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There’s a great post up on the ‘3 Geeks and a Law Blog’ that frames the current discussion regarding project managers, or, more specifically, the professional background of and what potentially makes a good project manager.

We’ve discussed this topic on Lawdable before and it’s a worthwhile, ongoing conversation within law firms and other legal service providers like Counsel On Call (although no one is like us, of course). One can very quickly dive into topics ranging from law schools and their e-discovery curriculums (or lack thereof) to whether the disciplines of project management can truly be absorbed by a practicing attorney, among a host of other sidebars.

Here’s what we’d like to tack onto the conversation: excellent project management is completely dependent on the individual project manager. If you look hard enough, there are lawyers out there who are great project managers, who understand how to budget and track metrics, who know how to design and implement proven protocols -- and who have been doing this for years. On the flip side, there are undoubtedly non-lawyers who can come into a project management role, add a lot of value, and do a better job than 95% of the lawyers who currently have project management responsibility. That’s not a knock on those lawyers, but a nod to those non-lawyers’ skills.

The training PMs receive and their personalities affect the people most likely to stay lawyers in the first place. The old adage that ‘I didn’t become a lawyer to do accounting’ is true. However, those who’ve been in law for awhile also see that there are different career development avenues to pursue and to help their clients. (And who’s to say PMs can’t make partner in the law firm of the future? Clients want to work with great PMs; that can mean more business from a PM’s clients.)

Circumstances, experiences and exposure can also help you develop the skills and expertise to push you in the direction of project management. In the same manner that lawyers involved in e-discovery today may not have started with technological understanding or had any initial training; those who have been thrust into the fire might have had an interest created, and then received the training and knowledge to accomplish and even master the topic. So, too, some of those thrust into project management may find that they like it, are good at it and want to pursue it to create the necessary expertise to become premier in the field.

We’ve found great lawyers who make great project managers, but we’re also in a more unique position than, say, a law firm, for instance. Our lawyers were looking for a different way to practice law and that’s why we’ve found one another; that departure from traditional thought also helps us identify those who could potentially make great project managers. And while MBA-types might run individual departments at a law firm, it’s usually a lawyer from within their own ranks who serves as a project manager on a specific case or matter. Some of those lawyers make great PMs, but many are so grounded in traditional lines of thinking that it’s difficult to break away and innovate; great project management requires a balance of innovation and proven protocols.

That’s a long way of saying there are different ways to approach this issue, and it’s going to be a focus as more people become attuned to it. In the end, it’s great for our profession.
 

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OK, this is just a different (some might say lame) way of asking what your goals are in 2010… but ‘tis the season, eh?

There’s never been more at stake in the legal profession than there is now. There’s a palpable sense of change in the air… especially concerning the new legal model of law firms and the impact it will have on the way law is practiced and billed. But I’m not one to wait around for that to truly happen, so why not start moving forward? Here are just a few of the things attorneys have to tackle in 2010:

True cost containment of legal expenses … If you’re one of the thousands of in-house managers who has taken the reigns of your budget, designed new processes, brought more work in-house, cultivated new outside counsel relationships, and engaged alternative legal services providers… well, here’s hoping that you get more sleep in 2010, because you’ve likely been busier than ever. Those who’ve undertaken the commitment to cost containment should be applauded and hopefully the work they’ve done will make life easier down the road. This process will continue to evolve for these good people, and thousands more will start down this path anew in 2010. The point: This is the new way of life for corporate legal departments.
 

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There’s little question Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs) have gained in popularity in recent years, and that interest seems to only be increasing. In a recent survey of in-house attorneys we conducted in Atlanta, 46% of those who planned to implement new strategies in 2010 said they planned to use AFAs. After all, what in-house department wouldn’t want cost certainty in a time when most are being asked to reduce costs?

However, it’s a difficult matter to pin down and price properly. Today’s post from the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog says it very well: you have to understand what goes into your costs before you can manage or reduce them, and thus create a valuable proposition for both you and your clients. And therein lies the rub.

For many matters, there are way too many variables to be able to create a fixed cost forecast that benefits both you and the client. That’s a terrifying predicament for a law firm to be in and roll out on a pricing platform to a client. But is that really the issue? I agree with the 3 Geeks post: many lawyers just don’t understand how these arrangements can (or do) work, and I’d add there’s a question whether they should even be pursued at all if that’s the starting point of the discussion.

I have previously worked on these types of arrangements prior to joining Counsel On Call, in particular, data mapping and record retention projects– two areas in which we had a pretty good understanding of the time it took to create the work product necessary to implement. And ultimately our clients understood and appreciated the certainty of the fixed cost. But the interesting thing was that when we would initially provide the fixed fee amount, our clients would sometimes balk, shocked at the total amount staring them in the face. But then when we broke it down on an hourly rate basis and they realized they were getting a significant discount, they were all for it. (It would often go like this: Us: “The cost is $75,000 for the work on a flat fee basis.” Client: “That much?!??! Are you kidding?” Us: “OK, tell you what, we’ll do it for $250 per hour and it should take at least 300 hours.” Client: “Great! Let’s do that!”)

So for many, certainty outweighs cost, even though they think it’s the opposite. Many law firms cater to that notion, which allows them an easy way out when trying to determine actual costs and value. It’s pretty simple to estimate how long certain projects will take, and then multiply that number by an hourly rate, provide a small discount and come up with an “alternative” fee; but that’s not really very creative and doesn’t truly solve the cost/value challenges the client is facing. In fact, one can argue that deriving a flat fee from this foundation actually de-incentivizes a law firm; it’s going to get paid that amount no matter the quality of the work or how long it takes to complete. That being said, a strong case can be made that AFAs should be incentive-based as a core feature, and we know several clients who are utilizing those types of models. When everyone has a skin in the game, priorities become a lot more transparent. Value is, at a minimum, more apparent in that model.

At Counsel On Call and especially in my role in the E-Discovery Division, it’s pretty simple: We have to understand all of the costs of a typical project and how to make the work product better and operate more efficiently. If we don’t do that, it’s not going to matter how we package our costs because we wouldn’t be providing value to our clients. You have to take care of the former to be able to create options for the latter.

(I'd also be remiss if I didn't at least mention Patrick J. Lamb at Valorem, who posts often on the subject of AFAs.) 
 

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I know that's a really bad take-off on a common expression, but it can be used to describe the prevailing attitude in legal departments toward filing suit against another company -- or even defending against a suit brought against your company. More accurately, the mindset is, “a lawsuit avoided is many, many dollars saved,” and those savings can directly effect the bottom line.

In past downturns, the Bar has been able to take some solace in the loss of transactional work knowing that the litigators would soon have more than enough cases to carry the load. Everyone expected that to be the case this time around as well. The common thought was that corporate work goes down, litigation goes up. But this recession is not like any other in so many respects, so why should it follow that course?

Since the beginning of this year, I’ve taken note of the lack of an appreciable increase in litigation. Companies are not willing to make the huge investment that even the smallest case requires; big cases can quickly become a massive drain on resources. Has the recession created an incentive to avoid these cash sponges? I believe it’s coincidental for a lot of legal departments.

Monday’s National Law Journal contains an interesting and well-written article by Karen Sloan. In it, she notes that there seems to be a dramatic shift in how corporate America is thinking about litigation as a result of the recession. Ms. Sloan shares my humble opinion that you cannot blame this change in attitude totally on the recession and cites other logical reasons why there has been a shift. There are many, many factors that lie outside of the current economic climate which have, through the course of time, changed the mindset of our corporate colleagues. The reality is that it’s just too darn expensive to enter into a courtroom battle where there are other options for dealing with the problem that are infinitely more cost-effective and efficient.

For years now we have been working with corporate clients on how best to tackle some of the more costly aspects of litigation in the most cost-effective and efficient manner. That being said, there’s little question that most changes or strategic shifts regarding litigation policies are reactive; there is usually something on the front end that demands a change. After all, in our profession the tried-and-true path gets worn bare unless a giant boulder is thrown across it. The recession certainly has provided the needed incentive for many to produce a new course of action.

But for many of our clients, that boulder was placed in front of them long ago, during better economic times, whether it was with rising outside counsel costs, new company standards or policies, or simply an early recognition that e-discovery was going to become more difficult to deal with in the future. So they started looking working with regional law firms instead of the AmLaw 100, or enacted procedures when dealing with specific types of litigation, or they expanded their in-house litigation teams and created strict e-discovery and data storing policies. Collectively, these changes meant there was a new approach to litigation, how and when to respond, and how to manage it. These clients were the early adopters of this shift and forged the path for others to follow. Once the recession set in, the shift accelerated somewhat uniformly throughout the profession.

Sure, we haven’t had a surge in lawsuits like has happened in other challenging economic times. There are many positives to this fact, though. The practices that have been developed during the good times are playing a role in decisions whether or not to sue (or to enact procedures when one is sued). They are certainly playing a big role in how to conduct a piece of litigation.
 

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We're not in the habit of event promotion, especially with the sheer number of e-discovery-related conferences in the marketplace, but one in particular has us excited. If you're looking for good, substantive programming and a great line-up of speakers, consider:

ACI’s 7th Annual Advanced Forum on E-Discovery & Document Management

We don't have a dog in the hunt, so to speak, but know and respect many of the panelists involved. Collectively, the in-house counsel on these panels have experienced most, if not all, conceivable challenges related to e-discovery and have developed and/or overseen many efficient and cost-saving solutions. 

If you're weighing different conference options -- and your 2010 legal budget-planning process is fast-approaching or will be in-progress -- it would be hard to go wrong with this event. And if you're planning to attend, drop us an e-mail so we can introduce ourselves while on the same plot of South Broad Street space.

The Forum is Sept. 22-23 in Philadelphia.  

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Once upon a time, there were really only a handful of titles in the legal profession: Associate, Partner, Paralegal; General Counsel, Associate General Counsel; or simply Attorney. Sure, there were mini-steps between these positions and other classifications, but for the most part these titles offered a good snapshot of the profession – especially the way business was done. Everything that couldn’t be handled in-house was sent to the law firm. There were no Account Executives, no Client Liaisons, no Information Systems Administrators ... no other business partners to lean on.

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There’s a very good post on Clearwell's e-discovery 2.0 blog, "How To Reduce Electronic Discovery Costs," that breaks out the discovery process into sections of potential cost savings. It’s a good overview and it’s evidently the first part of a series.

The post reinforces a few of the issues we’ve discussed here, mainly that to reduce discovery costs, you should focus on trying to review less data and review that data faster. There are a couple of recent examples I’d like to share that show just how much money can be saved in implementing this approach.

First, a client called with what seemed like a good-sized matter – more than 70 gigabytes of collected ESI that needed to be reviewed and produced on a tight deadline. The reality was that the data had not yet been processed, culled, or de-duped; so we immediately knew that there were opportunities to dramatically reduce the amount of data to review. The combination of the right technology (coincidentally, it was Clearwell’s early case assessment tool), the right hosting company and good project management paid off on that case. The original 70 GB was reduced to less than 5 GBs of data that required review – a 93% reduction. Our team of attorneys was able to complete the review of this data within days versus weeks and the law firm was able to meet its production deadlines at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Success stories such as these are very common when it comes to reducing data.

The other example is a client whose discovery we’ve handled for the last 12 months. We have project managers and several attorneys dedicated to their matters, and what we’ve seen is that with each matter that comes in the door, the process has become increasingly efficient. Because the review and quality control workflow had already been mapped out, and because the team was already familiar with the client’s data, and the project manager had established relationships with the company’s internal IT contact as well as the company’s preferred review software vendor, those usual start-up measures and learning curves are consistently avoided. The result has been a repeatable process, a shortened timeframe to begin the review and higher review rates once the review begins; in fact, review rates on the first matter were more than double what the company was accustomed to and have increased an additional 50% from the first matter to the most recent. The best result was that the client saved more than $1.5M during this handful of matters.

These examples show that if you have the right processes in place, the knowledge and expertise of the right technology, and the relationships with superior hosting companies and vendors, you can save the time and expense of reinventing wheel for every matter.
 

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The main subject matter of this blog is to discuss best practices or recognize innovative happenings in the legal profession; despite our best efforts, it’s sometimes difficult to stop for a second to write about something or want to write about it when it seems promotional of our company. I considered this yesterday as I was reviewing the status of an interesting new assignment we’re working on, and there are a couple of items I felt were worth discussion here. So here we go ...

Just last week, a team of approximately 20 Counsel On Call attorneys and paralegals -- working remotely from five different cities across the country -- began a project in which they are assisting a corporate client by reviewing and updating all of its vendor contracts before the end of the fiscal year. Each is a great attorney with significant contracts experience in the client's industry (I think the average is around seven years of experience), but what is especially noteworthy about this matter is that several boundaries have been knocked down. It truly is about good lawyers wanting to work with good lawyers, trusting a process and not necessarily taking the road most traveled. The focus is on communication, not location; the qualifications of the attorneys, not the name of the place where they work; and the track record of the leadership and management of the team, not just the bullet points on a resume. This results in the client's ability to get the work done efficiently, access a much larger talent pool and keep a tight hold on costs.

Specifically to the latter point – and we have certainly learned a lot from our work in the world of e-discovery in this regard – good project management and team leadership are essential. Anytime there are this many people on a team, multiple work sites, and tight deadlines, it is imperative to have a strategy in place and implement it. That sounds easy, but I think anyone who has been involved in team-based assignments understands that it takes a great project manager and/or team leader to pull this off. There are always changes; there is always troubleshooting; it is never a completely smooth ride. You need to be able to have a core strategy that can move forward without getting derailed when adjustments are needed. The leadership on the matter matters, and that’s why I'm very proud that we have a great group of leaders who can handle these types of assignments and make our clients’ lives easier.

There’s certainly more than one way to skin a cat, and it’s exciting to be a problem solver in that regard.
 

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This is our final recap from Discovery Symposium 1.0. If you would like more information on the event or to inquire about attending in 2010, please email us.

As more corporate legal departments are looking to bring discovery in-house, this panel was of keen interest to attendees.

What was very striking was how the panelists – an incredible group of leaders who really know about bringing matters in-house and managing the discovery process – have truly become knowledgeable about their respective companies’ IT departments. They're very familiar with IT -- something that likely could not have been said of most attorneys even just a few years ago. This sheds a little more light on the demands of the discovery process today.

Even though each of the panelists work within a large company with substantial IT departments, it was clear that the best practices they brought with them could apply to companies of any size. Creating a team often means including legal, IT, human resources, operations, outside partners – whoever touches the company’s data on a regular basis. And this team helps guide and monitor progress from through collection, production and review.

It’s also worth mentioning that the attorneys on this panel have collectively saved their companies tens of millions of dollars on the discovery process in a relatively short period of time. Talk about demonstrating the value of the legal department ...

Creating Your Own Discovery Team
Panelists: Senior attorneys from Fidelity Investments, Cox Communications, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Georgia-Pacific
Moderator: Candice Reed (Executive Director, Counsel On Call)

Summary of Dialogue
IT staff is critical to the team as well as representatives of other departments specific to your business. Know the people on your team; trust them. Know where the data is located. Know your systems. Trust your company knowledge, which surpasses that of a law firm.

The discussion began with a statement: E-discovery is a management task. Those in charge of discovery cannot be afraid of technology, must serve as traffic cop and coordinator, and need to be a “techie” who can talk to lawyers. When choosing members for your discovery team, it’s about 1) Having the right people on the team, and 2) Trusting your own judgment that you have put the right people on the team. One panelist said her team meets weekly.

Another panelist said she received incredible pushback from her outside law firm when she decided to build a discovery team in-house. Her team includes attorneys with employment and patent experience, a paralegal, representatives from the IT department, as well as a person from the legal department dedicated to e-discovery (who has since been moved to another department and not directly replaced). The team meets once a month.

Another panelist put her team together when in-house e-discovery experience quickly surpassed that of the company’s outside counsel. The core team consists of her, representatives from the IT department, as well as an outside consultant. Other team members are attorneys with commercial, labor, and insurance experience and representatives from Records Retention. Since three-quarters of her company’s corporate employees are members of the IT department, it is important to have everything IT-related documented – how the department is organized, who reports to whom, detailed protocols, and the location of specific data. This information also is in the company’s E-Discovery Manual, which is constantly updated. Due to an increasing number of matters, the panelist wanted to create a “thoughtful and consistent approach to review.” After each project, the team would discuss what data was collected, what part(s) of the process worked and what didn’t, and even examined the overall cost. Perhaps most importantly, they looked at what could be done to make future matters cost-effective. In order to better predict future costs, her company partnered with Counsel On Call, whose team handles several parts of the company’s discovery process, to find a software vendor that would do just that.

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There’s an interesting phenomenon happening in the litigation arena right now: nothing.

Well, that’s not entirely true. There is plenty going on, of course, but the sour economy has put a different spin on how litigation is being managed. Cases are not marching in lock-step with a normal timeline. For instance, some companies are putting everything related to a piece of litigation on hold until they are required by time, or the case itself, to act. And action this time around is preceded (in most instances) by a lot of anxious planning and budgeting.

Now this isn’t anything new – many companies have longstanding policies not to act on litigation until forced to do so. It’s often a cash-flow-versus-workflow approach. However, I am seeing a palpable sense of hesitancy with regard to litigation and case management. Companies are taking an ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ stance, whether it’s regarding the various stimulus measures and burgeoning economic turnaround, or the stability of a company and their department's budget, or any number of other things. That attitude is impacting case management. These companies know that eventually they are going to have more work (i.e. revenue), but they simply do not want to spend the money now, when times are tight, addressing litigation matters unless they have to.

All is not dour under this approach. One great side effect is that companies are taking this time to create, refine or institute their approach to e-discovery for when the storm finally does come. If their ducks aren’t already in a row, they are briskly walking toward the line.

We’ve participated in dozens of planning or strategy meetings that are seeking to solve the bigger issues: how to create repeatable discovery processes, how to budget discovery costs, the software tools to use, the action items surrounding a litigation hold, the data collection and management process, analyzing the benefits of early case assessment tools, and creating processes that facilitate collaboration with outside counsel and all their legal vendors, among many, many other issues.

All of this is ultimately focused on cost and efficiency, of course. And it’s never too early to make that a priority – or in some cases, it’s not too late.
 

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You can’t scan a legal rag nowadays without seeing an article predicting the end of the billable hour, or the revamping of the business of the practice of law, or some other projection of how the practice is going to look at the end of this recession. Some insights are better than others, like the recent Law.com article about in-house departments requesting their outside counsel to reduce rates or present an alternative fee arrangement. Patrick Lamb’s commentary on the matter on his blog also really drew my interest – I think he hits the nail on the head.

Undoubtedly there is some room for firms to reduce rates and I believe, in time, the market will bear that out (I love the anecdote from a lawyer who told Susan Hackett at ACC that $700/hour was a “suicide” rate). But what’s more central – and the article skims over this while Patrick calls attention to it – is that hourly rates are really only a small part of the equation and that efficiency and quality are the key elements. I'd add one more factor to this cost-saving/value formula: maximizing resources.

Based on hundreds of conversations I’ve had with in-house attorneys in recent months, there really isn’t as much pushback on the partners’ high hourly rates. Sure, clients would like them to be lower, but they also understand you have to pay for great legal counsel. The real problem is at the associate level, where it’s much tougher in some instances to defend the value received. In many cases they’ve turned to smaller or regional firms to get the rates they seek across all levels.

But where we’re seeing in-house departments achieve budgetary success is in conducting an audit of the work that needs to be done and overlaying that with the available resources. Here’s a rudimentary example of how the process works for a fictional department that has (only) three operational units: litigation, contracts and labor and employment:

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The second podcast with LegalTalk Network's In-House Legal show is now up.

Richard Stout, director of our Litigation Support Division, and Dennis McKinnie, executive director of our Atlanta office, discuss all things e-discovery: Why the review rate is important, early case assessment tools, what e-discovery savings should really look like, the importance of outside counsel, and why every in-house department should have a discovery process it controls, among other things.

The 13-minute interview begins around the 13:45 mark. The podcast is also available on iTunes for free download.

We hope you'll check it out and let us know what you think.

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