what is ledes and the utbms?
The first time you hear the acronyms LEDES or UTBMS, you might think, “What’s Ledes got to do with legal spend management? The UTB-em-what now?” These tongue-twisting abbreviations are legal industry standards for coding and submitting legal invoices when using e-billing software. Read on to learn the basics of LEDES and UTBMS.
what is a ledes file?
The full LEDES definition is Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard and is a framework for the exchange of legal e-billing information. The LEDES file format specifications are globally recognised as the legal industry standard for recording legal e-billing data. The file formats go beyond e-billing, also providing formats for legal budgeting, timekeeper information, and IP matter information.
what is utbms?
The UTBMS definition is Uniform Task-Based Management System and is a series of codes used to classify legal services. Outside counsel record their time and classify the work using the appropriate code from the UTBMS set. UTBMS coded time entries and invoices show the timekeeper, the tasks (e.g. taking a witness statement), activities undertaken (e.g. drafting a letter), the time spent, and the rate and cost of the item of work.
As with the LEDES format itself, use of such codes standardises how legal work is recorded around the world, with law firms, legal departments and e-billing vendors all using the same codes.
history of utbms
Prior to e-billing, paper invoices would contain lengthy descriptions of services that could run for multiple pages. It was difficult to digest the work that had been done and how much it had cost.
Driven by the need to digitalise this process, and alongside the formation of LEDES, The American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and PricewaterhouseCoopers formed a group to create a unified electronic billing standard. The UTBMS codes are sometimes known as ABA task codes for this reason.
They decided that electronic invoice time entries should be task-based and aggregated by the type of work performed:
+ Task codes are a granular description of the service provided by area of law. Task codes are organised in sets under their less-granular phases within the area of law; Litigation, Bankrupty, Trademark, etc.
+ Activity codes identify the specific service performed; or „how“ the work is being done.
+ Expense codes were created to categorise expenses on matters.
benefits of utbms for corporate legal
For law firms, standard invoice file formats and time entry recording greatly reduces administrative burden, since they use the same standards regardless of who the client is or what e-billing software they are using.
Most law firms and certainly all the large firms use the LEDES file format and UTBMS code set as standard, and many have been doing so since the mid 90s.
For in-house legal departments, the use of UTBMS also delivers significant benefits:
+ Legal e-billing systems can electronically review invoice submissions before they reach a human reviewer. The system checks the invoice against the billing rules – for example, if a certain task code reaches a pre-defined budget threshold – and can flag or reject the invoice automatically if desired. This saves in-house counsel time reviewing invoices manually, freeing them up to do more high value work. BusyLamp legal spend management customers notice billing errors that had been missed during the previous process (error-prone, human review).
+ Standard codes allow for easy comparison of work being performed across different matters or firms. Cost, efficiency, and quality can all be compared easily and consistently.
+ This legal spend reporting can be used to negotiate better rates, decide which work to bring in-house/outsource, evaluate which firms to use for which types of work or matters, and to make a business case for additional headcount.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What does LEDES stand for?
LEDES stands for the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standards.
What is a LEDES file invoice?
This refers to a set of eBill format standards that stipulate what data should be provided in an eBill and how that data should be organised. The original standard was created in the mid-1990s by an industry group, which included the American Bar Association (ABA) and Price Waterhouse.
What are the LEDES standard formats?
The main LEDES file formats are-
- 1998B – a Pipe delimited ASCII file, still the standard in the US.
- 1998BI – the “International” version of 98B, has VAT and multi-currency support.
- 2000 – a file based on XML, used by some global clients.
- XML v 2.2 – is the latest XML standard, offers UK/EU tax compliance, is becoming more widely used.
What does UTBMS stand for?
UTBMS stands for the Uniform Task-Based Management System.
What are UTBMS codes?
These are the task and activity codes that categorise legal work (and expenses/disbursements). The LEDES standard files have separate fields for Task code and Activity code for time entries, and an Expense code field for expenses/disbursements. In practice, not all clients require Phase/Task codes but most will ask for Activity codes to be used.
What is a task code?
Phases/Tasks codes – there are different code sets depending on matter type e.g. Litigation, Bankruptcy, Project/Transactional, usually the first character of the code set shows the type of legal work being undertaken.
What is an activity code?
Activity codes are used to show what action is being performed and begin with an A – e.g. A103 (Draft/Revise) or A104 (Review/Analyse)
How are Phase/Task and Activity codes used in an EBill?
Task codes show the stages of the matter and Activity codes show how work is being done.
For example, if a lawyer is working on a Litigation matter; taking Depositions within the Discovery phase and Communicating within the team – then a time entry would be – Litigation code set – Phase L300 (Discovery/Disclosure) and Task L330 (Depositions) i.e. the 1st character defines the code set and the 2nd character of the Task code defines the Phase. (There can be up to 99 Tasks within each Phase)
The Activity code would be – A105 (Communicate – within legal team)
Therefore the time entry on the LEDES EBill file will need to have L330 (Task) & A105 (Activity) codes plus the narrative to fully identify the work done.
How does the UTMBS codes handle expenses/disbursements?
There are UTBMS Expenses codes that can be entered on the EBill file and begin with E or X e.g. X114 or E109 (Local Travel)
Who are the LEDES Oversight Committee?
The LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) is an international, voluntary, not-for-profit organisation comprised of legal industry representatives and is charged with creating and maintaining open standard formats for the electronic exchange of billing and other information between corporations and law firms.
