How The Williams Companies Uses Matter Management to Work More Efficiently

As one of the country's largest integrated natural gas companies, The Williams Companies Inc. has operations concentrated in the Rocky Mountains, Gulf Coast, Pacific Northwest, Eastern Seaboard, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and in Alberta, Canada. The natural gas that travels through its pipeline systems is used to heat homes and generate electricity across the country.

The Challenge

In 2001, Williams found itself in the midst of a painful downturn that ultimately changed the composition of the company's assets and its direction. As such, our legal department was given a corporate mandate to increase our internal services while dramatically reducing our budget, headcount and spending on outside legal services.

Over the next 10 years, we reduced our legal department's headcount from 117 employees, including 55 attorneys, to 70 employees, including 37 attorneys; implemented cutting edge pro-bono and diversity programs; and assumed managerial oversight of several other groups, including Compliance, Ethics, Enterprise Security, Records Management, Contract Management and Corporate Environmental Health & Safety. To aid in this effort and further streamline internal operations, we also became an early adopter of matter management, e-billing and other legal automation technologies.

Although we endured a majority of our pain points during the implementation of our corporate mandate, streamlining legal operations remained an ongoing objective. Our system at the time lacked the ability to quickly search for, compile and review matter information, including budget/actual spend summaries. It also made timekeeping a time-consuming process. To assist in addressing these issues, we chose Mitratech's TeamConnect when we needed to upgrade our matter management system this year.

System Capabilities

Our requirements were fairly straightforward: We needed a system that was cutting edge from a technical perspective, intuitive enough to ensure user adoption and customizable enough to keep pace with the changing needs of our clients and partners. TeamConnect matched all of these requirements and also offered additional functionalities aiding ease of use, such as:

• Capture and report on key management information, especially financials;
• Track and align organizational and departmental goals and commitments, including pro bono and diversity efforts;
• Support a highly complex internal chargeback structure;
• Allow for granular cost reporting and budgeting by matter, time period (year, life-of-case, quarter), phase/task and vendor/firm;
• Ensure the ability to meet ever-changing regulatory reporting requirements;
• Support complex reporting catered to each level of matter and departmental management;
• Electronically link to other company and legal systems; and
• Support groups that are outside Legal but a part of the General Counsel's area of responsibility, such as Compliance or Enterprise Security.

Customized Compliance

When it came time to implement the system, our department's prior experience with automation proved to be especially beneficial. To optimize a matter management system design, you must first know what you'd like to achieve. Because we've been using various technologies for more than a decade, our users knew exactly what they wanted to obtain from TeamConnect.

Upon implementation, we began to custom design several process-specific tools that would identify time consuming and stressful, manual tasks. For example, our interstate natural gas pipeline operations are scrutinized and regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Since cost recovery ' the amount Williams is allowed to recover for natural gas sent through its pipelines ' is regulated by the FERC, the hours that Legal charges against the company's pipelines and other regulated assets must be carefully tracked and documented.

To simplify timekeeping and ensure the department's hours are properly accounted for, we custom built a “Time Entry Tool.” Rate recovery related hours are now automatically tracked by an attorney or delegated and transmitted directly to the company's general ledger system, thereby ensuring all chargebacks to each of the company's three business units are posted in the proper category.

The department also implemented an “Audit Report Tool” that automates what had been the tedious ' and sometimes nerve-wracking ' job of identifying and gathering exposure and contingent liability data that Williams reports to its external auditors. Using predefined criteria, TeamConnect automatically sifts through all open matters and indentifies potential external audit letter candidates. Though not all of these matters end up being reportable, the system will go through and create a list of potential candidates. Our attorneys then sort through the list and choose what will actually go into the letter. By having all of our matter information in one searchable database, we are able to save time and reduce the chance of overlooking something.

Last, we created the “Records Retention Tool” which ensures all records within the system are disposed of at the proper time. Legal has always advocated a corporate-wide strict records management and compliance program, and this tool enables us to practice what we preach. The system automatically identifies and deletes closed matters and associated data when they reach a certain age.

Financial Tracking

TeamConnect is also integral to the department's financial reporting. Users can set their home page to automatically display data that ranges from hierarchy-based spend information to key performance indicators. An inside attorney can view budget information for each of his or her matters at both the law firm and vendor levels. Or, an assistant general counsel can view the business unit's overall legal budget and spend, by matter and law firm.

What we like most is the level of data granularity. In the past we were not able to capture detailed invoice information, just the billing summary with little or no detail. Now we can analyze a matter budget and spend in any number of ways. We can examine a certain matter by the number of hours billed by partners, associates and paralegals. We might compare two firms handling the same type of matter. We may ask: “Why did a partner handle 75% of the work at one firm while associates handled most of the work at the other?”

The ability to capture and access up-to-the-minute spend data by law firm, inside attorney, practice area, matter or business unit also simplifies the department's financial reporting process. In most corporations, the finance organization gathers legal spend data from its own system and inserts it into internal reports. We have the ability to access that information ourselves and deliver it in greater detail than a financial system could.

Finally, TeamConnect interfaces easily with other corporate systems, all of which helped us get the system up and running in relatively short order. Granted, it's a new matter management system, but TeamConnect is pretty intuitive and our users are very sophisticated. We knew what we wanted the system to do for us going in. But what's especially helpful is knowing that we can adapt the system to meet any new or revised internal or regulatory measures down the road. In our business, that's crucial.

As one of the country's largest integrated natural gas companies, The Williams Companies Inc. has operations concentrated in the Rocky Mountains, Gulf Coast, Pacific Northwest, Eastern Seaboard, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and in Alberta, Canada. The natural gas that travels through its pipeline systems is used to heat homes and generate electricity across the country.

The Challenge

In 2001, Williams found itself in the midst of a painful downturn that ultimately changed the composition of the company's assets and its direction. As such, our legal department was given a corporate mandate to increase our internal services while dramatically reducing our budget, headcount and spending on outside legal services.

Over the next 10 years, we reduced our legal department's headcount from 117 employees, including 55 attorneys, to 70 employees, including 37 attorneys; implemented cutting edge pro-bono and diversity programs; and assumed managerial oversight of several other groups, including Compliance, Ethics, Enterprise Security, Records Management, Contract Management and Corporate Environmental Health & Safety. To aid in this effort and further streamline internal operations, we also became an early adopter of matter management, e-billing and other legal automation technologies.

Although we endured a majority of our pain points during the implementation of our corporate mandate, streamlining legal operations remained an ongoing objective. Our system at the time lacked the ability to quickly search for, compile and review matter information, including budget/actual spend summaries. It also made timekeeping a time-consuming process. To assist in addressing these issues, we chose Mitratech's TeamConnect when we needed to upgrade our matter management system this year.

System Capabilities

Our requirements were fairly straightforward: We needed a system that was cutting edge from a technical perspective, intuitive enough to ensure user adoption and customizable enough to keep pace with the changing needs of our clients and partners. TeamConnect matched all of these requirements and also offered additional functionalities aiding ease of use, such as:

• Capture and report on key management information, especially financials;
• Track and align organizational and departmental goals and commitments, including pro bono and diversity efforts;
• Support a highly complex internal chargeback structure;
• Allow for granular cost reporting and budgeting by matter, time period (year, life-of-case, quarter), phase/task and vendor/firm;
• Ensure the ability to meet ever-changing regulatory reporting requirements;
• Support complex reporting catered to each level of matter and departmental management;
• Electronically link to other company and legal systems; and
• Support groups that are outside Legal but a part of the General Counsel's area of responsibility, such as Compliance or Enterprise Security.

Customized Compliance

When it came time to implement the system, our department's prior experience with automation proved to be especially beneficial. To optimize a matter management system design, you must first know what you'd like to achieve. Because we've been using various technologies for more than a decade, our users knew exactly what they wanted to obtain from TeamConnect.

Upon implementation, we began to custom design several process-specific tools that would identify time consuming and stressful, manual tasks. For example, our interstate natural gas pipeline operations are scrutinized and regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Since cost recovery ' the amount Williams is allowed to recover for natural gas sent through its pipelines ' is regulated by the FERC, the hours that Legal charges against the company's pipelines and other regulated assets must be carefully tracked and documented.

To simplify timekeeping and ensure the department's hours are properly accounted for, we custom built a “Time Entry Tool.” Rate recovery related hours are now automatically tracked by an attorney or delegated and transmitted directly to the company's general ledger system, thereby ensuring all chargebacks to each of the company's three business units are posted in the proper category.

The department also implemented an “Audit Report Tool” that automates what had been the tedious ' and sometimes nerve-wracking ' job of identifying and gathering exposure and contingent liability data that Williams reports to its external auditors. Using predefined criteria, TeamConnect automatically sifts through all open matters and indentifies potential external audit letter candidates. Though not all of these matters end up being reportable, the system will go through and create a list of potential candidates. Our attorneys then sort through the list and choose what will actually go into the letter. By having all of our matter information in one searchable database, we are able to save time and reduce the chance of overlooking something.

Last, we created the “Records Retention Tool” which ensures all records within the system are disposed of at the proper time. Legal has always advocated a corporate-wide strict records management and compliance program, and this tool enables us to practice what we preach. The system automatically identifies and deletes closed matters and associated data when they reach a certain age.

Financial Tracking

TeamConnect is also integral to the department's financial reporting. Users can set their home page to automatically display data that ranges from hierarchy-based spend information to key performance indicators. An inside attorney can view budget information for each of his or her matters at both the law firm and vendor levels. Or, an assistant general counsel can view the business unit's overall legal budget and spend, by matter and law firm.

What we like most is the level of data granularity. In the past we were not able to capture detailed invoice information, just the billing summary with little or no detail. Now we can analyze a matter budget and spend in any number of ways. We can examine a certain matter by the number of hours billed by partners, associates and paralegals. We might compare two firms handling the same type of matter. We may ask: “Why did a partner handle 75% of the work at one firm while associates handled most of the work at the other?”

The ability to capture and access up-to-the-minute spend data by law firm, inside attorney, practice area, matter or business unit also simplifies the department's financial reporting process. In most corporations, the finance organization gathers legal spend data from its own system and inserts it into internal reports. We have the ability to access that information ourselves and deliver it in greater detail than a financial system could.

Finally, TeamConnect interfaces easily with other corporate systems, all of which helped us get the system up and running in relatively short order. Granted, it's a new matter management system, but TeamConnect is pretty intuitive and our users are very sophisticated. We knew what we wanted the system to do for us going in. But what's especially helpful is knowing that we can adapt the system to meet any new or revised internal or regulatory measures down the road. In our business, that's crucial.