Glossary
OCG compliance
Adherence to billing guidelines set by corporate clients — Outside Counsel Guidelines — that specify how time must be recorded, described, and invoiced.
Definition
What is OCG compliance in legal billing?
OCG compliance is adherence to Outside Counsel Guidelines — the billing and conduct policies that corporate clients provide to the law firms they retain. OCGs typically specify requirements for time entries, billing narratives, task codes, matter references, prohibited billing practices, and invoice formatting. Law firms that do not meet these requirements risk having entries written down, invoices rejected, or their billing relationship reviewed.
Why it matters
Why OCG compliance matters for law firms
For firms that bill corporate clients, OCG compliance directly affects revenue. Corporate clients — particularly large companies and their legal departments — use OCGs to control outside legal spend. Invoices that contain entries that do not meet OCG specifications are routinely audited, and non-compliant entries are reduced or denied before payment.
Common OCG requirements include a minimum narrative length, specific descriptions of work performed rather than generic categories, prohibition on block billing (combining multiple tasks in one entry), prohibition on certain administrative billing categories, and task code requirements. Firms that do not train timekeepers on these requirements — and do not have a workflow that supports them — produce entries that consistently fail OCG review.
OCG compliance is also a relationship signal. Clients who use OCGs take billing quality seriously. Consistent non-compliance from a firm does not just produce individual write-downs — it signals to the client that the firm's billing practices are not professionally managed.
CaseClock
How CaseClock supports OCG-compliant entries
Voice-first capture produces entries with specific, substantive billing narratives — which are the foundation of OCG compliance. By capturing the substance of the work in the moment rather than reconstructing it later, CaseClock produces drafts that contain the specificity OCG guidelines require. The review step gives the lawyer the opportunity to verify and refine the entry before it enters the billing system.
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