Patent ID: 8554603

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, by a processor, a set of billing data for legal services performed for a plurality of matters, the billing data including a plurality of time entries and associated task codes; identifying, by the processor, a first group of common tasks among the plurality of time entries based on the associated task codes; calculating, by the processor, a set of costs for the plurality of matters, wherein the set of costs includes, for each of the plurality of matters, a cost for the first group of common tasks, wherein the cost is a unit cost or ratio cost, and wherein for each of the plurality of matters the unit cost is calculated by dividing a total cost for the first group of common tasks for a particular matter of the plurality of matters by a number of units for the particular matter of the plurality of matters, and the ratio cost is calculated by dividing the total cost for at least the first group of the common tasks for a particular matter of the plurality of matters by a total cost of the particular matter of the plurality of matters; receiving, by the processor, analysis constraints; selecting from the set of costs for the plurality of matters, by the processor based on the analysis constraints, the calculated costs for a subset of the plurality of matters; generating, by the processor, a cost model based on the selected costs for the first group of common tasks; outputting, by the processor to an output device, the cost model; receiving, by the processor, a set of price quotes for a service from a plurality of legal services providers; sorting, by the processor, the received price quotes; comparing, by the processor, the sorted price quotes with the cost model; and outputting, by the processor to the output device, the comparison of the sorted price quotes with the cost model.