Hot on the heels of its recent acquisition of DocsCorp and Foundation Software Group, Litera today (13 April) announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Clocktimizer, which helps law firms to automatically categorise their billing narratives into activities and task codes.
Clocktimizer will join Foundation in Litera’s new law firm intelligence business unit. The acquisition of Foundation saw Litera shift for the first time from the practice of law to the business of law, and the acquisition of Clocktimizer is said to accelerate Foundation’s ability to help law firms unlock the value of their data.
Interestingly, Foundation was in talks to partner with Clocktimizer before its acquisition by Litera in January. Speakign to Legal IT Insider, global director of business and strategy, Haley Altman said: “Once we had done the acquisition it was totally obvious why: there is a synergy there with overlapping customers. It’s incredible to see how the data can flow and how it will enrich the data for customers.”
“Litera recognizes the importance of passive data collection for pricing, budgeting, and legal project management for law firms,” said Chris Vorderer, managing director of the firm intelligence unit, who before joining Foundation in 2017, was VP of client services and support at Microsystems. Microsystems became part of Litera in 2019. “We are excited to bring Clocktimizer into the firm intelligence business unit to deliver critical data through Foundation’s enterprise data platform while also accelerating plans to help law firms improve profitability.”
Clocktimizer helps law firms understand who does what, when, where, and at what costs. Law firms use these insights to make data-driven decisions around matter management, budgeting, and pricing. Clocktimizer uses natural language processing to mine timecard narratives to paint a picture of current work product while leveraging historical data to improve future matter budgets and plans.
“Litera’s product portfolio and the importance they place on delivering a great customer experience made them a perfect fit,” said Pieter van der Hoeven, CEO and co-founder at Clocktimizer. “Bram and I are excited to stay on with the business. We believe this acquisition opens up a lot of possibilities to build on our successes and continue to provide our customers with solutions they need to meet client demands while accelerating investment in the product to meet our goals.”
Clocktimizer and Foundation share similar large law AmLaw 100 and Global 100 law firms, including Clifford Chance.
Litera only last month acquired DocsCorp, and questions will be asked as to how much merger activity it can cope with at any one time. Altman said: “When we add an acquisition we don’t interrupt the entire company, we find best of breed technology that will help our business units, who will then decide on the integration and support plan for their customers. It really allows us to more seamlessly integrate each acquisition.”
The four units are drafting; law firm intelligence; transactional; and litigation.
Caroline.hill@legalitlexicon.com