In-House Counsel

Very high figures for external legal spend by an e-biller?s client base

By Rees Morrison

An ad disguised as an article in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 16, June 2008 at 52, says that DataCert ?has completed more than 130 custom integrations? of its software and has ?72 Fortune 500 clients.? Assume, therefore, that DataCert has around 130 law department clients.

A sidebar to the article points out that the company ?processes in excess of $9 billion of electronic invoicing data on an annualized basis.? Assume, therefore, that 130 clients processed in 2007 $9 billion in invoices from law firms and other service providers. The total legal spending of those clients is no doubt higher, because not all vendors bill through e-billing systems. That means an average of at least $70 million in external legal spend per client.

Very few legal departments shell out more than $70 million in a year, so I must be understating the number of clients DataCert has or not adequately accounting for some with gargantuan legal fees, or both.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).