Sky Analytics Introduces "Right Rate Advisor" to Help Corporate Law Departments Identify Fair Market Hourly Rates for Outside Counsel

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Sep 17, 2012) - Sky Analytics, a leading provider of web-based legal analytics software, announced today the introduction of its proprietary "Right Rate Advisor" in conjunction with a promotional free trial for ten companies. As the legal industry continues to grapple with reduced budgets, Right Rate Advisor, a user-friendly analytical tool, helps in-house counsel make more informed decisions when evaluating whether to approve, reject or reduce requested increases in hourly rates by its outside lawyers.

By analyzing a host of factors across hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate legal spend, Sky Analytics provides General Counsel with the appropriate rate an attorney should command in their market. Attorneys' years of experience, position, firm size and cost of living in the metro region where lawyers practice are primary factors used to determine fair market rate. By comparing a lawyer's requested rate against the Right Rate, in-house counsel can quickly gauge if the rate increase request is reasonable.

With the turbulent economy forcing companies to pay closer attention to inflationary costs, Sky Analytics Right Rate Advisor is at the core of helping corporate legal departments manage budgets more effectively. Corporate clients have praised Right Rate Advisor for not only saving money, but also for producing significant time-savings.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to expenses and overbilling and Right Rate Advisor is an example of how analytics are driving change in the legal industry," explained Sky Analytics President, Doug Ventola. "We continue to see an uptick in the use of analytics to help manage corporate legal spend and as more legal departments move toward annual rate reviews for outside counsel in place of blindly accepting rate increases, the Right Rate Advisor will become indispensable for many leading companies."

In addition to hourly rate analysis, the Right Rate Advisor examines such critical factors as:

• History - Attorneys with a longer history (hours billed) of working with the company are often viewed more favorably.
• Overtime Billings - Since in-house counsel see productivity and quality drop as attorneys work abnormally long hours, attorneys working within normal working hours are generally viewed more favorably.
• Billing Precision - Attorneys that provided specific times and descriptions for each task are viewed more favorably.
• Block Billing - Attorneys that bill multiple line items under a single charge or "block bill" are viewed less favorably.
• Auto Reject - Rules-based factoring streamlines decision-making, whereby, rate increase requests can be rejected from attorneys that had rate increases approved within the last 24 months.

Right Rate Advisor Free Trial available at: http://www.skyanalytics.com/free-rate-advisor-trial.

Sky Analytics, the only legal spend management software that does not require a lengthy implementation or e-billing integration, provides in-house counsel with seamless access to a set of unique tools to make informed decisions regarding their legal spend. Sky Analytics online: http://www.skyanalytics.com / https://twitter.com/LawSpendClarity.