Legal Operations Management (LOM)

Legal Operations Management (LOM)

Convergence of financial, legal, legal department operations, litigation, IP, RIM, organization/staffing, management/HR, technology, info governance, etc.  It is visioning the big picture and implementing its individual elements collaboratively and collectively.

Building a “Go-To” Organization Begins With Understanding the Legal Business Unit

Legal Organizations require a quality infrastructure, one that balances costs and risk, internal and external resource usage and both one-time and systematic compliance issues. Additionally, to support a Legal Organization’s efforts and justify its decisions, that infrastructure must effectively value information, and offer reporting mechanisms to demonstrate achievement and to measure results.

Legal Organization Services

• Gathering business requirements to improve decision making
• Developing records management policies and procedures to value and govern information
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities
• Planning strategy, and process and system improvements
• Implementing well defined processes and legal technology
• Managing change and development
• Delivering training and education through elearning initatives

Business Drivers

State and federal rules of civil procedure and emerging common law, as well as compliance issues within some industries impose significant costs on businesses whether engaged in litigation or not.

E-discovery/e-disclosure has become a daily challenge for General Counsel, the CIO, the COO and the Risk Management Department, as well as for Outside Counsel. All face a choice of policies, procedures and technologies for insourcing (such as by using forensic software and employed staff) or outsourcing electronic discovery processing, management and review.  All have responsibility for proper preservation, sharing and management of electronic documents for a matter.

Big data is here.  We create more information with less systematic organization everyday.  Take a look at your own data and its organization.  Ask yourself how much time do you spend looking for information everyday?  “That file…where did I save that file.  If only I could recall…”

Data privacy and security, plus mobility devices are three additional risk factors in today’s business world.  Evaluating and finding your line in shifting regulatory and economic sands is a challenge too.

Services Development

Evaluation of the different business models in which an internal operation is financed.

• Infrastructure Investment in Complete Toolkit.
• Pay-Per-Use Pricing.
• Consumption-Based Pricing.
• Managed Discovery Services.

Talent Development

Developing an optimal structure that enables the Legal Organization to best serve its customer needs while creating clear lines of departmental authority and responsibility:

• Compare existing staffing mix to form an ideal organizational blend in support of business model and services
• Optimize staffing use within an organization
• Focus staff competencies to deliver valued services
• Train staff in processes and procedures

Records Management, Procedures and Process

The key driver to gain benefit from the understanding of the workflow process – well defined inputs, outputs and purposes – in a business context is that the throughput of the workstream path is modeled in such a way as to evaluate the efficiency of the flow route through internal silos with a view to increasing discrete control of uniquely identified business attributes and rules and reducing potential low efficiency drivers. Evaluation of resources, both physical and human is essential to evaluate hand-off points and potential to create smoother transitions between tasks.

Standardization of key workflow processes supported by records management improves decision-making, information classification and its use.  Standardization eliminates inefficiency and  offers some means for accountability.

Data

There is a lot of data created every single day.  Not all data is created equal.

Examining data’s value window gives us perspective about its optimal life.  As we understand data’s life – its usefulness – we can begin to apply appropriate privacy protections, including security, use and disposal policies.

Legal Technology

Lead cross-functional teams in outlining a Legal Organization’s information legal technology systems strategy, planning, development, implementation, and ongoing support. This is accomplished by providing leadership and strategic direction in assessing Legal  Organization’s technology requirements and providing intelligence to the IT organization regarding business trends, management needs, and business concerns while at the same time educating Legal Organization professionals and managing the expectations of Legal Organization professionals with respect to the realities, challenges, and fundamentals of Legal IT and information governance.

•  Matter Management
•  Electronic Billing / Outside Counsel Spend Management
•  Document Management
•  Intellectual Asset Management
•  Dashboards, Metrics, and Business Intelligence
•  eDiscovery
•  Legal Records Management
•  Knowledge Management
•  Legal Intranet
• eLearning

Matter Management, Operational Continuity and Recovery

Disasters, departures, and equipment failures are some of the many issues that threaten matter management, operational continuity and recovery.  Taking steps to address these risks is good planning.  Training your team to think through situations and react well is good business.