Post by Daniel Nunes, muchBeta’s Chief Financial Officer:

Your LawRD account has a preset matter: General Internal Matters.

This matter is devised for logging the time spent on tasks not to be billed to clients. Let’s consider two examples that will show how useful this particular matter can be:

• Lawyers will log here the time spent on weekly firm meetings.
• The partner in charge of back office chores (i.e. overviewing accounts receivable and accounts payable) may log that time spent into this General Internal Matters.

On both cases, by not logging, the data on time spent will not be realistic. This time is actually allocated and is of the firm’s interest. For the weekly meetings instance, it will look as if there is a day in the week that less work is done, whereas the partner in charge of the back office tasks seems to put in less than all the others who just work for the clients matters.

Checking the Status tab within General Internal Matters, allows for consulting data on how do internal affairs affect the overall firm performance as well as, keeping up with its evolution through time.

Following the said example and figuring that we are in early March 2010, we may state that:

• The total amount of time spent on Internal Affairs is increasing by the month (Time chart).
• Consequently to that, losses related to this matter are growing (Money chart)
• The General Internal Matters quota for the Inefficiency Share will rise up to 45% by December 2010 (Productivity chart). The Inefficiency Share is the ratio of the non billed time on a matter and the total non billed time on all the firm’s matters.

In presence of this data, it is up to the firm whether or not to hire to someone to supervise internal affairs, thus freeing lawyers to just working on clients matters. The best first step in order to best go through this issue might be checking reports on the time  each lawyer wastes on internal affairs:

Post by Braz Pereira, muchBeta’s Chief Commercial Officer:

From its genesis LawRD was devised in close proximity to law firms’ reality, so that their performance and ease of use needs are met.

During the stage of sorting procedures and requirements, the law professionals we’ve consulted were unanimous on the growing level of demand from their clients, regarding client support and on updating them on their matters.

More and more, clients want be informed and updated on the development and what’s being done in defense of their interests. To fulfill such legitimate yearning, they usually contact directly the lawyers or firms they’ve contracted. To keep their trust and satisfaction, one has to display professionalism, control over the matters and the ability to answer issues such as dealines, tasks undertaken, fees and payments.

With this reality in mind, we aim to ease the work of those who have the responsability of keeping updated and supporting clients, enabling, from a simple Internet connection, data related to any given matter thus allowing them answering, on the fly, to most questions clients ask.

Once the Matter is clicked on, the matter in question  selected, the following page opens up:

Besides the header showing the client’s contacts and matter ’s generic info, it is possible to consult immediately reports on: money, time, productivity and profitability. These provide for an overview and immediate grip on the matter’s status.

Questions on tasks already executed or billing sheets, can be answered through the Time tab, wherein one can find about: who, when and what!

Any doubts on matter expenses, a click on Expenses gives way to seeing all expenses, sorting the ones pending on approval, the ones already approved and the ones that have been billed:

The Comments tab gives access to comments submitted by the team working on that matter and other documents related to it:

The Events tab presents dates and events with significance to the matter:

The Billing tab adresses billing sheets, with the matter’s history and the billing sheets already issued:

Gathering all data concerning a matter in a single place, gives way to respond, on the fly, to the majority of concerns by clients, thus conveying professionalism, control over the matters, transparency, service quality and aiming the client’s satisfaction.  This approach ranks high on LawRD’s users degree of satisfaction, namely those who deal directly with client support.

Post by Nelson Teixeira, muchBeta’s Chief Data Officer:

LawRD’s reports are devised so that any law firm manager gets an immediate answer on data submitted to the system.

To that end, we’ve identified in the system, the main Entities to which data is associated to. These are: Clients, Matters, Lawyers, Rainmakers and Performance. These entities can be individually used as value aggregators or combined as data filters.

Next, we’ve also identified all numerical Pointers on: how much we have forecast on costs, how much are we actually spending and how much are we profiting. We have also crossed these basic pointers with invoices status and the partial amonts of these dedicated to expenses and tasks. This data allows us to know, among other important issues, the Net Worth logged in the system the Plan Accomplish Ratio or the Time Productivity.

This data analysis will enable the end user with a tool for spotting, in an analytic fashion,  the causes for an atypical billing period, a decrease on revenue, growth or slowing trends. When examining the issues we’ve mentioned, LawRD’s reports will tell us about: Who, to Whom, What, When, Brought by Whom, under Whose Responsability and the ever wanted HOW.

In order to ease the equation of problems, reports are sorted by Entities, each having four analysis groups: Money, Time, Profitability and Productivity. Every group contains a set of pointers clustered by the entity previously chosen. If willing to do so, users can also filter data through a form containing all six entities.

Example: lawyer John presents a 25% decrease on productivity for this month. Given his quite up to standard and regular performance over the past few months, I’m having some trouble pin pointing what is the cause for that. The issue may present three possible angles:

• John is losing focus and is just not keeping up with his usual performance, as the productivity report states.
• The firm is going through a rough spot. That can easily be concluded by the time line of the report on Turnover.
• Jonh is working on a matter that turned out to be a black hole. To check on this case, I must select the matter entity, the Time analysis group and the filter lawyer John. A discrepancy between the logged time and the billed time will sort the cause for this problem.

Given the large amount of data used in every report, which involves nearly all application’s data structures, we had to devise a strategy of data cache in order to simplify and streamline data selection. The sole minor issue here is that, data is not displayed in real time (updating happens every half hour), but when it is imperative, users can override this by manually updating it in a single click.

Keeping up with a matter’s profitability is but one of the features on LawRD, reports wise. The Reports tab enables users with an array of pointers most useful to any lawyer or manager:

The following example shows how thoroughly detailed reports on LawRD are. Let us picture this: there’s this lawyer, who is partner in a firm, about to have a meeting with a client to debate the annual fee for the legal advisory service.

That lawyer logs into LawRD and on the Performace option, clicks on the Money report (data retrieved from our Demo Account). This report displays various firm’s financial data:

This report compiles data from all clients and matters: once the math is done, one can conclude that in the last 3 month period the firm billed a total amont of £131,635.94.

The lawyer, wants to see the data from this report that concerns the client Pub & Creativity, though. To do that, all that’s need is to use Filters, cliking on show filters:

To gather data from a single client just pick the name from the Choose a Client box, then click on Filter >>. The lawyer will then get from that report the following:

The lawyer has come to the conclusion that the client Pub & Creativity represents a revenue of £32,012.83, i.e., nearly 25% of the last quarter’s gross revenue (the time span of the report can be changed through filters). This is an important client… which will shorten the range for him to negotiate.

However, the report stands out an amount of £31,865.00 (Unbilled column) that has not been billed yet, during those 3 months. That makes the lawyer wonder: “Are we billing all the work my team has been putting into this client’s matters?”. By sellecting the Time report on the Performance option, he’ll get his answer:

Next, he has applied a filter to check the data concerning only the client Pub & Creativity:

.. to conclude that the team worked about 259 hours for that client, but only 143 of these were billed. This might prove to be a valuable argument when negociating with the client.

And all it took were 2 LawRD reports.. from a total of 24 that LawRD can provide, along with the possibility of customization (to be dealt with in future posts).

Sometimes there’s the need to go back to square one. This should have been the first post ever on LawRD’s Blog: LawRD, what is it good for?

There’s a debate going in the law milieu on whether or not hourly rates are the best way for charging  legal services. We will not go into that! It is not up to us to tell lawyers what is best for them on that concern. What we can state for sure is that LawRD meets the several models of fee convention that lawyers choose for their clients’ matters. LawRD allows you to bill hourly, flat fee, contingency fees and success fee.

Whichever way a lawyer chooses when billing fees, there is an unavoidable fact: lawyers do invest time on matters. An example: when emailing to a client during working hours, a lawyer is investing  time which has a cost that is equal to the lawyer’s hourly rate times the total time spent on that task.

An issue arises here: how can lawyers account for their cost per hour? That calculus can either be simple or complex. In a law firm the cost can be achieved by adding the lawyer’s salaries, bonuses and other costs that are to that person related, divided by the total amount of hours the lawyer worked during a certain period of time (a month, a year). A solo practice will have to bear in mind a minimum amount so it is profitable. For instance: if a lawyer needs to have a minimum of $15,000/month proceeds and is willing to put in 150 hours, the hourly cost will be $100.

Knowing the cost is just the half of it. The other half is logging the time spent on each matter. Any way… there is only one way of doing that: using a timesheet. Such a sheet can be as simple as piece of paper stapled to the folder wherein they will hand write down the time spent. That will do the job, but can it help answering swiftly to issues such as:

• How much time did I spend on a matter?
• What is the total cost of a matter?
• Is the matter profitable?

This is where LawRD - Reports on Demand comes into action! Use LawRD and the answers are just a click away. Check this example from LawRD’s Demo Account:

The Total line displays an amount of 62:30 which has a cost of $8,210.25. This is  a hourly rate matter and there is an amount of $14,370.00 billed, therefore it shows a profit of $6.159,75. There you have the answers for the previous questions. It just took a click on the Timesheet tab.

The Timesheet tab still remains relevant for matters that are not billed by the hour. The reason why is very simple: there is the need to match the fee agreed with the client with the actual costs of that matter. Recurring again to the Demo Account, you can notice that the amount of €1.500,00 was agreed with the client:

By clicking on Timesheet you can answer to:

• How many hours were spent on the matter? A: 9:35
• What is the total cost of the matter? A: $1,012.25
• Is this matter profitable? A: yes, it shows a $987.75 profit, at the moment.

Now we can answer to what is LawRD good for? In a sentence: LawRD allows for a swift answer on any matter’s results.

Transcription of an original post by Rui Amores, lawyer and partner at RA Law Office, from the Inconfidencias (content in Portuguese only) blog:

“The legal practice is the worst managed and most productivity challenged of all practices, probably. I’m talking about Portuguese legal practice, a small one, with little resources, few employees: solo practitioners, so to speak. It may not sound pleasant that the legal practice is not just of public interest but a livelihood for many who must support their families, pay for their children’s education, pay the bills, i.e. the  sort of needs that all PEOPLE have to face.

At times it seems to be a heresy, a gross fault when a law firm is profitable, well run and squanders neither  time nor money. It should always be available and willing to spend mercifully time away to whom may want to take advantage from us, may they be clients who happen to have forgotten their wallets at home and so not paying for the consultation, or simply the courts and Judges always counting on us to be at their service.

Well, it doesn’t have to be so. It can not be so. A law firm has to know:

• How many clients it has;
• How to contact them swiftly;
• The time spent on each task;
• Expenses and costs per matter;
• The matters there are per client;
• What is the billing at any given moment.

Computers are great and effective when assessing on the above goals, Up until recently we were dependent on software that generally was little user friendly; expensive since there was the need for a license for each user; it had to be installed on our computer or it  had to run on an intranet, which seldom happens in law firms.

On the other hand, law firm management software overlooked the fact that at this day and age, law practice happens not only in the office, as well as in the court houses, state buildings and generally wherever clients have their interests located. Adding to this, there is the fact that laptops are taking the place of the old pen and paper at courts lounges and court rooms.

Not long ago, it came to light in Portugal, a law firm management system that meets all these needs, namely, accessing at anytime and from anywhere an online platform and therein log everything that has been done for a client. LawRD, that is the name of such a platform that provides the answers to the issues afore described. It is quite worthy to give it a try for 30 days, completely free.

I did and I’m enjoying it.

If you want to know more on the system’s features and potential watch this video:”

Post by Susana Gonçalves, lawyer, partner at Advogados Associados and LawRD user since 2009:

“When I first started my practice, I was the youngest in a newly found firm and for that reason I was assigned to be the middle person with the IT service that we worked with, assuming that being the youngest equaled to be the most apt to understand IT’s procedures and language. To put it into context I’m talking
about 1993, the time when Windows OS was starting off in Portuguese offices - and on its way to be the universal tool it is now - and emails were timidly sneaking into our routines.

For this reason I was compelled to become acquainted with computers and programs, solely from the user’s view point. By the time I started my own practice, experience had taught me that I couldn’t do without an effective management program, but the ones available were expensive and very limited, which led me to give up IT completely and go back to the good old timesheet on paper, later turned into Excel when it was time to bill, with all inherent lapses.

However, when I found LawRD and the help I get from its support team at muchBeta, the scene changed and now I have and effective control on all relevant management elements, effortlessly and with no significant time cost, checking on data further than I used to be able to, in the little time I have for my practice management, withstanding the assessment of team work and profitability of the resources allocated.

It stands to reason that in order to get results from LawRD there is a need for discipline when it comes to submitting data, but pretty soon it became as natural as checking my email for new messages.

One of its qualities that I couldn’t let go without mention is the easy access it enables at anytime, anywhere, thus allowing me to log any task, even at night from my home and away from the office’s bustle.

And of course I have to stress the pricing: unbeatable and the most inexpensive.

LawRD makes it easy for me to fill in billing sheets, objectively assess performance and make more time for a much better work.

Thanks muchBeta!”

Once a timesheet has been sent for approval, it s up to the matter’s manager or a LawRD administrator, the needed approval. Only then, the tasks that such timesheet refers to, will be available to be included into the billing sheet.

To take this action, click the Approve Timesheets option:

LawRD will display a list with timesheets from all lawyers. That list Timesheet Overview, contains all timesheets chronologically sorted, from the most recent downwards:

On the first column, the timesheet’s status appears. The status can be one of the following:

• No tasks: timesheet open with no tasks yet submitted
• Clear: timesheet with tasks logged in but not yet sent for approval
• To approve: this timesheet is already sent for approval, but not fully approved. A single task with pending approval is enough for the whole timesheet to keep its To approve status.
• Closed: timesheet fully approved.

Matter managers should keep special focus on To approve status timesheets:

On the second column, the Timesheet Overview shows who submitted the timesheet user’s ID. On the present example, hoovering the mouse over CB we are informed that it was Charles Bartholomew who submitted the timesheet:

The third column shows the week that the timesheet refers to. The previous example depicts the one sent for approval by the resource CB, which reflects the 45th week of the year, spanning from November 2 until November 8:

The fourth and fifth columns report the amount of tasks on approval (7 in this case) and the total time spent on those tasks (18h25m on this example).

When approving a specific timesheet, just click on See Details, Weekly View or on Approve Now.

By clicking on See Detaills, LawRD opens up a window wherein tasks are sorted by client and, on this last category, by matter:

This screen is where the manager must select which tasks to approve and send for billing. To approve a task, the box on the approval: column must be ticked.

For an approved task to be billed to the client, the box on the bill: column has to be checked.

By default, LawRD considers as billable all tasks but the ones submitted to the General Internal Matter (this matter is automatically added by the system, wherein internal tasks not assignable to clients, are accounted for).

In case of an approved task, if the box on the column bill: is altered to unchecked, it won´t be billed to the client, though it will afect that matter’s profitability. On the depiction, if the task ”Meeting with the Head of Human Resources” is not to be billed, that will increase the cost of that matter on 1h20m x the lawyer hourly cost rate.

At any given moment, a manager can partially approve a timesheet by clicking on Save Current Selection. From that moment on, the selected approved tasks are available to be billed.

Please keep in mind that, it takes just one task to have its approval pending for a timesheet to keep its To approve status.

The button Approve and Bill all will set all tasks in the timesheet as approved and available for immediate billing to their matters. This is the best option for a quicker timesheet approval.

When a manager does not agree with one or more tasks, he/she must click on Reject, having the choice to inform who submitted that timesheet on the grounds for the rejection.

A task rejection will afect all other tasks within that timesheet:

• Tasks not yet approved can be changed by the user that submitted them;
• Approved but not yet billed tasks, can be changed by the user that submitted them;
• Approved and billed tasks can no longer be changed.

Upon rejection, a timesheet will remain in the Clear status, being the user that submitted it for approval, informed of the changes to be performed, so that timesheet can be sent again for approval.

Timesheet approval can also be done clicking on Weekly View:

The picture depicts a matrix identical to the one for submitting tasks:

Days (columns) and matters (rows) can be swiftly approved by clicking on Approve », thus being instantly available to be billed.

Approved days and matters are shown in green:

As it happens with the See Details view, the Approve and Bill all and Reject are available.

Click on Open details + to see tasks within a matter:

Here, as described in the View Details view, each task can be approved and/or tagged as billable. Click Save List to approve the selection.

Finally, quickly approve timesheets clicking on Approve Now turning the tasks immediately available for billing:

The tasks submitted into the timesheets must be approved by the matters managers. Upon such an approval, managers will examin and validate data remaining available for future billing sheets.

To do that, just select the day(s) to be sent for approval. The user below chose only November 9 to be sent:

LawRD lets you select a complete week to be sent for approval, in a single click. Just go to that week’s tasks total amount (in this example the box underneath 6h21m was ticked). Thus, the totality of tasks on the days in that week is automatically selected:

Once the days are selected, the user will click on send for approval to get to the ….

… Description box wherein, data that the managers may find relevant is to be displayed. The Approve now box will automatic approve the timesheet, when the user is also that matter’s manager. For instance, in case the user is also the manager of the D015 matter, the 2h21m task will be immediately approved.

To finish off just click Send it.

With the Fall of 2009 big news arose in LawRD. A new website to start with:

A much more insightful interface inviting those willing to see, test and adopt LawRD: there is an introduction video available, features are displayed in screens, security issues are shown in a bigger detail and depth, and we’ve added a FAQ area.

On our new website law firms and lawyers will find a rather useful feature: a Demo Account. The Demo Account is preset with believable data from a fictitious law firm, so that tasks and expenses can be inserted on timesheets, billing sheets can be issued and reports created by LawRD can be checked. Thus, our future clients can, effortlessly, apprise LawRD and confirm its reporting capabilities and what a childs play it is to log tasks and expenses into matters.

To try the demo account just click on

and, depending on the language the site is beeing seen, a demo presentation will run in english, portuguese or spanish:

And the Fall 09 news aren’t over yet: kepp posted to this blog. Soon we’ll announce newer features on LawRD.