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Legal Data Announced
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February 7, 2005
Contact: Peggy Wechsler
(210) 481-5451 peggy@iltanet.org
International Standard for the Exchange of Electronic Legal Data Announced
Legal Industry Representatives from the U.S. and U.K. Reach Agreement About the Creation of an International Electronic Invoicing Standard
New York City, February 7, 2005 - The Legal IT Innovators Group (LITIG) and the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) today announced, in cooperation with the United Nations, the introduction of an international LEDES format. The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) file format has been successful in unifying the U.S. legal industry for the purpose of exchanging electronic invoice data. With electronic invoicing technology rapidly expanding into the European Union (EU), the LOC has adopted a revision of a standard based on the highly successful LEDES 98B file standard, which was previously released and tested by LITIG. The new international beta version of LEDES will provide the LOC a way to gather valuable feedback and enable the global spread of paperless invoicing in the legal industry.
After an exchange of views with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), LITIG and the LOC will now explore compatibility with UNeDocs, the electronic document standard that is being developed by the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT).
"Widespread adoption of electronic invoicing could bring substantial savings and benefits to both large and small companies across a variety of industries. We are pleased to see the legal industry leading the way in this initiative," said the UNECE Trade Division Director Dr. Carol Cosgrove-Sacks.
With the demand for electronic invoicing growing and the increasingly global nature of relationships between corporations and outside counsel and other legal service providers, it became clear to the LOC that an international standard was necessary. "In order to accommodate the growing number of non-U.S. firms being asked to submit electronic invoices and the expansion of electronic invoicing technology into the EU, changes had to be made to the current standard, LEDES 98B," commented Aaron Van Nice, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Chairman of the LOC Executive Committee. "We feel that these changes will allow corporations and law firms around the world to enjoy the benefits of a paperless invoicing process."
LITIG is confident that this standard will benefit the international legal community as well. "The best way to do business efficiently is through technology, and this standard will give EU firms the opportunity to use available technology in an efficient and now standard way," said Derek Southall, Wragge & Co, Head of Strategic Development and Chairman of LITIG.
About the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC)
The LOC is a voluntary body consisting of representatives from the legal industry. It is the goal of the LOC that LEDES be an open standard which caters to no one organization or group of organizations and that LEDES be the single standard used for all billing within the legal industry. PricewaterhouseCoopers originally developed LEDES but it is now managed by the LOC. To find out more go to http://www.ledes.org.
About the Legal IT Innovators Group (LITIG)
LITIG is a non for profit organization specifically for senior professionals such as IT Directors/Managers, CIOs, Partners in Charge or Department Heads who are directly involved in all aspects of the implementation, use and support of Legal IT systems in the U.K. The members include representatives of many of the UK's law firms and a number of leading in house legal departments. For further information please visit http://www.litig.org.
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