Controlling Litigation Support Costs Proven Strategies for Cost Control

Today’s Speakers Panelists: Tom Barce, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP   Panelists: Tom Barce, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP Julie Brown, Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease LLP

Dynamic Landscape for Cost Control Lean Profitable Competitive Innovative Strategic Service Oriented Firms and Corporations need to address these philosophies when managing costs. Some seem counter intuitive but they’re really not. Each need to be managed, quantified and balanced. Its not easy. Can be accomplished

Areas of Influence Department Costs Client Billing eDiscovery Expenses

Road to Achievement Research Report Recover Revise Knew most of the statistics I needed were available in our systems Just not compiled in a meaningful way Connected with our CFO, Accounting Data Control Got statistics from vendors where necessary Compiled data in simple ways to report to upper management

Department Costs Evaluate & Report Build & Improve Manage Utilization Overtime Net Revenue Manage Staff Capacity Non-Billable Activity Time Entries Build & Improve Professional Development Documented Processes Quality Assurance Public Relations Define Services Empower Legal Teams Progress Reports Profitability Efficiency and ability to tell a meaningful story about your work. Important point about your time entries: they have to convince the clients you did valuable work. Many technical people aren’t akin to this while legal and consulting are Have a professional development manager. Management team and staff contribute to routine presentations. This builds VALUE in our people and helps justify the cost of your services Quality Assurance = work people will pay for Staying in front of people reminds them what you do to earn more work. Be creative about services

Client Billing Develop Alternative Fee Arrangements Provide Month End Case Activity Reports Report Budget to Actual Expenses Monitor Write Offs Review Actual Realization Alternative Fee Arrangements should provide savings and predictability Preempt proformas and bills with a brief synopsis of your department’s work. Should go to the billing partner and be client-ready. Helps them understand what they don’t necessarily appreciate about technology Manage the client expectations that you set through budgets (see sample template in the session materials) Work with executive partners to build accountability for billing and collecting for your services

eDiscovery Evaluate Case Profile Manage Process Collection sets the stage Key opportunity in culling, filtering & analysis Efficiency in review Leverage Vendor Services Influence Case Strategy Monitor Vendor Invoices I work with vendors to report annually about the volume of data collected, culled, processed, delivered, reviewed and produced. Allows me to build predictability for similar cases Sample report in session materials. Be defensible, not overly broad and surgical in your approach to eDiscovery Leverage the wonderful new and emerging analytical tools on the market Help lawyers align technology STRATEGY with case objectives. Here’s the critical mental ascent: Its not the tool itself and what it can do, it’s the benefits of the tools that further their goals, for example predictive tagging improves quality and cuts COST. Insure service providers are billing accurately Track invoices to insure timely payment