What is the biggest frustration for litigation support professionals? I believe most would say it is encountering the same issues time and time again, by the same offenders and feeling like you don't have the power to prevent the same crisis from happening again in the future.
Over the years I have realized that promoting my team's hard work and long hours will not change an attorney's behavior. Attorneys have to understand their personal benefit or the benefit to their client before they will commit to adjusting their behavior. When in doubt on how to get through to an attorney, dangle a carrot! Training classes and mandated protocols (aka "the stick") are moderately effective at best.
One successful approach for us has been to conduct a lessons learned exercise that focuses on risk management, efficiency and cost savings for a particular matter. The lessons learned speak to the ways in which the team successfully and efficiently handled specific elements of the matter. The exercise also identifies areas in which the process could be improved to position the team for greater success in the next matter.
Our attorneys have been very engaged in these exercises. It provides a platform for the litigation support group to train the legal team on the way we want them to operate in the future, to jointly develop an approach for the next matter or simply demonstrates the importance of proactive counseling from litigation support in the future. Most importantly, it displays the commitment and value of the litigation support team.
I encourage our attorneys to work with us to modify the information and use it as a client development opportunity. Providing feedback on ways a client could improve their litigation response process demonstrates a true commitment to the relationship. Generally, we are able to estimate potential cost savings that would result from some minor adjustments as well, which clients always appreciate.
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