Using Forms and Checklists to Give Clients Maximum Value
Two of the most effective tools for the cost-conscious litigation attorney are forms and checklists. I'm not talking about "do-it-yourself" forms like those on www.legalzoom.com or the forms provided by the court clerk. I'm talking about forms and checklists carefully drafted by counsel who manage pattern or high volume litigation. Correctly prepared forms and checklists give clear direction to the team and provide your client with superior value. Like many efficiency tools, however, forms and checklists can be dangerous if misused. Attorneys who rely too much on these tools risk abandoning their client service obligations. Our job is to analyze the issues, apply our legal judgment, and provide our clients with sound legal advice. Forms and checklists are not a substitute for any of those professional obligations.
Used properly, forms and checklists are powerful efficiency tools. Form discovery gives associates and paralegals a solid foundation from which to craft case-specific requests. As lead counsel, you can rest assured that you will obtain the basic information you need in every case -- but only if your form discovery is well-crafted in the first place. The cost-conscious litigator should invest significant time in drafting the “perfect” set of form initial discovery. The form is only the starting point. Your team members and you still need to customize each set for each matter. The "perfect" set of form discovery garners significant efficiency gains up front by allowing the team to focus on only those revisions and additions necessary for each particular case. To maintain these efficiencies, lead counsel needs to periodically update the forms. Times change and the discovery must change with it. For example, form discovery requests generated only three years ago might not include requests for MySpace or FaceBook information. Court rules get amended and cases get handed down. The cost-effective attorney is the one who manages this tension between keeping hours low with forms and keeping quality high with customization and updates.
Like forms, checklists are also powerful efficiency tools that must be carefully drafted and constantly updated. Litigation checklists are merely a starting point. They allow a busy trial attorney to confirm that tasks are getting done, and to track when they are getting done. Under traditional hourly billing arrangements, the firm profited from lengthy team meetings where timebillers exhaustively reviewed the tasks to be completed on a case, even when most of those tasks are common to every litigation matter. Checklists help litigation attorneys provide the same level of service to clients without the exorbitant hourly billings generated by these time-consuming team meetings. To be sure, lead counsel still needs to sit down with the team to develop strategy and provide tactical guidance. As with forms, checklists are no substitute for analysis, judgment and advice. Checklists are a starting point, and need to be updated and customized just like forms.
In a national practice, creating and maintaining effective forms and checklists is very challenging. The modifications required for different jurisdictions can take as much time as drafting the material from scratch. A litigation attorney with a busy national practice must invest in the software required to manage a library of forms and checklists specific to certain venues. For example, a significant part of my practice involves cases pending in federal courts around the country. Even though the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules of Evidence are applied universally in all federal courts, local rules still vary. Accordingly, I must maintain forms and checklists for different venues in a text-searchable database. With such a database, creating, retrieving, customizing and updating the forms is very efficient and provides my clients with great value for their outside counsel dollar.
Forms and checklists are a very effective method for controlling costs and establishing predictability in your practice. Using these tools, you can provide your client with a high value for their outside counsel dollar, while ensuring high quality legal representation. Managing forms and checklists for multiple jurisdictions, however, requires a strong organizational structure and effective document management software. Most importantly, forms are no substitute for strong analytical skills and sound legal judgment. Use them as they are intended -- as a starting point to provide your client with efficient legal services. Do not rely on them to replace the litigation management skills your client hired you for.
