Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions Launches New Data-Driven Offerings

Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, the provider of transformational, technology-based solutions for the legal industry, has launched two new solutions that provide data and insights for corporate legal departments (CLDs), including those in financial services, and law firms. Both solutions help CLDs and law firms better manage and benchmark their fees and billing practices. This includes the 2015 Real Rate Report^® Snapshot edition, the industry standard for benchmarking law firm rates as well as the TyMetrix 360°and Passport^®Actionable Insight Reports solution.

The Real Rate Report^® is arguably the legal industry’s leading benchmark for law firm rates based on actual invoices, not surveys. The annual report is powered by LegalVIEW^®, the world’s largest source of international legal performance data with more than $70 billion. Utilizing a portion of this data over a three-year period, the 2015 Real Rate Report Snapshot is a widely acknowledged source of information and insights that empowers corporate legal, claims departments, and law firms to better negotiate rates, develop credible matter budgets and efficient staffing plans, and manage legal services effectively.

The 2015 Real Rate Report Snapshot edition provides a unique look into lawyer billing rates and, ultimately, matter costs by benchmarking partner and associate rates at granular practice area levels. It provides comparisons by lawyer experience levels, and industry, as well as rate breakdowns by city and country.

Insights that may be found by reviewing the data tables include the following facts regarding European and Asian trends:

• Larger firms don’t always mean cheaper rates. In France, associate rates vary by less than $15 per hour when comparing smaller firms with larger ones. In contrast, associate rates at smaller U.K. firms are $143 per hour higher than at larger U.K. firms.
• The average partner rate at the top tier rates for finance sector non-litigation varies massively across Europe, from $484 in France to $816 in the U.K. For comparison, the average rate in North America is $566, and $874 in Hong Kong.

The Actionable Insights Reports, meanwhile, put powerful business intelligence at the fingertips of corporate legal professionals, who can immediately use it to improve data driven decision-making. Many high performing legal departments use similar reports as the basis for improved, data-driven decision-making.

The first Actionable Insights Reports, known as Billing Practices Insights, allow legal professionals to easily see the top ten questionable billing practices and identify the top law firm timekeepers who most frequently engage in these costly practices. In doing so, corporate legal departments can have fact-based discussions with law firms and timekeepers whose billing habits cost legal departments money. This powerful business intelligence replaces expensive, time-intensive analysis with immediate insights allowing users to pinpoint hard-to-spot billing patterns.

“Increasingly, corporate legal professionals crave data-driven insights to understand the complexities of their operations,” said David Moran, senior director, Product Management, Legal Analytics at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions. “CLDs that can effectively utilize powerful technology solutions, third party expertise and services, with robust internal and external data across their operations are uniquely positioned to make themselves a valued strategic partners in any corporation.”

About Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions 
Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions is the industry pioneer and global market leader in Enterprise Legal Management software and services. Through comprehensive technology solutions, in-depth data and analytics, and professional services, Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions helps the largest and best-run legal and claims organizations address the intricate complexities they face and ultimately make better business decisions. ELM Solutions is available on Twitter and LinkedIn

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. Wolters Kluwer reported 2015 annual revenues of €4.2 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.