Big firms, small firms, and more...
The Litigation Best Practices in a Box product is widely used - it can be found in large and small law firms, in the production and training departments of litigation services vendors, and even in one government agency.
The range of law firms using the Best Practices is very, very wide. On the one hand, it's used in a few one and two lawyer firms. At the other size extreme, the Best Practices product is used in one-third of the National Law Journal's fifty largest law firms.
And, of course, it's used in lots of firms in between.
For the most part, the product is used by firms that handle a lot of litigation, especially those that handle mid-sized and large cases. Using Best Practices makes sense in any litigation - both big cases and small, but Best Practices are essential in big cases, where the smallest inefficiency or error is magnified by the volume of information and the magnitude of exposure.
Best Practices also make sense in any litigation practice where there are a lot of people performing discovery tasks. This is another situation where the volume of work magnifies any efficiencies (or inefficiencies) in the work performed, and the results flow to the firm's bottom line. But, in addition, standard processes in large practices make the practice group more flexible and responsive, because it's easier to move people in and out of cases to meet changing demands when processes are the same in every case.
Uses within law firms
Within law firms, the product is used for a variety of purposes, by a variety of people.
Practice group leaders require the use of Best Practices to ensure that their team members are handling tasks in the highest-quality, most cost-effective way. They want to see fewer emergencies, fewer mistakes, fewer lost hours, and better results.
Litigation support managers use Best Practices to make sure that staff is all on the same page, ensuring interchangeability of personnel across cases, that each task is being performed as efficiently as possible, and that there's good documentation for every process. They rely on staff trained in Best Practices to ensure that big tasks can be started up quickly, without confusion and without the need to reinvent processes each time a common task is encountered.
Human Resources Managers and Trainers use Best Practices as a training tool for new associates, legal assistants, and support staff. New associates need to learn quickly how to handle practical tasks that may not have been part of their legal education, and all new staff need to learn the efficient, standard methodology used in the practice group to ensure good quality and efficiency in discovery.
Partners use the Best Practices as a marketing tool. Corporate clients want their money spent effectively, and they want to know that their outside counsel work effectively. A well-defined and well-implemented best practices program gives them that assurance.
Large firms have special problems with cross-practice efficiency, and best practices can have a huge impact in those firms. Even where best practices are, for the most part, already observed, they are often undocumented and inconsistent. Litigation Best Practices in a Box processes and procedures can fill that void.
Small firms have two unique problems: They don't have the quantity of resources of their larger competitors, and they often can't justify specialists to work on tasks like best practices development. They can solve the first problem by being efficient -- and Best Practices can help them do just that. As for the second problem, the Best Practices in a Box product is itself the solution.
