Look up any UTBMS legal billing code in our searchable UTBMS Code Database, with original guidance on when to use each code, what reviewers watch for, and what invoice review checks.
46 seconds · Watch on this page
From the practitioners
Your eBilling system can run 75 million reports. That is the problem.
Joseph Tiano of Legal Decoder, Danish Butt of Swiftwater and Company, and Jeff Solomon on the gap between data an eBilling platform can produce and the handful of numbers a legal department actually needs to manage spend.
Reporting breadth is not insight; a platform that can answer anything answers nothing by default
The useful set is small: what is being spent, by whom, against what budget, and where it is drifting
Someone has to own the reporting layer, or the data stays a capability rather than a decision
Featuring Joseph Tiano (Legal Decoder), Danish Butt (Swiftwater and Company), and Jeff Solomon.
Engagement
How a legal spend management engagement works
01
Diagnose
A baseline of outside counsel spend, invoice patterns, rate structures and vendor concentration, with savings opportunities identified before any system is touched.
02
Implement
eBilling and matter management on the platform that fits your environment, plus outside counsel guidelines, vendor management protocols and structured bill review.
03
Sustain
A fully operational hand-off, or ongoing managed spend oversight, vendor reviews and continuous improvement.
What this covers
- Outside counsel guidelines development
- eBilling system selection & implementation
- Matter management implementation
- Legal vendor management
- Bill review process design
- Rate benchmarking & negotiation support
- Spend analytics & dashboards
- AI-powered invoice analysis (LegalDecoder)
Program extension
Preferred Provider Program
For legal departments ready to take vendor management further.
01
Diagnose
Size your vendor concentration.
02
Build
Design and build a formal preferred provider panel with selection criteria.
03
Manage
Run the program on an ongoing basis.
Apply now to see if you qualify for a free assessment.
A 45-minute diagnostic of your outside counsel spend, for GCs and Legal Ops leaders.
Apply to See If You Qualify →Who Runs It
Named practitioners, accountable for the work.
You meet the people who will do the work on the discovery call, and they stay on the engagement.
Jeannine Puello
Managed Services and Legal Ops Leader
Led legal operations at AT&T and Verizon. She has built and run the function, and carries an outside counsel program from design through enforcement.
Danish Butt
Managing Director
20+ years advising Chief Legal Officers, with earlier roles at Huron Consulting and Morae Global. Optimizes outside counsel spend through rates, engagement letters and preferred provider panels, with delivery across Onit, Mitratech, Prokurio, Anaqua, Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters.
Hafid Karama
Business Intelligence, PM, and Legal Ops
Builds the spend analytics layer: the dashboards and reporting that show where outside counsel spend goes. Previously at Kroll and Duff & Phelps.
Frequently asked questions
How much can a legal department expect to save on outside counsel spend?
Our implementations target a 10% reduction from eBilling and outside counsel management, and AI-powered invoice analysis through our LegalDecoder partnership has delivered reductions in the 8 to 21% range. Results vary with your starting point: departments with no eBilling and no enforced guidelines sit at the higher end. The free 45-minute spend assessment sizes your specific opportunity.
How long until we have full visibility into legal spend?
Our program targets full spend visibility within 60 days. Enforcement savings begin as soon as guidelines are applied at invoice, and rate and panel savings compound at renewal and matter-assignment cycles over the following quarters.
What tools help analyze outside counsel costs?
eBilling platform analytics, AI-powered invoice analysis such as LegalDecoder, and business intelligence dashboards built on the spend data. The tools matter less than an owned reporting layer: what is being spent, by whom, against what budget, and where it is drifting.
Which platforms optimize outside counsel spend?
eBilling and enterprise legal management platforms such as Onit, Thomson Reuters Legal Tracker, Mitratech, Wolters Kluwer, LexisNexis and SimpleLegal. We are vendor-neutral: we implement the platform that fits your environment, and the savings come from the program run on it.
What software helps administer preferred provider legal panels?
The vendor management module of your enterprise legal management platform, for example in Onit or Mitratech, holds panel membership, rates and performance data. The software administers the panel; the program decides who is on it, at what rates, and when it is reviewed.
How do managed legal bill review services reduce outside counsel spend?
Every outside counsel invoice is checked against your guidelines, rates and matter context inside the eBilling platform you already own, with the exception handling and savings reporting that make savings stick. See our legal bill review services.
How do we reduce outside counsel non-compliance with billing guidelines?
Enforce the guidelines at invoice, not on paper: configure the rules in your eBilling platform, review exceptions consistently, and coach firms on repeat issues. Guidelines that exist only on paper are one of the most common reasons outside counsel spend stays high.
Does Swiftwater implement eBilling or only advise on it?
Both. We implement eBilling and matter management on the platform that fits your environment, then either hand off a fully operational system or keep running it as a managed service. See our enterprise legal management practice.
Talk to a practitioner about your legal spend.
Book a Discovery CallAlso relevant to this practice
Legal Bill Review Services
Every outside counsel invoice checked against your guidelines, inside your eBilling platform.
Enterprise Legal Management
Matter management, eBilling and legal holds, implemented and supported.
Legal Operations Consulting
Assessment, roadmap and delivery across spend, technology, process, vendors and data.