In conjunction with LexisNexis, Adam Smith, Esq. is launching a series of online “Virtual Panels” on The Business of Litigation. Each offers one hour of general or ethics CLE.
Here’s the precis:
You will hear industry leaders from corporations, outside counsel and academia discuss and debate the issues surrounding managing matters more efficiently and more cost-effectively. The series will also address how technology provides solutions but adds complexity and raises novel ethical issues.
The first will be Thursday, June 10, at 2:00 pm Eastern/11:00 am Pacific, and will be on Maximizing the Results of Early Case Assessment.
The goal of “ECA” is to estimate the risk–in time, money, and conceivably reputation–of defending a disputed matter rather than attempting to reach a quick settlement. For the well over 90% of all matters that settle before trial, discovery is the primary expense and, particularly in the age of e-discovery, the financial burden can be substantial. There are new and increasingly potent tools your firm can deploy to ad-dress that issue. You’ll hear from corporate and outside counsel that have longstanding experience with ECA about what they’ve learned works and what doesn’t work. This panel will discuss how ECA can connects the dots from document holds to e-discovery and full case analysis.”
The second, Wednesday June 23 (same time) will be on The Discipline and Benefits of Project Management.
Project management is nothing more than rationally supervising the process of (a) deploying resources (b) which have associated costs (c) against tasks (d) to accomplish specified objectives. Viewed this way, disputed matters and transactions are simply types of projects, albeit sophisticated ones. Learn more about how project management can help make alternative billing models more predictable, transparent, and effective, including:
- Why your firm needs to focus on continually improving project management skills
- Developing ways to more readily provide budget updates to clients
- Ensuring that lawyers are skilled at clarifying and communicating expectations and guiding the engagement process
- Implementing processes to review performance at the end of an assignment, or sooner, if need (“Lessons Learned”)
- Applying the appropriate staffing model that provides the needed skills at an acceptable value.
The third and, for now, the last, will be on Thursday, July 15 (same time) on Ethical Considerations of Outsourcing, Offshoring, and Cloudsourcing.
Outsourcing–particularly to third-party providers in remote locations–is here to stay. Similarly, there is a trend towards computing “in the cloud” (GoogleDocs is probably the most familiar example), which spares your firm painful and expensive software in-stallations and upgrades, enhances collaboration, and makes your work available 24/7 from any device that can get online. But what are the ethical implications in sharing confidential documents and work product with third parties? Learn what you need to know to disaggregate intelligently. Firms will find it essential to mine and analyze data they have ignored. Competitive intelligence (focusing on the external environment), business intelligence (focusing on firms’ internal processes), and knowledge management will be new growth sectors inside law firms. Be sure you stay strictly within the bounds of the profession’s ethical traditions.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- Each program will last one hour.
- Registration/participation is free.
- The first two panels are each worth one general CLE credit, and the third is worth one ethics credit. (Requisite caveat: State restrictions may apply.)
- You can participate from your desktop.
- There is no limit on the number of lawyers from your firm who may view the panels.
Moderator: Kevin Stehr, Vice-President, LexisNexis Litigation & Research Solutions
Panelists include:
- Tom Birsic, Partner and Litigation Practice Leader, K&L Gates
- Jamie A. Brown, Director, Fennemore Craig, P.C.
- David Burt, DuPont Corporate Counsel
- Rick Rose, General Counsel, Calgon Carbon
- Other panelists to be announced
“Virtual Panels” are an innovative new technology powered by Shift Worldwide; a “vPanel” provides the dynamism of a panel discussion on your computer screen. Believe me, they beat webinars with a stick.
