Litigation Management

Though the majority of lawsuits are settled and never even get to trial, they can expand into a very complicated process. This is particularly true in federal systems, where a federal court may be applying state law or vice versa, or one state applying the law of another, and where it additionally may not be clear which level (or location) of court actually has jurisdiction over the claim or personal jurisdiction over the defendant.  Domestic courts are also often called upon to apply foreign law, or to act upon foreign defendants, over whom they may not, as a practical matter, even have the ability to enforce a judgment if the defendant's assets are outside their reach.

Lawsuits become additionally complicated as more parties become involved.  Within a "single" lawsuit, there can be any number of claims and defenses (all based on numerous laws) between any number of plaintiffs or defendants, who each can bring any number of cross-claims and counterclaims against each other, and even bring additional parties into the suit on either side after it progresses.

The early stages of the lawsuit may involve discovery, which is the ordered exchange of evidence and statements between the parties based on what they each expect to argue during the actual trial. Discovery is meant to eliminate surprises and clarify what the lawsuit is about, and perhaps to make a party realize they should settle or drop the claim, all before wasting court resources. At this point the parties may also engage in pretrial motion filing in order to exclude or include particular legal or factual issues before trial.

With the complexity of today's business and product's liability litigation, numerous litigation attorneys and even several law firms may retained to prosecute or defend a case on behalf of a client.  Moreover, with the production of documents, scheduling of depositions, hiring of expert witnesses, and other discovery and pre-trial matters, all too often the client gets lost in the process.  Moreover, even some of the most brilliant litigators lack a good "bedside manner."  They fail to take the time and lack the patience to educate their clients in the litigation process to ease concerns and ensure that clients are able to make informed decisions along the way.  That is the reason the most common complaint about attorneys is failure to communicate with their clients.

How We Serve Our Clients

Because we regulary serve as general counsel for our business clients, we not only develop a repour with our clientele, we are intimately familiar with their firm culture, legal matters, and business objectives  As a result, we are often called upon to work with outside litigation counsel as both a liaison and case manager to control litigation costs, keep clients informed, and ensure that their business objectives are being met by the litigation attorneys hired by the client.  Some of theses services include:

Attorney Selection

We believe the selection of counsel is one of the most effective ways to manage results and litigation costs. We select counsel through a comprehensive process that includes surveying and interviewing attorneys and evaluating ongoing litigation performance;

Cost Containment

Our firm will review and analyze how much time and expertise has been spent on a litigated matter for each billing period by phase of litigation and task, to ensure that costs are contained; and

Liaison

We are in constant communication with our clients to ensure that they receive timely updates on the process of litigation and are able to make informed decisions about such things as discovery and settlement offers.