The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/67910
best practices A Customer-Focused Vision of Value for Litigation Support by Alice E. Burns of Eleventh Hour Law firms are reinventing themselves, orienting toward differentiation, producing high-value added services and creating specializations in niche markets by anticipating the legal needs of their customers. The future litigation support model must follow suit and be more aligned with the business and more customer-focused to succeed. Litigation support must innovate in response to the changing legal profession and to realize the customer's perception of value. Create Value: As consumers, we know what we like; we value what we like; and we will pay for what we value. This holds true for legal services. The more sophisticated the customer, the more demanding the customer will be in defining and seeking value. To understand what customers value, litigation support must be able to pinpoint who their customer is and what the customer needs. As needs are defined, litigation support services can be developed with specificity and delivered with quality and care, creating a clear vision of value for customers. Adopt a New Ethos: Customer-centered specialization is highly desired: defining value to clients, being prepared to deliver more of that value than competitors and fulfilling customer expectations beyond the reach of competitors. This should be litigation support's new ethos. Sell Services That Customers Need: It pays to focus on customer service rather than billable hours. Litigation support must be ready to offer customers the legal products they need and value, spending more nonbillable time to understand their customers and garnering constant feedback. Define Roles, Responsibilities and Workflows: Customers demand lean, specialized teams; therefore, legal teams should be staffed correctly from the start. To achieve lean team staffing, law firms should define legal team roles, coalescing responsibilities and workflow crossover between corporate legal personnel and the law firm's lawyers, paralegals, litigation support and vendors. This is especially important to get right in highly leveraged processes such as discovery. Once roles and responsibilities are well-defined, workflow systems can be outlined for defensible practice. Standardize Processes and Procedures: Outlining litigation support workflow processes and evidence-handling procedures gives customers (and the courts) confidence in the reliability of evidence authenticity. Litigation support teams should have an operational framework that is well-described, documenting its processes and procedures as case data and evidence are taken in, treated and exchanged. The operational framework should incorporate data governance, security and transmission issues, as well as establish standards for treatment of evidence processing and handling at every phase. Be Relevant: Litigation support will continue to compete with corporate legal resources, outsourcing vendors, paralegals and even lawyers for a place on the legal team roster. To ensure a place, litigation support must offer relevant services and back those services with specialized skills, expertise and unparalleled customer service. This may mean developing front-facing talent and placing these people directly within specific practice groups for better support. Offer the Right Legal Products: Realize what your customers actually need and offer proportional solutions. To offer the right legal products, litigation support must hone in on what it does really well. Internal litigation support should evaluate how its services effectively span a wide range of case sizes and 16 Peer to Peer