Neota Partners With Legal Consultants for AI-Based Billing Tool
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Artificial intelligence company Neota Logic and legal pricing consultants Burcher Jennings and Validatum have teamed up to launch Virtual Pricing Director, an AI-powered billing tool that assesses law firm's potential legal work to provide a suggested client fee. The software is scheduled to be released in January or February 2019.
Virtual Pricing Director will include templates where users select the practice areas, tasks, rates and clauses for a matter. From there, the tool generates a matter's budget based on the previous templates selected and provides a breakdown of expected spending. Lastly, it calculates a client price with an explanation of how the number was determined.
The software also offers “sense checks," which Rick Seabrook, Neota Europe managing director, explained allows lawyers to inspect the software’s proposal and price breakdown and decide if it is in line with the client’s budget.
In addition, The Virtual Pricing Director generates live updates on how each of the billed phases are tracking relative to the law firm's budget.
A press release issued by Validatum announcing the new product said the program was needed to help law firms adjust to clients demands for more competitive pricing.
Validatum managing director and Burcher Jennings chairman Richard Burcher said the Virtual Pricing Director stands out from the competition because other pricing consultancies offer “little more than jazzed up spreadsheets." He added that the software will provide more transparency for lawyers’ clients.
“We take the view that lawyers need to be able to use this kit themselves, and it's built for your average partner,” he explained.
Burcher said this was their first collaboration with Neota, although he’d sought to combine technology with his billing consultancy for years. He added that since the Oct. 8 announcement of the AI-powered billing software, they have fielded inquiries from Canadian, U.S. and international law firms.
However, Big Law isn’t the only demographic the Virtual Pricing Director is targeting. “We are by no means confining it to Big Law. There a lot of mid tier and smaller tier firms struggling with this and no one is catering to their needs,” Burcher explained.
Those midsize and boutique firms were one of the factors for the differing pricing tiers offered for the Virtual Pricing Director. The Virtual Pricing Director will be priced, partially, by the range of modules a firm chooses to purchase. Modules are practice areas such as real estate, employment and banking, which should cater to the needs of Big Law and smaller firms. The amount of the monthly subscription also depends on the law firm’s head count and if the firm buys the full or light version software.
“The underline rationale for that matrix is to be proportionate to the big firms and the smaller firms,” Burcher explained.
