In-House Counsel

Litigation management Part II ? 9 more techniques assembled

By Rees Morrison

Earlier I pulled together my extant metaposts that relate to litigation management (See my post of Oct. 2, 2008: 12 metaposts.) Here I add 10 other techniques available to general counsel that enhance their oversight and direction of litigation.

1. Staff your department with a litigation specialist and perhaps a team (See my post of Aug. 21, 2005: don?t hire a litigation manager; Feb. 9, 2008: don?t ?manage? litigation, handle it; Feb. 26, 2008: litigation loads at Ford; Feb. 23, 2008: Affymetrix handles its own offensive litigation; May 1, 2005: should specialists handle lawsuits that arise from their work; Aug. 5, 2005: who should manage litigation; and Aug. 27, 2005: litigation staff as a proportion of law department staff.).

2. Use litigation paralegals (See my post of April 2, 2005: six metrics every litigation manager should implement; March 29, 2005: litigation costs and staff; and March 12, 2006: lawyers per paralegal by practice area.).

3. Draw on experienced ex-employees (See my post of Jan. 30, 2006: hire former employees to assist with major litigation.).

4. Say you are sorry to plaintiffs as you resolve cases (See my post of Feb. 7, 2006: apologies to plaintiffs.).

5. Resolve cases more quickly (See my post of March 5, 2008: litigation cycle time with 18 references; Aug. 5, 2008: GE?s savings.)
but also recognize that some cases do and should lie fallow (See my post of Oct. 25, 2007: dormant cases; April 17, 2007: inactive cases; and Aug. 1, 2006: dormancy as a performance metric.).

6. Bring in a business perspective and involve clients (See my post of May 30, 2005: educate clients about lawsuits; Jan. 30, 2006: ChevronTexaco practices; and Aug. 31, 2005: send hypothetical bills to clients.).

7. Retain settlement counsel parallel with litigation counsel (See my post of Oct. 20, 2005: a firm to pursue settlement; and July 21, 2006: team with resolution counsel.).

8. Improve planning and control through the use of project management software (See my post of Oct. 2, 2008: project management.).

9. Keep track of your caseload and other benchmarks. Metrics spawned by those who handle litigation are legion (See my post of Oct. 27, 2005: percentage of trials that go to verdict; Jan. 25, 2006: benchmark metrics; Oct. 25, 2006: litigation metrics; Jan. 25, 2006: lawsuits pending; May 31, 2005: Canadian caseloads per litigator; June 15, 2006: claims per lawsuit; Nov. 22, 2007: litigation loads; April 22, 2008: quantitative case analysis; June 11, 2008: employment litigation metrics; March 13, 2006: verdict and settlement database; and April 23, 2006: metrics on claims that result in litigation.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).