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The client: A litigation firm representing clients in multiple states
The law firm represents clients in litigation spanning multiple states with more than 40 attorneys and paralegals.
Its attorneys divide their working days between preparing cases, attending hearings, and discussing developments with clients.
Naturally, most client conversations happen over the phone. Clients call to provide information, discuss settlement proposals, or confirm instructions before a filing. Attorneys answer these calls between appointments and court appearances, as well as from their offices.
Accounting for that time was essential to the firm’s billing, but there wasn’t a consistent record of those calls to check when preparing invoices.
The firm wanted a phone system that enabled its attorneys to document the purpose and duration of client conversations involving legal advice to ensure accurate billing.
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4. Take the next step toward accurate call billing with iPlum
The challenge: completed legal work didn’t appear in client invoices
The firm’s attorneys were spending time advising clients by phone, but some of that work went unbilled.
A perfect example was when attorneys would finish a client call and go straight into a hearing or meeting before writing down what they had discussed.
Later, they struggled to remember enough detail to prepare a billing entry. As a result, the firm wasn’t charging for some of the legal advice its attorneys had already provided.
When preparing invoices, the firm experienced the following challenges:
Undocumented calls
Attorneys spent a substantial amount of time on calls advising clients on filings, settlement offers, and related matters. But they sometimes had another appointment immediately afterward and postponed writing the billing note.
When they returned to it, they didn’t have all the information needed to bill the client accurately. They had to rely on memory, which was counterintuitive for both billing accuracy and documenting the advice they had given.
Call histories did not explain the work performed
Sure, an attorney's personal cell phone call history could show a client’s number, date, and duration. However, it could not explain which case the discussion concerned, what advice the attorney provided, or what the client instructed them to do.
Before creating a billing entry, attorneys had to connect those details. Repeated calls from the same client made that task more difficult, particularly when several discussions took place over a few days.
Uncertain details left time off invoices
When attorneys could not accurately reconstruct a call, they lacked the information needed to describe and justify the charge.
When the firm reviewed its billing process, it identified approximately 60–90 minutes of undocumented client calls per week, translating to four to six hours over four weeks.
Those omissions accumulated through individual conversations, making the lost revenue less obvious than a missed entry for a lengthy meeting or court appearance.
The solution: record client calls to help prepare billing entries
The firm signed up for iPlum’s phone system for law offices to enable its attorneys to record calls they could refer to after a client call.
With iPlum, attorneys could do the following using a dedicated business number on their existing smartphones:
Record client advice as the conversation happens
Attorneys enabled automatic call recording for incoming and outgoing calls through their iPlum numbers. The firm also activated a recording announcement as part of its client notification procedures.
When an attorney answered a call between hearings, iPlum recorded the conversation. The attorney could later check the advice given and the instructions received before writing a case note or billing description.
And because recording was automatic, attorneys did not have to remember to start it before discussing a client’s case.
Use transcripts to document the work performed
The firm used iPlum’s Auto-Transcription feature to create searchable text from recorded calls.
Attorneys could read a conversation to check what they had discussed, what the client had decided, and what action they had agreed to take. They used those details to write a description of the legal work performed and assign it to the correct case.
And if wording in the transcript was uncertain, the attorney checked the audio before adding the information to a case file or billing entry.
Check client calls against recorded billable time
During weekly billing reviews, attorneys checked their call and usage logs against entries in the firm’s billing system.
They matched client calls to the relevant case and checked the duration. If a call had no corresponding billing entry, the attorney reviewed the conversation to determine what work had taken place.
Comparing the logs with existing entries also allowed attorneys to identify calls they had already billed.
In addition, the firm had access to the following functions as part of the 50 + iPlum features:
- Dual-mode calling to make client calls over a carrier voice network or Wi-Fi/data.
- Encrypted messaging to exchange confidential information through secure app-to-app conversations.
- Distinct ringtones to distinguish business calls from personal calls.
- Multi-user account management to administer attorneys’ business lines through the firm’s account.
- A Business Associate Agreement for legal work involving applicable HIPAA obligations.
The results: more than $200,000 recovered in previously unbilled client calls
Within the first 60 days of using iPlum, the firm reported improvements in billing, call documentation, and case notes: The numbers looks as follows:
- More than 500 billable hours recovered from client calls that previously went undocumented.
- Over $200,000 in additional billing from those recovered hours.
- 100% of client calls through the business lines recorded and reviewed, with billing entries matched to the relevant case, date, and duration.
- No missed mobile-call billing entries reported during the initial review period.
- Weekly billing reviews completed in under 15 minutes.
- Call-note preparation took 2–3 minutes per conversation using transcripts.
- Case notes updated the same day, with attorneys checking the client’s exact wording when necessary.
- Fewer clarification calls, as attorneys could consult the recorded discussion before contacting the client again.
- Improved recall of client discussions during hearings, according to the firm.
With iPlum, the firm recovered the billable time from work its attorneys had already performed. It also reported more accurate client summaries and better follow-up documentation.
Furthermore, attorneys did not extend their working hours to generate the additional billing.
Take the next step toward accurate call billing with iPlum
Are you leaving completed legal work off client invoices because your attorneys don’t have enough information to prepare billing entries?
With iPlum, your firm can record client calls, review transcripts, and check call durations when preparing invoices. Attorneys can then track the advice they provided and account for eligible time under your billing procedures.
Start with the conversations your attorneys already have, and give them the records needed to document that work.
Get started with iPlum’s phone system for law firms
