Report-outs that out lawyers who flout e-billing rules for outside counsel

E-billing software applies rules to invoices, such as “no person can bill more than 10 hours in a day,” or “time of unapproved billers will be rejected.” But rules are made to be broken, and some in-house lawyers consistently break a lot of rules.

One measure to take against flagrant rule flouters is to have the software track which lawyers let slide which rules, how often, and for how much in fees or disbursements.

If a general counsel approves of monitoring the monitors, it gives the rules teeth; they are not gummy guidelines that one can disregard with impunity.