter tracking process
Incentives for attorneys, paralegals and secretaries

6. Example: matter budget accuracy
The “before”
Actual fees for buy-side M&A deals exceeded estimated fees by
25% on average
Clear loss on fixed-fee deals and likely write-offs on billable-
hours ones
Analysis showed that half of the variance occurred because of
(a) insufficient deal precedent and (b) inefficient due diligence
Potential solutions
Deal profiling process focused on key variables in matter
budget estimation
Standardized due diligence checklist, process and output
formats
Corps of highly trained, dedicated due diligence specialists

7. Tying projects to matter budget accuracy
 Track actual fees versus budgeted fees
 Identify significant variances and their causes
 Specify potential technology / information solutions
 Estimate each solution’s:
 (a) value to the business; and
 (b) ease of implementation
 Recommend the best combination of high value and
low difficulty

8. Field of Dreams Field of Gain
Field of Pain Field of Distraction
Projects to improve matter accuracy
ValuefortheBusiness
High
Low
Low High
Ease of Implementation

9. -Due diligence
specialists
-Deal profiling
process
-Standardized
Checklist
Projects to improve matter accuracy
ValuefortheBusiness
High
Low
Low High
Ease of Implementation

10. Firm Financial Metrics
Profits per partner = realization rate x average standard rate x
leverage x margin x utilization
Realization rate = actual revenues / standard rate revenues
Average standard rate = standard rate revenues / hours billed
Margin = (revenues – expenses) / revenues
Utilization = # hours billed / # timekeepers
Leverage = # timekeepers / # partners

11. How Projects Can Improve Firm Financial Metrics
Utilization and Leverage: Aligning people with revenue,
active work, and recruiting pipelines, ERP-style
Margin: Efficiency tools on fixed-fee matters

12. Hypothetical example: margin
Fixed fee for services: $40,000
Average time recorded:
Partner: 20 hours @ $800 / hour = $16,000
Associate: 50 hours @ $400 / hour = $20,000
Paralegal: 20 hours @ $200 / hour = $4,000
Tools help reduce average due diligence and drafting time by an average of
5 associate hours
Splitting the savings between the client and the firm:
$1,000 fee reduction for the client
$900 profit increase for the firm (assuming 90% realization and 100% re-use of
the saved hours)
Significant profit increase when multiplied by hundreds of matters

13. Metrics Infrastructure Checklist
 Rationalize data architecture
 Make data relatable across the enterprise (any one piece of data can be related to any other)
 Requires standardization of IDs, naming conventions, etc.
 Adopt standard relational database platforms (MS SQL Server, etc.)
 Impose relational database discipline (rationalize table structures, IDs, etc.)
 Adopt and become expert in analytical and reporting tools (e.g. MS Analysis Services, MS Reporting Services)
 Segment skill sets so that someone becomes expert in analyses and reports that are relatable to firm metrics
 Shift of some IT mindsets into KM and Practice Management mindsets
 Begin capturing matter historical data for uses beyond marketing
 Matters experience database on steroids
 Make historical info relatable to pricing
 Task coding infrastructure
 Work with practice management to broaden task coding
 Include tools that can “backward task” work that is uncoded

14. Further reading
John Alber, “Rethinking ROI: Managing Risk and Reward in
KM Initiatives,”
http://www.llrx.com/features/rethinkingroi.htm
Jack Bostelman and Chris Boyd, “Showing the Positive
Financial Impact of KM in Law Firms,”
http://www.wsgr.com/attorneys/BIOS/PDFs/boyd-
0413.pdf
Chris Emerson and Amy Wu, “The Pricing Professional’s KM
Toolkit,” ILTA KM white paper, July 2013

15. Questions and Follow-Up
Chris Boyd
Senior Director of
Professional Services
Wilson Sonsini
cboyd@wsgr.com
Dave Cunningham
CIO
Winston & Strawn
dcunningham@winston.com