Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions Podcast Examines How Financial Services Organizations Are Effectively Controlling Legal Costs

Magen McClintock from KeyBank and John Crawshaw of PNC Financial Services discuss the value of legal benchmarking data

Financial services companies pay the highest legal rates of any industry – but may also be the best at controlling costs. The latest installment of Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions’ Legal Leaders Exchange Podcast welcomes Magen McClintock, Senior Legal Operations Specialist at KeyBank, and John Crawshaw, Business Analytics Manager at PNC Financial Services, who share their thoughts on effective strategies for controlling legal spend.

Nathan Cemenska, Director of Legal Operations and Industry Insights at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, moderates the discussion featuring data from ELM Solutions’ “2021 Real Rate Report,” which found only a 2.8% mean increase in the legal rates being paid by banking and finance companies compared to the 10.8% increase experienced by entities in the industrial manufacturing sector.

Both McClintock and Crawshaw noted that their organizations leverage comparative benchmarking data – provided by the rate benchmarking feature in ELM Solutions’ TyMetrix 360° e-billing and matter management solution – to ensure that they are negotiating competitive rates with outside counsel.

“When a timekeeper rate is submitted in the TyMetrix system we can see the rate benchmark come through with the specific rate that was inputted into the system, which is very helpful,” McClintock said. “We can take that information and summarize it for our attorneys if we need their input on the rate approval.”

“PNC frequently utilizes timekeeper and rate benchmarking from TyMetrix. We try to look at our own internal rates compared to other firms while also using the industry benchmarks that we have in place,” Crawshaw says. “Access to that information provides an invaluable source of support whenever our team is speaking to a law firm about rate increases.”

In addition to its 2021 Real Rate Report, ELM Solutions also published a separate analysis earlier this year – “Financial Services Insights from the 2021 Real Rate Report” – that offered a deeper examination of how legal spend in the heavily regulated finance sector compared to other industry verticals.

ELM Solutions, part of Wolters Kluwer GRC, is the market-leading global provider of enterprise legal spend and matter management, contract lifecycle management and legal analytics solutions. The company provides a comprehensive suite of tools that address the growing needs of corporate legal operations departments to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. Corporate legal and insurance claims departments trust its innovative technology and end-to-end customer experience to drive world-class business outcomes. The other legal solutions business of Wolters Kluwer GRC is CT Corporation. The division’s banking and regulatory compliance businesses are Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions and Wolters Kluwer Finance, Risk & Regulatory Reporting.

Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions was named a leader in both the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Legal Spend Management 2020 Vendor Assessment and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Matter Management 2020 Vendor Assessment. The company’s award-winning products include Passport®, one of the highest rated ELM solutions in the latest Hyperion MarketView™ Legal Market Intelligence Report and TyMetrix® 360°, the industry’s leading SaaS-based e-billing and matter management solution. CLM Matrix, meanwhile, was named a “strong performer” in The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management For All Contracts, Q1 2021 report. ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW® portfolio of legal analytics solutions is based upon the industry’s largest and most comprehensive legal spend database, with more than $150 billion in invoices.

About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance

Governance, Risk & Compliance is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to help ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance.

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of €4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,800 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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