Uniform Task-Based Management System


The Uniform Task-Based Management System is a set of codes designed to standardize categorization and facilitate analysis of legal work and expenses. UTBMS was produced through a collaborative effort among the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, the American Corporate Counsel Association, and a group of major corporate clients and law firms coordinated and supported by Price Waterhouse LLP. UTBMS codes are now maintained and developed by the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard Oversight Committee.

Background

UTBMS coding is reflected in legal bills sent from a law firm to its corporate clients. Law firms will usually use coding on time and expenses only for those clients who explicitly request it. Most clients who use UTBMS also require electronic billing, usually with an invoice in a LEDES e-billing format.
Fees, which are charges for attorney and legal assistant time, are coded with task and activity codes. There are five sets of task codes: Litigation, Intellectual Property, Counseling, Project and Bankruptcy. The set used for a given matter depends upon the nature of that matter. Tasks may be summarized into phases. Tasks are often reported without reporting the phase, as this can be deduced from the task. The phase/task hierarchy is uniform in the Litigation, Intellectual Property and Bankruptcy task code sets. In the Project set, only the second phase contains multiple tasks. The Counseling set has only a single level. There is a single set of activity codes, which is used in conjunction with each of the four task code sets. There is also a single set of expense codes, which are independent of phase, task and activity codes.
The codes themselves are composed of a letter, followed by a three-digit number. Tasks sharing the same letter and first digit belong to the same phase.
From time-to-time, the LEDES Oversight Committee, the administrative body that oversees these codes, adds and changes codes. In 2007, a set of Intellectual Property codes were finalized and ratified. In 2011, a set of "eDiscovery" codes were ratified. In 2015, the LOC ratified a set of Governance, Risk and Compliance codes based on the Open Compliance & Ethics Group GRC Capability Model.

Lists of the Codes

The code lists are taken from http://www.abanet.org/litigation/utbms/home.html, which has the following Disclaimer & Copyright message:
The authors hereby grant permission to use the codes and related definitions, in whole or in part, on a non-exclusive, royalty-free basis. In addition, this document may be freely reproduced and distributed in any electronic or hardcopy medium, on a nonexclusive, royalty-free basis, provided that this reproduction and distribution are not for profit, and that this title page is included in its entirety.

Litigation Code Set

In late 2013, the Activity Code set was updated and ratified.
In late 2013, the Expense Code set was reworked and ratified.