AUDITING SERVICES
Legal Bill Review and Evaluation
By methodically reviewing and analyzing your organization’s legal bills, we are able to hold your vendors accountable to your billing guidelines, which results in substantial savings. We know how legal bills are reviewed and what is acceptable to charge for. More importantly we know what is not acceptable and how to identify those entries. Lether Consulting offer a hands-on, thorough bill audit from a team with three decades of litigation experience. Our systematic, disciplined approach improves efficiency and our client’s bottom line.
When conducting an audit, we primarily look at the following:
- Are the bills accurate?
- Are time and expenses billed properly?
- Are the amounts reasonable?
- Are firms following billing guidelines?
Oversight of Billing Guidelines and Budgeting
When initiating a relationship with a law firm, establishing billing guidelines is crucial as they set the stage for the quality of your incoming legal bills. What is even more crucial, however, is the enforcement of these guidelines. We will work closely with your organization to form sound billing guidelines, and by thoroughly auditing every line of every single bill from your vendor we are able to monitor the implementation of the billing guidelines.
Gradually as you keep enforcing your guidelines, your vendors will conform to the billing requirements, replacing the need for a complete legal bill review process or in-house bill review staff.
Appeal Services
Our team of auditors review your organization’s legal bills line by line, and will either approve, reject or modify fees according to the agreed upon billing guidelines. Should the law firm disagree with a decision made in the audit, they may appeal the decision. We believe in fostering a good relationship with your vendors through open and mutual communication, so every appeal submitted is taken into serious consideration.
Legal Spend Management / Risk Control and Risk Transfer
Legal bill auditing plays a vital role in managing legal spending within an organization. Lether Consulting can assist in collecting and analyzing data to provide insights into your organization’s legal spending.
KEY SAVINGS METRICS
Our numbers are cpa audited
%
Net Deductions
Average Net Deduction Per Invoice
%
Net Deduction Caught That E-Billing System Would Miss
%
Increased Process Efficiency
Our effective, thorough line-by-line review catches unacceptable billing entries that an e-billing system won’t.
We identify and flag trends within firms as well as with specific attorneys involving unreasonable time billed.
By analyzing the data gathered from each firm’s legal bills, we are able to provide you with metrics on the performance of each firm.
We are equipped with a team of trained professionals, including attorneys and CPA certified accountants.
PERFORMANCE TRACKING
Tracking individual vendors can help you manage efficiency and legal spending over time. Data from each invoice audited by our team is accumulated and analyzed based on certain metrics. With over three decades of experience in the legal field, we know exactly what metrics to look for in order to consult you on the efficiency of your vendors. We are primarily interested in studying the cycle time and legal spend for a better gauge on efficiency.
CYCLE TIME
A firm’s cycle time is determined by the time it takes between retaining counsel and counsel closing a file. Efficient and timely file handling is essential for cost management. We look at efficiency on a firm by firm basis. Specifically, by analyzing how long it takes to close a file, we are able to identify efficiency flaws and excessive or unreasonable costs.
LEGAL SPEND
An efficient and cost effective law firm manages the ratio between budget, spending and the value of a case appropriately. We help determine whether the amount spent on a case is appropriate in relation to the exposure and value of the case. This metric is measured on a case by case basis over time for each law firm. This allows us to consult our clients on the efficiency and management of each law firm.
Key benefits
Improved Compliance
Lether Consulting actively works with you and your vendors to facilitate sound billing practices and ensure to compliance over time.
Reduced Legal Cost
Our auditors work diligently to make sure that you are not charged for more than agreed upon by the guidelines.
Performance Analysis
By thoroughly and methodically reviewing each line of each legal bill submitted to you by your vendor, we are able to pinpoint recurring trends of overbilling, and work with you and the vendor to imrpove.
Increased Transparency
We value good relationships and transparency between all parties involved. Our communicative, hands-on approach will ensure that both you and your vendor are informed and up to date on guidelines and practices.