There is No Place in Leadership for Obsessive Negativity

Over the past few years I’ve spent some time digging into #leadership and the traits of being a good leader. Taking nuggets from the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, to Jim Collins, to Mark Cuban, to taking LinkedIn Learning courses on management and leadership, to those that I observe everyday (whether or not they are in a public facing or high-profile leadership position). I try to take in all the good that I observe and model that into my own personality. One thing that I aspire to is to become a better leader that demonstrates effective skills and genuine empathy for my peers, my team, and the company I work for. What has become apparent is that not all leaders are created equal and not all leaders are at the same experience level or have the same career desires, so there is no one individual that is at the pinnacle of leadership. However, there are a few traits that have no place in leadership. One is Obsessive Negativity.

There is a difference between having a bad day here-and-there as a leader or needing to occasionally vent, but a leader should never make it a habit in belittling their team, their company, or their peers. Over my working career I have been witness to some of those in leadership positions repeatedly saying to its team “We Suck”. I have heard leaders say that if the company were “a real company” that it would do “X”. Another one that I have heard frequently is “At my previous company we did <insert what they felt was a much better way to do something there>”. Leaders that refer to their peers as “idiots” have no place in the context of leadership in an organization. Don’t get me wrong, a one-off comment can be toxic, but people generally understand an off-the-cuff remark as just that…a one-off, the blowing off of some steam. Not that it is an acceptable remark, but one that can be overlooked if it was out of character for the individual. Unfortunately, if repeated enough, this also begins to rub off on other team members or peers, which starts an echo chamber to endless negativity. This exacerbates the negativity and allows the behavior to breed.

Perhaps obsessive negativity evolves out of self-esteem issues, general frustration, the need appear smarter then everyone else, the lack of self-control, or perhaps even a team, a company, or peers that could, in fact, be better. However, leadership is not something that should even consider constant reinforcement of how bad everything is, how bad everyone is, intimidation, temper tantrums, or shame tactics as modus operandi. Leaders need to change what needs to be changed through discussions, presentations, and negotiations and not through obsessive negativity.

Although leadership has different meanings for different people in different scenarios and industries, generally, a leader is inspiring, motivational, passionate, and one that cuts a path for the rest of the group to follow. A true leader within a typical professional business environment, religious organization, civic organization, nonprofit environment, etc. is one that is positive, passionate, humble, and visionary. A “leader” that constantly points out the flaws their team, their company, and their peers is certainly not exhibiting the aforementioned traits of a good leader.

During direct observations and stories that I have heard about how bad leadership is in other organizations, one of the criticisms that was mentioned to someone caught in the crossfire of bad leadership was that they needed to have “thicker skin”. It’s as if having “thicker skin” makes bad leadership permissible. Sure, having think-skin is a good trait to have in any situation or environment. If you do frequently get upset or offended by what others say, that is certainly a skill that should be improved upon. It is important to be able to keep from getting upset or offended by what other people say and do, but it’s obsessive negativity that becomes very toxic, very quickly to a team, a company, and a leader’s peers when it is constant and directed.

Leadership is much more than being good at a task or group of tasks. Being a great leader comes with great responsibilities. Not only is leadership a privilege that requires a deep level of service and sincerity to the organization and those being led, it requires building a strong sense of trust and loyalty. Without trust and loyalty, those with a desire to be a “leader” for the glamour will ultimately fail.

If you aspire to become a great leader, ensure that you understand not only what leadership is, but also what leadership is not. Leadership is many things, but there is no place in leadership for Obsessive Negativity.

#leadership #eq #management #culture #legalprofession

Talk to My Lawyer…Or My PM?

This article was published in the January/February 2018 edition of Project Manager Today. The article was authored by Carl Pritchard with contributions by David Kearney (me), Steven Levy, and Becky Winston.  Project Management applied to the practice of law…Legal Project Management.

What is Toastmasters and Why You May Care

As I am closing in on accomplishing the Toastmasters International Competent Communicator award towards the final quarter of 2015, I thought now was a good time to reflect on what a great organization I have found Toastmasters to be in the past year that I have been a member. The Competent Communicator award is earned after giving and being evaluated on 10 speeches that requires the speaker to apply different speaking techniques to pretty much the topic of their choice.

If you are unaware, Toastmasters International is an organization that provides a supportive, safe, and positive environment to help hone public speaking and leadership skills. Simply put, if you would like to become comfortable speaking in front of people and leading and coordinating people, meetings, and discussions, Toastmasters is the perfect organization to start with. Members of Toastmasters arrive from various backgrounds, professions, and skill level and have various reasons for joining and contributing to their growth as communicators and leaders. Some Toastmasters arrive very shy and nervous to speak in front people; Others arrive not being overly comfortable with the primary language of their local Toastmasters club or workplace (ie. English is a second language); others have tried to learn public speaking and leadership skills by trial-and-error; others realize that it is required to be comfortable speaking to and leading groups of people to enhance their career potential. If you fall into any of these categories, I would highly recommend that you consider visiting local Toastmasters clubs in your area. There is no obligation to join Toastmasters or give a speech or talk spontaneously in front of the group as soon as you walk in the door. You can, if you prefer, just sit in the last row of the room and be a fly-on-the-wall to observe those improving their communication and leadership skills until you are ready to commit to improving yourself. It takes some time to begin feeling comfortable at a Toastmasters meeting, but once you find that this is where you can grow with a safety net you will be well on your way to improving your communication and leadership skills.

I came to Toastmasters because I knew there had to be an easier way to become a better public speaker rather than learning the hard(er) way. Although I have given many presentations in my professional career, in 2012 I forced myself to begin taking roles outside of my comfort zone that required me to perform in public, such as giving presentations to a local legal technology group, teaching, being a guest speaker on various podcasts and webcasts, and actually accepting a guest speaker role at health information summit. I knew that in order to take the next step in my career, be regarded as a subject matter expert or thought leader, and just to become a great communicator I had to “get out there”, engage, and contribute. This was the hard way to learn and not very conducive to improvement. After my multitude of public speaking engagements I never got any constructive feedback or criticism to help me improve and I really have a hard time believing that I was perfect each and every time I spoke. I had heard of Toastmasters in passing, but never really paid attention to them until one day I did, for whatever reason. I went to the Toastmasters International website, found a local club, and E-mailed the club representative to find out more. Shortly after that I attended my first couple of meetings as a guest to observe and eventually began contributing and finally became a member…a Toastmaster. I gave speeches, participated in Table Topics, introduced a Word of the Day, and told humorous stories to help me improve. I received wonderful feedback from those in the Toastmasters club I belong, which has helped me greatly in my communication and leadership skills.  I feel like I have improved as a communicator and have learned various techniques to make future speaking engagements and presentations I give less stressful and much more appealing to an audience compared to what I was doing before joining Toastmasters.

Toastmasters is probably one of the most accessible ways to improve yourself, whether you are required to be a speaker and leader at work, at social gatherings, at community gatherings, or want to pursue a profession as a public speaker.

Take some time to explore Toastmasters. Take a couple of hours out of your schedule over the next couple of weeks and visit a local Toastmasters club or two in your area. Here’s how to get started…

1. You can find a list of clubs that are local to you on the Toastmasters website at: http://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club and inquire and/or show-up at the designated time at the meeting venue.
2. Find a co-worker or friend that is involved in Toastmasters and be their guest at the next meeting they attend.

Each club culture may be a little different depending on the member make-up of the club or time of day when the club meetings are held, so give a few different clubs a try and find one that is the best fit for you. Some clubs are located in downtown areas whereas others are located in the suburbs. Some club meetings are held before the workday, some during the lunch hour, and others in the evenings. For example, the Federal Building Club in Pittsburgh conducts its meetings on Odd-Numbered Thursdays at noon. Since I work in the city and the meeting time is during the lunch hour this club is very convenient for me to attend during the workday. (If you work in downtown Pittsburgh and are interested in learning more, please feel free to reach out to me (david.kearney@comcast.net) or any other Federal Building Club members to show you the club and how Toastmasters works.)

If you are looking for a way to drastically improve your communication skills in a supportive, safe, and positive environment, Toastmasters is where to get started. Take a peek into Toastmasters and see if there is something there that can help you become a better you.

For more information on Toastmasters International, please visit: http://www.toastmasters.org/

Law Firm Outsourcing of eDiscovery

Listen to Karl Schieneman, Founder and President of Review Less, a predictive coding consultancy and document review company talk with Dave Kearney from Cohen and Grigsby and Nick Reizen from Xact Data Discovery about how law firms view outsourcing eDiscovery tasks like collection, processing, hosting and reviewing data to technology oriented vendors. It is definitely a growth trend and there are lots of views on this topic depending on which lawyer you talk to. Some firms want to own the EDRM model. Others want to outsource. And others consider eDiscovery a distraction to the practice of law so they ignore it.

Recorded 04/16/2014

This podcast was first published at ESIBytes and is available here with permission.  For more information about ESIBytes, visit their website at http://www.esibytes.com and visit ESIBytes’ Podcasts  at http://esibytes.com/category/blog/category-4/

Podcast Audio:  https://app.box.com/s/wo1rmrheo4065vnsv53u

Effective Service Delivery, Providing Client Value, and Applying Sound Decision Making to Matter Management

Today’s Legal Market Landscape

As lawyers and law firms continue to recognize the need to more effectively engage, manage, and retain clients, it is becoming obvious that the adoption of tools and models to gain new work and keep existing clients is a necessity.   Models that address the overall flat growth for legal services, the “new normal” economy since The Great Recession, the growing sophistication of clients, and new and non-traditional legal service providers in the legal market must be utilized to justify the traditional billable hour and also to be able to offer various alternative fee and service arrangements.

Regardless of the terms or concepts used, whether it is called legal project management or variants of client value initiatives, practice innovation, etc., it is becoming essential that when responding to an RFP or bidding for new work, lawyers must have at least a small arsenal of tools at their disposal to effectively price a matter, efficiently manage a matter to completion, while also producing value to the client.  Part of the arsenal of tools must include training in the new economies of legal services; the ability to track billable time at the task and activity level; providing, communicating, and analyzing metrics of the business and engagement; the ability to budget a matter based on a combination of internal metrics, the value of the service being provided, historical data, and intuition; and being able to provide alternative fee arrangements not based solely on hourly rates.

A lawyer or firm may not know what exact steps to take and each step may vary across firms, practice groups, or individual attorneys, but the following are some essentials to have an understanding of to remain competitive to upstream and downstream providers, and utilize resources that can provide guidance in helping to move your practice towards meeting client expectations in today’s legal services environment.

Training

An acknowledgement of how the terrain has changed over the past few years needs to be addressed at the organizational level, regardless of the size or client-base.  The elephant-in-the-room should not go unacknowledged.  An overall discussion of how the business of law has changed and how this may impact a practice group or firm is the first step in ensuring that there is at least anrecognition that change is on the horizon.  Looking a year or two down the road to peering five-to-10 years out and how the trends of today will impact the ability to gain new clients and retain them may make things clear that a strategic plan should be designed now; One that takes into account what is here & now and what other changes may be looming.  Examine project management practices, innovations in the delivery of legal services, and what clients expect beyond the initial services they need and how best to service these needs is a good place to begin.  Educate clients and practice groups and let them educate you in return.

Standardized Time and Activities

Consider keeping time utilizing the standardized categorization of legal work and expenses.  The Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) was developed by the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, along with corporations and law firms.  This standard will assists with electronic billing; the process of better understanding where time is spent on a matter, across matters, and within a practice; can be used to better prepare RFP responses; and enhance communications within your team and with your client…not to mention you will be prepared when a client requests that that these standards be instituted in their billings.  Implementing a standard time-keeping and task structure will certainly require change to how entries are logged and billed, but will enhance the data captured that wouldn’t be able to be accurately measured otherwise.  Some clients are already expecting this from their outside counsel and it is only a matter of time before other clients begin to expect this standard way of time and task accounting.

Workflow Improvement

Identifying workflows, identifying inefficient workflows, and automating efficient workflows where possible are ways of streamlining the work involved on a matter.  By analyzing what works and what doesn’t will help remove inefficient practices that can then be made more efficient to help drive down costs and meet client expectations.  Before any automation can be put into place, it is probably a good idea to make sure that workflows are efficient; otherwise an inefficient workflow will be automated.  Study workflows of matters and find efficiencies and implement practices that can take advantage of similar processes across matters to manage them more effectively, perhaps even as a portfolio.

Metrics

Examining the all-around costs of people, places, and things and how those costs impact the degree of flexibility that can be applied to pricing work is essential to knowing if a certain piece of work will be done at a profit or loss and by how much.  How much of a billing rate covers overhead, such as office space, benefits, staff, technology, supplies, etc.?  These costs have to be covered and accounted for.  When a matter is closed is an analysis done to compare the budgeted costs versus the actual costs?  Is there a communication model around a matter and/or client?  How is the status of matters communication to  the internal legal team and to the client?  Metrics analysis is vital to budgeting, managing, and improving the delivery of services…within scope and on-budget.

The Outcome

Once the systems are in place that keep the lawyers and legal team up-to-speed of legal market changes and client expectations, that standardize billing entries, that define efficient workflows, that account for costs and expenses related to a matter, the ability to utilize internal information, take advantage of the knowledge that is now available, the analysis of industry benchmarks against your practice, the examination of alternative service delivery mechanisms, and the application of project management tools and practices to the management of matters will allow for hourly rates to be based on the work needing accomplished and alternative fees arrangements that fit to the tasks required for the matter.

Hourly fee and alternative fee arrangements can be proposed more effectively when designed based on the analytics of an efficient process, based on historical data in-line with new work requirements, is consistent within a practice group and matter type, and in a way that is in-line with the goals of the organization or individual seeking a solution to their matter.

Change is never easy and the changes required to work in an environment that has changed significantly over a short period of time will require a long-term commitment, strategy, and team to ensure that client requirements are met head-on with transparent and predictable results.

David J. Kearney

www.linkedin.com/in/davidjkearney/

Podcast: E-Discovery in Healthcare: What Legal and Healthcare Professionals Need to Know

Consider This – David Kearney – 11.06.13
“E-Discovery in Healthcare: What Legal and Healthcare Professionals Need to Know”
Host: Bridget Novak
Guests: David Kearney, Director of Technology Services, Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.
Topic: e-Discovery in Healthcare
Discussion: Requirements for managing health related documents and records; the need for healthcare workers need to become much more familiar with the litigation process and the role the legal industry plays within the process.

“Healthcare organizations should identify the components of their legal health records and how they will ensure the legal integrity of the health record and its various components are assembled and maintained.

It’s the organization providing the care that says for every patient we are capturing this information that makes up the legal health record for our organization, so there is a consistent record captured for that organization.

It serves as a method of communication among healthcare providers caring for a patient and it also provides supporting documentation for reimbursement of services provided to that patient.”
– David Kearney

Podcast:  https://app.box.com/s/pvsxu58myx2s3fem7btr

Consider This – David Kearney

This podcast was first published at The Organization of Legal Professionals and is available here with permission.  For more information about The Organization of Legal Professionals, visit their website at http://www.theolp.org and visit OLP’s “Consider This” Podcasts hosted by Bridgett Novak at http://www.theolp.org/Default.aspx?pageId=1701543

Cohen & Grigsby P.C. selects Kroll Ontrack as its ediscovery portfolio partner

Cohen & Grigsby P.C. selects Kroll Ontrack as its ediscovery portfolio partner  

Firm adopts repeatable ediscovery approach to give clients process consistency, cost predictability and better overall case outcomes

MINNEAPOLIS – Feb. 4, 2014 – Cohen & Grigsby, a law firm with headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA, and an office in Naples, FL, and Kroll Ontrack today announced Cohen & Grigsby selected Kroll Ontrack as its preferred ediscovery technology and services provider. Leveraging Kroll Ontrack for its portfolio of ediscovery matters provides Cohen & Grigsby’s litigation and labor and employment departments with the benefit of a repeatable approach to ediscovery, cost predictability and Kroll Ontrack’s latest ediscovery.com technology platform to both review and project manage its matters.

“With increasingly complex legal requirements and growing volumes of ESI, ediscovery stakes are high. A smart approach is required,” said Partner, Anthony Cillo, Chair of Cohen & Grigsby’s Litigation Department. “That smart approach includes Cohen & Grigsby focusing on advocacy and managing the merits of the case, while partnering with an industry leader such as Kroll Ontrack to minimize the ediscovery risks and costs for the corporations we represent. We are not only minimizing ediscovery risks, but providing our clients with world-class ediscovery solutions at predictable costs.”

In addition, Cohen & Grigsby Director of Technology Services David Kearney added, “Kroll Ontrack and its ediscovery.com platform rose to the top of our partner selection process because they offered a standardized approach to ediscovery coupled with industry-leading predictive coding technology at a predictable price.”

“Kroll Ontrack is excited to partner with progressive firms like Cohen & Grigsby that recognize the value of a repeatable approach to ediscovery,” said Dean Hager, president and CEO, Kroll Ontrack. “By selecting our portfolio solution, Cohen & Grigsby now has access to the industry’s most powerful processing and review technology, the industry’s first tool to manage ediscovery as a portfolio, a dedicated portfolio case management team, and a pricing approach that encompasses a breakthrough concept of reusable capacity such that as additional projects arise, ediscovery costs remain the same.”

As part of the portfolio solution, Cohen & Grigsby will be taking advantage of Kroll Ontrack’s ediscovery.com platform, which was announced in October 2013. Ediscovery.com encompasses several products, including ediscovery.com Manage, which is the industry’s first solution for collaboratively managing ediscovery as a portfolio from any device, and ediscovery.com Review, which is a single tool that delivers unprecedented control of data volume and costs across early data assessment, analysis, review and production.

For more information on these products, visit: www.ediscovery.com.

About Kroll Ontrack Inc.
Kroll Ontrack provides technology-driven services and software to help legal, corporate and government entities as well as consumers manage, recover, search, analyze, and produce data efficiently and cost-effectively. In addition to its award-winning suite of software, Kroll Ontrack provides data recovery, data destruction, electronic discovery and document review. For more information about Kroll Ontrack and its offerings please visit: www.ediscovery.com or follow @KrollOntrack on Twitter.

About Cohen & Grigsby P.C.
Cohen & Grigsby represents clients across the spectrum of commercial and business disputes, including: business breakups, insurance coverage disputes, antitrust claims, theft of trade secret and non-compete agreements, securities law violations, accounting firm defense and shareholder issues.  Cohen & Grigsby results-oriented litigators have years of hands-on experience trying cases in the courtroom and before administrative bodies and arbitration panels. Our labor & employment attorneys defend employers in all types of cases, including discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful discharge, wage and hour violations, defamation and breach of contract. Please visit www.cohenlaw.com.

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Media Contact: Kaitlin Shinkle, 952-516-3581, kshinkle@krollontrack.com

https://app.box.com/s/k05iqwsg6q3lshhp6dfs

How to Prepare the Record for an E-Discovery Request

Journal of AHIMA February 14

How to Prepare the Record for an E-Discovery Request
By David Kearney

AT A MINIMUM healthcare organizations should identify the components of their legal health record. The legal health record is a consistent declaration of what patient care information is maintained within an organization and what information would be released during a legal or investigatory event. It is the key to the consistency of patient health information across a healthcare organization. Consistent patient care information is the cornerstone of being able to produce this information completely and accurately upon request during an event without prejudice for business or evidentiary purposes.

Health information management (HIM) professionals are typically the custodians of health records and are responsible for the care, custody, and control of the records. HIM serves as a key component in knowing how health records are created, maintained, and used in the day-to-day care setting. It is vital that HIM professionals have a complete understanding of the official health record and its potential requirements. As more providers use electronic health records and manage health information electronically, HIM professionals must become familiar with e-discovery processes and requirements.

The Role of the HIM Professional
A recent requirement for health records that health information managers need to be well versed on is how these records are compiled and controlled as it relates to the litigation lifecycle or an investigation. HIM professionals need to be able to communicate with in-house attorneys, outside counsel, and even perhaps opposing counsel regarding the legal health record contents and the attestation of patient records for evidentiary purposes during a litigation or investigatory event.

Since most health records are now electronic, it is important that HIM professionals be aware of how electronic records are preserved, collected, processed, and presented during a lawsuit.  Electronic evidence has dictated guidelines that must be followed during the discovery process as prescribed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures—procedures that govern civil procedures in the US federal courts—and it is equally important to expect at least the same amount of rigor to be applied to electronic
evidence at the state or jurisdictional level.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, specifically rules 26–37, provide guidelines to the discovery process of evidence, including duties of disclosure, topics of discussion between the parties involved, and how documents are to be produced.

Another great tool, while not mandated by court rules, is the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, also known as the EDRM (available at http://www.edrm.net). The EDRM depicts the flow and series of phases that electronic evidence traverses during the litigation process, including how the information is identified, preserved, collected, processed, reviewed, and produced.

First and foremost, data governance is addressed at the far left side of the EDRM workflow, as information management, which underscores the importance of properly managing data for the litigation/e-discovery process. This is the starting point where healthcare organizations have an opportunity to get it right and to be in an ideal position for any anticipated events.  This is also the initial phase where many issues can arise during discovery proceedings, positioning an organization at a disadvantage from the onset of any data retrieval exercise.

Know the What and Where of Your Data

Healthcare organizations must know what information they have, where data is located, the duration data must be retained, and what information is needed to respond to a legal, investigatory, or other event. Managing organizational information with sound policy and processes reduces costs, mitigates risk, and protects the organization’s personnel, patients, and revenue.

A second component to a litigation or investigatory event, once sound data governance strategies have been implemented, is the ability of health information management professionals to respond to an event or an anticipated event. It is vital that HIM professionals have a well-developed readiness plan to respond to a legal hold or preservation order of relevant information that is specific to a matter.

To avoid a claim of spoliation— the intentional or negligent hiding, changing, or destruction of relevant materials—healthcare organizations should have a strategy that facilitates preservation of potential evidence once relevant data has been identified. Depending on how information is stored and collected within the healthcare setting and how this information is managed and maintained, it will be necessary to plan on this information being used as evidence.

As such, health information managers must not only be intimately familiar with their organization’s electronic health record (EHR) systems, but how these systems can produce the
information in a legally sound manner. Preserving the data as it is maintained in the normal course of business, along with all of the detailed metadata contained within the EHR, is a must to ensure complete and accurate information. Doing this is a much more intricate process than typical metadata one finds in word processing, spreadsheet, and e-mail documents.

EHR systems were not necessarily designed with litigation in mind, so it is critical that HIM professionals become familiar with how data can and cannot be provided during an event and how that data is managed throughout the lifecycle of litigation or an investigation.

One of the other critical components necessary during an event is a data source map, or an information management plan, that for litigation purposes identifies expert users or custodians of the data, who knows what about the data, how it is maintained, and any associated data retention policies.

The process of event preparedness happens long before the triggers that may lead to a litigation or investigatory event. It requires organizations to have an understanding of responsibilities and to define policies for regulation and business needs. Policies and procedures that help actively manage data are not just an IT or HIM “problem” but a collaborative business initiative where organizations must develop a well-defined structure and process to understand, manage, and prepare for litigation.

Legal counsel, HIM professionals, clinicians, information technology professionals, and C-suite professionals should work together to successfully manage information for the ediscovery process, implement a litigation response plan, and develop or update organizational policies.

Technology alone cannot replace the joint effort needed to develop sound processes. The process and technology needs to be defined, adopted, and audited. Collaboration and coordination must exist to tell the story of the data from all stakeholder perspectives to define the policies, procedures, and practices, including regular auditing of such routines. People, processes, and technology are key to information management and event preparedness.

Credit Given for Showing Your Work

The courts are not out to get anyone, but rather look for a reasonable, well documented, thought out, and consistent approach to information governance. It is very similar to math
class in grade school where the teacher always wanted to see one’s work demonstrated, or at least have an idea of the level of logic a student used to answer a question. This can help justify when questioned whether an approach to legal compliance was at least reasonable. Credit may be given even though the resulting answer may have been unsatisfactory, or if a good faith effort was used to manage and produce data.

Conversely, if an organization doesn’t have policies and plans in place it risks exorbitant costs associated with additional technology and personnel needed to store unmanaged data, as well as heightened risks of compliance and regulatory violations and court-imposed sanctions.

Planning and readiness for litigation or investigation is another piece of the information governance puzzle, which is much like any business continuity and disaster recovery plans, with an understanding of data, where it is located, how data is managed, event response, and regular testing of processes and procedures for when an event occurs. Health information managers carry the responsibility to ensure that the data being managed maintains its integrity during a litigation or investigatory event.

David Kearney (DKearney@cohenlaw.com) is director of technology services at Cohen & Grigsby, based in Pittsburgh, PA.

This article was first published in the Journal of AHIMA February 2014 issue and is reprinted here with permission.  For more information about the Journal of AHIMA, visit their website at http://journal.ahima.org/ and the AHIMA website at http://www.ahima.org

Copyright © 2014 American Health Information Management Association

http://www.ahimajournal-digital.com/ahimajournal/february_2014

Client Value with Project Management and Efficiency Practices

Client Value with Project Management and Efficiency Practices

The past few years have brought unprecedented change to the legal services industry and even the smallest of legal service providers are not immune to these changes.  The challenges that lawyers and firms are now grappling with are those never experienced in the industry.  The need for lawyers, law firms, and other providers of legal services to provide client-based value during any and all engagements has become a client expectation, with clients in many cases understanding their legal, resource, and cost needs like never before.  Providers of legal services need to embrace, or at least be prepared for, alternative ways of providing services and pricing for those services differently than how the majority of work has been handled in the past.  What has sustained providers of legal services in the past will not be the same to what sustains them in the future.

There are many factors beyond bottom-line pricing that clients now expect to understand.  Clients do have an expectation of cost management/cost containment, but also how a matter is staffed, the tasks involved in a matter, and alternative recommendations for providing the required services.  Providers of legal services need to be able provide alternatives to service delivery, which may include creative pricing models and even outsourcing some of the tasks.  In order to meet client expectations, a granular understanding of matters and associated costs are a must.  Scoping a matter correctly at the onset of an engagement is one of the key components to accurately agreeing upon what work is needed and what that work will “look like” when completed.  Once a scope of work is agreed to, clients expect  to know what risks may arise during a matter, what risks are most likely, and what impact those risks have to the scope of work.  Risk management is an area that needs to be a part of any engagement, so any risks that materialize are a part of the overall risk management plan and corrective action is no surprise.  Communication is another critical component of an engagement.  A communication plan and vehicle needs to be determined, so both the provider of legal services and the client knows how a matter is advancing when compared to the original scope of work.  Clients want to know the status of their matter(s) without necessarily having to inquire.  Counsel needs to provide threshold communications of resourced used, estimates to completion, and variances from original estimates on a regular basis.  Clients don’t want to be surprised by unexpected occurrences, bills, and task durations.

There is an opportunity for providers of legal services to truly reach beyond traditional hourly rates for, at least, some services driving efficiency and value and also providing a stronger relationship between counsel and clients.

Value needs to be identified by and for each client, such as efficiency, predicable processes, pricing, the services being delivered, and other items that the client sees as value.  To address what the client deems as being of value, legal service providers must utilize tools that help drive improvements in the business processes.  Tools are not exclusively software applications, but part of an overall strategy that includes matter management practices within the context of providing legal services.  Traditional project management techniques can be mapped directly to the practice of law to provide a more methodical process to matters including thoroughly scoping a matter, time needed on a matter, the costs of a matter/improved budget estimating, its work breakdown into tasks, human resource allocation, communication management, and risk management.  Project management practices applied to the practice of law, also known as Legal Project Management, is a way of enhancing the value to a legal engagement.

Project management practices are in no way a static set of sequential steps that can’t be elaborated upon, but a flexible way to help ensure that the provider of legal services can manage the matter as it evolves.  Legal project management can be implemented in a very disciplined and thorough manner and also in a customized way.  It can be implemented to take advantage of developing complete scopes of work, applying tools to manage risk, monitoring and controlling of a matter’s progress, and to develop and manage a communications plan.  Once the key components of project management are implemented, greater rigor can be applied to managing and tracking of tasks during a matter utilizing tools, such as a Work Breakdown Structure; estimating methodologies, and financial forecasting analysis.

Project management, continuous improvement, quality management, process  improvement, and efficiency methods are not new concepts, but these practices applied to legal services will be a large part of how legal services are priced, managed, and delivered.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution for providing client value, but  building transparency, cost predictability, efficiency, risk management, and communications into an engagement will undoubtedly resonate with clients of legal services

E-Discovery Education Options Revealed

Finding and understanding e-discovery education and education providers can be a daunting task. There are many options delivered by different organizations, both free and for a fee, with a variety of classroom, online and conference-style forums. There are also vendor-specific and vendor-neutral programs, and those with certification examinations as part of their curriculum.

 

When looking at options to enhance your skills, you will first want to take into account your skill set, experience level and overall objectives. Then you’ll want to research which organization’s offerings are best suited to your goals and career path. Although there are probably a few resources missing from this list, we’ve got you covered on the research.

 

Organization of Legal Professionals (OLP)

http://www.theolp.org

The Organization of Legal Professionals offers educational content, various classes, certificate programs and certification exams. Members gain access to exclusive content and discounts on OLP webinars and other materials. In addition to OLP’s strong e-discovery and litigation support curriculum, they offer additional educational opportunities in other legal-related areas. Classes and webinars are conducted in an interactive Web-enabled environment that allows students to interact with the instructor and view the instructional materials. There are educational options for beginning, advanced and expert-level students. The OLP Advisory Board and Board of Directors are made up of an impressive roster of attorneys, consultants and technologists.

 

LitWorks

http://litworks.net

LitWorks is an educational organization owned by DTI and was the first training company dedicated to developing and sharing best practices in the litigation support and e-discovery industry. It provides classroom training at various LitWorks facilities or onsite at a location of your choice. Various education and certification tracks are available, such as Certified Litigation Support Professional Training, Certified Litigation Support Project Manager Training and Certified E-Discovery Specialist Training.

 

E-Discovery Team Training

http://www.e-discoveryteamtraining.com

E-Discovery Team Training is an educational program designed and taught by Ralph Losey, partner and national e-discovery counsel for Jackson Lewis, LLP. Ralph teaches e-discovery and advanced e-discovery at the University of Florida College of Law, is a member and lecturer for The Sedona Conference, and has written on e-discovery topics. The E-Discovery Team Training was designed for Professor Losey’s law students and provides in-depth training. The initial few classes are free, so you can get an understanding of the overall approach and style of Ralph’s instruction. E-Discovery Team Training also includes a final examination option that tests your e-discovery proficiency.

 

The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS)

http://www.aceds.org

This organization welcomes everyone with an interest in the legal profession, specifically in civil litigation and electronic discovery, and it isn’t just for “certified” e-discovery specialists. ACEDS offers educational materials, member access to exclusive content, an intense examination process to become certified as an e-discovery specialist, and an annual conference with an exhibition of leading e-discovery vendors/service providers and expert panels covering hot topics in e-discovery. ACEDS has also launched ACEDS University, which has created significant educational materials to help give students a very strong foundation in e-discovery. This interactive, online, self-paced course teaches the basics of e-discovery across the Electronic Discovery Reference Model. It is designed professionally and gives students the ability to gauge their overall understanding of each chapter. The ACEDS Advisory Board includes prominent attorneys, technology experts and other notable industry professionals to help ensure a high-quality, well-rounded organization and program.

 

ESIBytes and Friends of E-Discovery

http://www.esibytes.com

http://www.friendsofediscovery.com

ESIBytes was founded and Friends of E-Discovery co-founded by Karl Schieneman. Both are free resources for e-discovery knowledge. Karl has practiced as an attorney and a leader in e-discovery with a wealth of knowledge and experience and a great network of professionals who are happy to share information for a cost everyone can afford … free. ESIBytes offers podcasts that enable leaders in the field to share their e-discovery theories for free. ESIBytes makes it easier to listen to ideas on e-discovery, identifies and makes accessible national e-discovery experts, and provides a forum to find regional e-discovery experts who are also thought leaders. The goal of Friends of E-Discovery is to share ideas and problems among friends who are all interested in learning more about e-discovery. Chapters exist in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Indiana and Tennessee.

 

Georgetown Law: The Advanced eDiscovery Institute

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/continuing-legal-education/programs/cle/ediscovery-institute

Now in its tenth year, this institute has gained a reputation among judges, practitioners and vendors as running one of the leading e-discovery conferences. The two-day conference provides attendees the opportunity to learn at an advanced level from leading e-discovery practitioners and academics, and it also allows attendees to create their own curriculum from the general sessions and numerous breakout sessions.

 

Georgetown Law: The eDiscovery Training Academy

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/continuing-legal-education/programs/cle/ediscovery-training-academy

Georgetown Law’s week-long program gives students a total immersion in the subject of e-discovery. The academy has been designed to be a challenging experience, leading to a comprehensive understanding of the discipline. It is an intense program and gives students access to judges, experts and practitioners.

 

International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)

http://www.iltanet.org

ILTA is a membership-driven organization that hosts annual conferences, local and regional meetings, webinars, and podcasts. They also publish numerous magazines, white papers and surveys each year. As an ILTA volunteer City Representative in Pittsburgh, I have found one of the best benefits of ILTA is that your firm/ organization is an ILTA member, then you are an ILTA member. Find out if you are a member, and take advantage of ILTA. Even if your organization is not a member, take advantage of attending free locally sponsored ILTA meetings on e-discovery. Many cities have local volunteer city representatives that host meetings and discuss relevant technology, legal topics and best practices related to e-discovery. There’s also a peer group focused on delivering quality educational content related to litigation and practice support. This year’s conference, ILTA 2013: The Catalyst, is a four-day educational conference with over 200 peer-developed educational sessions, ample networking opportunities and more than 200 exhibiting vendors … including those related to litigation support and e-discovery.

 

LegalTech

http://www.legaltechshow.com

LegalTech is a biannual legal technology event, with one event on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. These events offer law firms and legal departments the ability to stay atop the evolving legal industry and improve their law practice management. LegalTech provides ways to earn CLE credits, learn about the newest advances in technology and network with industry leaders. LegalTech spans multiple days, includes a multitude of legal software vendors and service providers, and has an e-discovery education track that includes hot topics discussed by experts in e-discovery, litigation support and the law.

 

The Project Management Institute (PMI)

http://www.pmi.org

Although not exclusively related to the legal or e-discovery profession, the Project Management Institute has much to offer. Project management practices can improve litigation and e-discovery projects and can be a perfect fit for legal project management implementation in a law firm or corporate law department. With recent worldwide economic events and in-house counsel demanding a more methodical, transparent and collaborative approach to managing matters by outside counsel, the legal profession can certainly benefit from a standardized and structured approach to project/matter management. PMI is one of the world’s largest not-for-profit membership associations for the project management profession, with more than 650,000 members and credential holders in more than 185 countries. PMI has numerous project management certifications available, such as the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), Project Management Professional (PMP) and Risk Management Professional (RMP). More specific to the legal field, PMI has a Legal Project Management Community of Practice that is geared toward the legal industry and generates newsletters, blogs, webinars and other educational materials. PMI also has many local chapters that are engaged in the community and host regularly scheduled events.

 

The Sedona Conference

https://thesedonaconference.org

The Sedona Conference is a nonprofit research and educational organization, founded in 1997 by Richard G. Braman. Contributors discuss how the law should move forward on issues in the areas of antitrust law, complex litigation and intellectual property rights. Working groups produce principles, best practices and guidelines for these specific areas of law. The amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that include the rules on electronically stored information were based on the Sedona Conference’s Sedona Principles. Get acquainted with the publications the conference generates on e-discovery and civil litigation. The Sedona Conference also has a membership program for those interested in supporting the conference’s mission and interacting with others in the areas of antitrust law, complex litigation and intellectual property rights.

 

Electronic Discovery Reference Model

http://www.edrm.net

First launched in 2005 and released publicly in 2006, the EDRM was developed by a group facilitated by George Socha and Tom Gelbmann to provide a standardized approach to e-discovery-related activities. The model helps visually depict the movement of e-discovery components in phases. The EDRM contains nine phases of the e-discovery process that everyone working in the field should be fairly familiar with. Accessing the knowledge of the EDRM is free and a very worthwhile model to fully understand — it is the foundation of nearly every component of e-discovery. EDRM also has designed a computer-assisted review reference model, a talent task matrix, a model code of conduct and the information governance reference model. Corporate counsel, corporate IT managers, law firms, software providers, consultants and service bureaus can join EDRM to share best practices for managing e-discovery processes. From the initial management of electronically stored information to the presentation of that information, followers of EDRM can offer insights to others and help improve e-discovery processes and the industry.

 

Education at Every Level

 

Keep your eyes and ears open for free live and on-demand education sponsored or led by leaders in the industry, such as FTI, Kroll OnTrack and Fios. There are free e-discovery and legal-related podcasts that can be downloaded easily via iTunes and The Legal Talk Network and listened to anywhere. You can also find blogs by e-discovery practitioners. If you are starting out in the industry or you’re a seasoned lawyer or legal professional who needs a stronger foundational knowledge of e-discovery practices and principles, take it slowly … register for some free webinars, download podcasts and even sign up for a basic OLP or ACEDS membership. A basic membership to either organization, which are both fairly reasonable in price, is a good way to get a feel for their particular approach to e-discovery education. If you have some foundational knowledge and experience in the field, explore some of the other higher-level and more intense programs, such as E-Discovery Team Training, Georgetown’s

 

Advanced eDiscovery Institute and the certification programs offered by ACEDS, the OLP and LitWorks. Also, take some time to network and find out who your local experts are in the industry; you might find e-discovery educational opportunities are just down the street. Improving your skill set and keeping up with the changes in the law, technology, best practices and new approaches to managing discovery is a worthwhile investment for you, your employer and potential employers. Regardless of whether education is self-funded, employer-funded or a blend of both, remember: you are worth the investment!

 

David Kearney is the Director of Technology Services at Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. He is a technology and e-discovery professional who has implemented, managed and supported a litigation review platform for a global law firm and worked for a service provider/vendor of legal solutions. David has led classes roundtable discussions on e-discovery and related technologies.

 

He can be contacted at dkearney@cohenlaw.com or http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjkearney.

 

Get Certified: E-Discovery Education Options Revealed

 

This article was first published in ILTA’s June 2013 issue of Peer to Peer titled “Emerging Careers” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at http://www.iltanet.org.

 

Original article:

http://read.uberflip.com/i/139453/6

http://www.iltanet.org/MainMenuCategory/Publications/Peer-to-Peer

Peer to Peer Magazine – June 2013