I have been in the fortunate position to be able to meet with billing managers, CFOs and other leaders in many large law firms around the country in the last six months.

In talking to these firms, most with 75 attorneys or more and some of the largest in the country, I am hearing a shift in what clients are asking for. I think this will not only continue but I think the changes will come faster than many think.

Law firms are now being asked for more data to back up what they are doing for clients than they ever have in the past. From how narratives need to be written to show value, to up to date accrual information to whether or not firms can adhere to outside counsel guidelines.

Sure this has been going on a while but I see a real change coming. Accruals are being asked for more often and I believe clients are about to start asking for the data behind the accrual information given. Right now someone at the firm is stuck guesstimating at where the numbers are because they have no idea what work has been done recently. What happens when the clients get the data and half the attorneys actively working on the matter have no time put in?

Attorneys are going to need to start putting in their time daily and many firms do not have the systems in place to even be able to do this. Clunky VPN connections or time entry systems that don't enter the information in real time make it visually impossible for all attorneys to be up to date daily, even if they had the habits built up to do it that way...which most do not.

Many of the firms I talk to have as much as 50% of the attorneys not entering their own time. Some never have and don't know how to.

Clients are starting to become aware of this fact and one firm told me that in a recent audit the client asked to see how many time cards were put in later than three days from the time the work was done. I almost fell out of my chair.

It is becoming a known fact that clients are now keeping report cards on firms behavior including how clean their bills are when it comes to guideline compliance. When the fact is that many of the attorneys working on the matters for that client have never even seen the guidelines this becomes a very scary proposition. Many firms are now starting to do a summary of the guidelines and get it to the practice head for distribution which is at least a start. It is becoming necessary for firms to get a system in place that lets the attorneys know when they have a time card that is not in compliance and how to fix it. That becomes difficult if they don't even enter their own time.

If you talk to the folks in the billing department they will tell you that these changes are really coming and much quicker than anybody thought.

I am thrilled to be with a company that saw these changes coming years ago and developed products to help law firms deal with what is coming. Still, even with the best tools, attorneys will need to change their habits in order to keep up with these client demands.