Understanding, deconstructing and reconstructing client stories are essential skills for lawyers – after all, they are challenged to retell their clients` stories in the context of legal rules and practice. The book is not only relevant to litigants. Every lawyer, including non-contentious lawyers, has clients and someone, somewhere, needs to be convinced of that client`s story and how the legal arguments support the client`s point of view. By communicating clearly with their clients from the outset, lawyers and their teams can begin to realistically define client expectations and scope. Jura is a team sport. Each legal issue involves a wide range of different stakeholders, both within the legal department and the company as a whole, as well as outside the organization. Effective case management requires transparent communication and collaboration among all stakeholders. In order to properly manage legal issues or a portfolio of issues, it is necessary to have access to all information on relevant issues. Whether it`s information about status, risks, resources, expenses, contracts, business, etc., this information needs to be collected, available, and easily reportable. Streamlining case management has become a priority for many legal teams in recent years, and they are turning to technology to support this initiative. This is part of a trend of rapid digital transformation across all legal departments, driven by a number of different factors including, but not limited to: In this article, I will discuss how to combine a structured approach to defining legal issues with a human understanding of clients` needs and goals. Not surprisingly, digital business management (DMM) involves the use of technology to support the management and delivery of legal affairs. There are many software tools that help enhance the discrete elements of a legal issue listed above, from contract compilation and document management systems to expense management and enterprise collaboration applications.
While this is a basic approach, even using tools like MS Excel and Dropbox is a form of digital case management that works for many legal teams. This means that junior lawyers and the rest of the legal delivery team have no connection to the client and almost certainly do not understand the client`s story. (Unless the customer partner has truthfully disclosed it). Think lawyers, and you`ll often conjure up images of huge contracts and files filled to the brim with documents. Every legal issue involves documenting a description, from contracts and licenses to emails and letters. All this documentation must be stored and managed centrally and securely. Case management simply involves the effective coordination, organization and delivery of all these basic components for legal matters. This may mean that junior members of the legal team are working in a technical bubble. Your work may be legally correct and persuasive, but it doesn`t advance the client`s story.
I`m sure you`ll have noticed the reference to “emotional connection.” In some areas of law, such as crime and family, emotions are often close to the surface, but dig a little deeper and they are also present in commercial legal work. For example, it should be easy to make an emotional connection between the late completion of a much-needed new hospital and the negative impact on people`s lives. Many lawyers and legal service providers are now familiar with the concept of case management. How can we provide more meaningful legal services for clients? Tracking expenditures against budget is a key element in all cases where outside counsel or other legal service providers are hired. It is always important to monitor the performance of expenditures against budget, track work-in-progress and provisions, and look for issues that could negatively impact the budget and expenses. As the name suggests, business management is the process of managing a legal case (with or without technology). But what does that mean? To explain it, it is easier to first examine the constituent elements of a legal matter. Although case management has received more attention with the growth of legal tools aimed at streamlining the process, it is important to note that case management is a discipline that has been around much longer than any software tool. Recently, efforts have been made in the area of legal services to raise awareness among the “end-user” of these services. I don`t think the tools or approaches used matter – agile, user-centric design or project templates that stimulate the client`s narrative – as long as at the end of the day, the advice given to the client makes sense to them and advances the story of their problem and how they have dealt with it. While legal teams are smart people, it`s only natural that they can`t have all the answers. You need quick access to accurate, high-quality data and expertise to take care of the delivery of all legal matters.
Making this knowledge available when needed is an essential part of material management. Storytelling helps lawyers recount what happened and use the facts and the law to make an emotional connection to the legal issue that convinces the decision-maker or the public to find in favor of the client. The real purpose of the client`s Q&A session is to help the client explain their story and understand the legal team. Filling out detailed templates in a specific order means that students follow a proven process to get it right. These starting points are intended to serve as an invitation for lawyers and legal project managers to identify, discuss and define the facts with their clients. When people think of material management, they usually think of it at the material (micro) level, for example the management of a single material. This will normally be the case for participants in certain questions who need an overview of the activity of the issue and who have access to documents and know-how related to the material. However, legal services are constantly dealing with a large number of ongoing issues that also need to be managed and tracked at the portfolio (macro) level. This is especially true for general counsel, OCOL and legal operations managers who need transparency, reporting and knowledge on all legal matters.
Therefore, it is important to remember that materials management also includes material portfolio management. While many legal issues are complex and have their own nuances, most legal issues are quite stereotypical. In other words, they follow a defined sequence of phases and stages, depending on the facts and circumstances of the case. The Subject Matter Definition workshop is only one part, albeit an important one, of my three-day training in legal project management. I also introduce students to agile project management, process improvement techniques, legal information technology, and team building, including ideas on how to collaborate more effectively with colleagues and clients. During the workshop on the definition of the subject matter in my trainings, I play the role of the client (and indeed all the other characters described in the business and legal scenarios I use). Currently, there is no shortage of point software solutions to manage and streamline the various components of a legal case. However, using separate technology tools comes with its own challenges, such as integration difficulties, data silos, and inefficiencies due to changing context between applications.