Legal Tracker case study for AtriCure Supporting cost control, growth, and innovation

Bodner says, “We've been able to really lean into the Legal Tracker data to help partner with our finance team to make sure that we are staying on top of our anticipated and actual spend. We’re also getting more sophisticated in terms of budgeting on matters, using Legal Tracker to track and manage spend against budget.”

Finance team members and even some business units that use outside counsel directly also have access to Legal Tracker — with their own dashboards. They find it very easy to use. According to Bodner, “I don’t have the business team or finance reaching out and saying ‘We don’t understand. We can’t find this? How do you see this?’ I don’t get any questions or complaints.” 

The ability to approve or reject invoices directly from their email makes it even easier for non-legal users who — unlike the legal team — don’t spend much time in Legal Tracker. “Meeting business and finance users where they are will be a big value-add and efficiency increase for them,” Bodner adds.

Optimizing timekeeper rate reviews

In 2023, the company upgraded to Legal Tracker Advanced, which delivers advanced analytics and workflow tools based on the market's largest aggregated spend database. Atricure was immediately struck by the value this solution delivered, especially around optimizing timekeeper rate reviews. Previously, Bodner would have to piece lots of different information together manually, run totals in Excel, and do a lot of analysis herself. Now, all that information is available in the Timekeeper Rate Review module.

“Now the Legal Tracker Advanced Timekeeper Rate Review module just does it all for us,” explains Bodner. “Essentially, Legal Tracker Advanced is paying for itself. It saves a huge amount of time. And the insights it gives us help us negotiate better rates with law firms. By arming us with the data, it’s easier to push back with firms about how much we’re prepared to pay. That’s saving us a lot right there,” she says.

Using Legal Tracker Advanced has dramatically shortened the time it takes to conduct timekeeper rate reviews — a process that could sometimes take months to complete now takes just a couple of weeks. Cutting out the manual tasks has saved Bodner herself several days of work.

She explains that going through the rate review process is critical to staying on budget, but it’s not the type of thing that lawyers want to have to spend days, or even hours, thinking about. Lawyers feel that getting the necessary information at the firm level or looking at individual timekeepers quickly with a click of a few buttons is a significant value add because it does not take a lot of their time or brain power.

“Any opportunity to make that kind of work more efficient is so important, so then I and the attorneys can be freed up to do all the other things that we need to be focused on,” she adds.

Visibility, flexibility, and user-friendliness

Along with the efficiency gains, Bodner welcomes the visibility the legal team and the wider business get from Legal Tracker, and its flexibility makes it easy to make changes in the system so that it always aligns as required with budgets and forecasts. She and her colleagues also like how simple it is to work in Legal Tracker.

The invoice review and audit processes are clear and streamlined. For example, Bodner can quickly see how a particular invoice is tracking against budget, and she can handle high volumes of invoices with ease. Invoices are now far less likely to get stuck in the system because it is easier for the relevant people to see that there’s a problem and deal with it.

Going forward, the company is keen to leverage the Legal Tracker Matter Pricing and RFP module to help it manage legal spend even more efficiently as it shops around for legal services.

Now that Legal Tracker is such an integral part of AtriCure’s legal operations, it’s very much here to stay. “We’re always thinking about what process we need to improve and what software is out there that can support that. But e-billing and matter management never comes up as something we need to evaluate other options for because we’re very happy with the functionality Legal Tracker provides,” says Bodner.

She continues: “One of our mottos is continuous improvement. And I think Legal Tracker embraces that approach. Every quarter there are new enhancements. The Legal Tracker team is working consistently to try to make everything as seamless and efficient as possible, and they’re responsive to feature requests from customers. So, it's never a topic of conversation to see what other options are out there.”

At a glance

AtriCure

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, AtriCure has more than 1,200 employees worldwide, including over 450 scientists and engineers. It sells its products in around 60 countries. It also has offices in Minnesota, California, and the Netherlands.

Challenges

Previously, the company had no e-billing capability and had to track and analyze billing data manually. AtriCure was growing fast and needed optimized, scalable systems and processes fit for purpose for a much larger operation.

Why Legal Tracker?

The deputy GC — who had used Legal Tracker before and was confident it would solve Atricure’s pain points — recommended it. It was also scalable as growth accelerated. It allows the company to be cost-effective, efficient, and forward-thinking in its operations.

Benefits

• Provides a user-friendly interface
• Generates significant efficiency gains
• Provides vital insights to help control costs
• Delivers clarity and flexibility
• Offers scalability and continuous product enhancements

Previously, AtriCure had no e-billing capability, and it had to track and analyze billing data manually. The company was growing fast and needed optimized, scalable systems and processes fit for purpose for a much larger operation. It leveraged Legal Tracker’s e-billing and spend management tools to report, budget, and forecast.