Legaltech provider BigHand has acquired cost analytics platform Digitory Legal to strengthen its resource management and matter pricing products.

The San Francisco-based platform can help law firms and in-house legal departments better analyse timecard and billing data, which can predict and refine future pricing and fee proposals. The data it generates can also be used to better allocate work based on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) considerations, helping to meet growing client demand for teams to be sufficiently diverse.

Catherine Krow, Digitory’s founder and CEO, said: “Throughout my time practising law I witnessed the growing tensions between lawyers and clients frustrated by poorly scoped and inaccurate budgets and fee structures which lead to cost overruns and/or write-offs.”

Krow said this is often because of poor quality billing data and the challenge of using data to create more accurate fee proposals. She added that when the company realised how much hidden insight there was in the data around DE&I, the business then took on a whole new purpose.

Prior to founding Digitory, Krow spent 12 years as a litigation lawyer at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, nine of them as partner.

Krow, who has received accolades for her work promoting diversity within the legal profession and legal tech, and her Digitory team will be absorbed by BigHand, with Krow taking the title of managing director for diversity and impact analytics. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Digitory, which has three employees listed on LinkedIn, outsources its development teams. Following the acquisition, the addition of further teams is planned to accelerate the growth of the product and integrate it with BigHand's matter pricing and resource management products.

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Eric Wangler, managing director of people productivity at BigHand, said: “Digitory’s name kept popping up in discussions we were having with clients about their resourcing and work allocation processes – especially in conversations about DEI.

“From early in the partnership discussions, it became apparent there was also a strong connection with our matter pricing solution and how timecard data could be better used in the matter budgeting process.”

The Digitory acquisition is the latest in a series of purchases by BigHand as it broadens the scope of its product offering. In February, it acquired US business intelligence and financial analytics provider Iridium Technology. That followed a deal in late 2020 to acquire UK resource management company Mason & Cook.

BigHand itself was acquired in August 2020 by private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.