Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/45522
Depending on the size of your firm and your particular process, triaging requests and intelligently routing to various approvers may or may not make sense. If you have a small set of approvers who review all requests, complex routing rules are likely unnecessary; however, you may still find it worthwhile to identify opportunities to fast-track some requests to reduce their workload. Another re-engineering tactic is to consider activities that can be done in parallel. In many firms, multiple approvals are required to open a matter. If your approvals are not dependent on one another, then parallel management of approvals can significantly reduce the total time to open new matters. These can be difficult to manage in a manual process or older intake systems; however, this is routine in current automated systems. Before opening a new matter, are you aware of all of your contractual obligations to that client? Increasingly clients are requiring customized terms of business. Many firms have noticed clients imposing higher duty of loyalty standards as it applies to their subsidiaries. In some cases this may impose a duty-of-loyalty outside of jurisdictions where it would normally be required. In other instances, an advance waiver for transactional matters may have been granted. It is critical when analyzing the risk management implications of any proposed new matter that you understand the agreed-to terms of business and your contractual obligations with that client. Subsequently, the use of highly customized terms of business has increased the burden on firms to factor those terms into risk and business intake decisions. In order to properly weigh the impact of terms of business into new matter decisions, risk management 32 Risky Business ILTA White Paper personnel need to be able to locate executed contracts and quickly identify obligations that have been imposed. It is vital for an automated new business intake system to be able to identify and reference these documents along with an indication of the substantive obligations that should be reviewed. While there can be significant benefits in re- engineering your process, you should carefully consider the impact changes could have on stakeholders, and be aware that implementing a solution that enforces a radically modified process will take additional time and effort to manage that change. You should also be cautious of over- engineering your process. Too many complex and rigid rules can introduce their own set of problems. As a general rule, incorporating changes and enhancements incrementally is more manageable and less risky than a massive overhaul. IT PAYS TO FIREPROOF YOUR FIRM Regardless of how much you automate or re-engineer your processes, the critical point is that your process must be based on a risk management strategy and thoroughly audited. You want to avoid getting burned in the first place, but should you run into issues later, it could be critical to your defense to demonstrate that a structured, risk-based approach was in place and followed. And remember, as Bilbo said in "The Hobbit," "Never laugh at live dragons." ILTA