Vol. 75, No. 3, March
2002
Practical Tips for Successful Implementation, Part I
Benefits of Case Management Systems
In this first of a two-part series on successfully implementing case
management systems, learn how educating everyone in your firm about the
benefits of such systems - what they are, what they do, how they change
workflow and work practices - will help build critical consensus and
buy-in from the participants.
Ross L. Kodner, rkodner@microlaw.com, is a lawyer
and founder of Milwaukee's MicroLaw Inc., a legal technology consultancy
and systems integrator. He chairs the ABA Law Practice Management
Section's Computer & Technology Division and was a member of the ABA
Techshow Executive Board from 1997-2001. He is chair of the 2002
Wisconsin Law & Technology Show.
by Ross L. Kodner
There is no question that case management systems can literally
transform the most disorganized law practices into super-efficient legal
services delivery engines. Firms that effectively implement case
management software systems consistently report: 1) higher profitability
due in part to a reduction of previously wasted nonbillable time spent
looking for case information; 2) increased client satisfaction with firm
response time to case status-related inquiries; and 3) reduced
"aggravation factor" and a related increase in perceived quality of law
practice life. Firms that haven't so effectively deployed case
management products loudly proclaim them as the bane of their
existences, not to mention the culprit responsible for far less money in
the firm's coffers. So what are the differences between these two widely
varying experience sets? It's all in how you roll it out and integrate
it into the firm's workflow.
The factors that contribute to successful case management rollouts in
firms of all sizes include: 1) achieving consensus and buy-in from
everyone in the firm; 2) deciding on a case management system; 3)
building a planning team; 4) training; 5) documenting your practice
flow; and 6) customizing your system to your needs. This first article
in a two-part series provides tips on building consensus.
Get Consensus and "Buy-In" from Each Participant
Before you ever begin the process of selecting case management
software, you need to educate everyone in the firm about exactly what it
is, what it does, and how it will change the workflow and work
practices. Anticipate the following questions:
What is a case manager? That is perhaps the easiest
issue to address, since the answer is almost literally "a piece of
software that does everything." Case management programs can track all
sorts of law firm information, including:
- Case information about each of your matters - everything from party
contact info, to counsel, to courts, experts and witnesses, to tracking
fact patterns and issues, and case strategies
- Calendaring, docketing, and tickler systems, as well as to-do list
managers
- Conflict of interest searches -; light years ahead of the
time-tested but terrifying method of shouting down the hall, "Yoohoo!
Has anyone ever heard of so-and-so?"
- Case notes, logged as you work your files - instead of endlessly
proliferating sticky notes
- Emails and documents related to your cases - a central source for
all work product coming into the firm or flowing out
- Firm administrative information - as important as tracking
client-related matters, since every firm's single most important client
is itself
- Custom information for document assembly - the vast array of
information tracked and stored by a case manager can be extracted and
flowed into documents
- Portability of case information - whether via laptop or Palm or
Pocket PC, or between main office and branch office or a lawyer's home
computer, all the information stored and tracked by the case management
system can be accessible to everyone in the firm, from anywhere at any
time - fulfilling finally the core idea of the "virtual law
practice"
Why would our firm want a case manager? The answer
is found in the responses to the first question about what a case
manager is and does. Who wouldn't want those kinds of capabilities in
their practices? Who wouldn't want to cut their nonbillable time wasted
every day looking for case-related information or documents? Who
wouldn't want to answer clients' questions when they call instead of
having to return their calls? Who wouldn't want to rapidly generate more
routinized documents like client correspondence, releases, motions,
pleadings, and settlement agreements with better consistency and quality
control? Who wouldn't want to virtually eliminate the stressful
situations when one of the lawyers turns the office upside down
scrambling to find a paper file?
Aren't our current programs good enough? Be prepared
to address the inevitable question: "We have Outlook/GroupWise/Notes
already - aren't those good enough case management programs?" That's
like asking, "We have a 40-year-old Radio Flyer wagon with three wheels
and a broken handle. Can't we use that as our company car?" It is that
dramatic a comparison.
Generic Versus Modern Case Managers
The functional chasm between the two classes of software - a
"generic" personal information management system like Microsoft Outlook
or Novell GroupWise versus a modern case manager like TimeMatters,
CaseMaster, or Amicus Attorney - is vast:
A key issue: case calendaring versus people
calendaring. Outlook and most PIMlike (Personal Information
Manager) systems can easily only calendar dates by individual people.
They simply are not oriented to tracking multiple people who may be
working together and who want to see a "case calendar." This lack can
waste huge amounts of time. For example, on a major medical malpractice
file, you might have one partner in charge, an associate, a paralegal,
and the firm's investigator/medical researcher. By associating these
four people together in a scheduling group in a program like
TimeMatters, Amicus Attorney, or CaseMaster, you can quickly get a case
calendar view at any time and see what all four people are doing on the
file. This is much faster than comparing four separate calendars.
Case information tracking. Outlook doesn't track
much, but legal case managers track enormous amounts of information,
ranging the spectrum of:
- Related party contact information
- Court/administrative body info
- Opposing counsel info
- Facts of the case
- A chronology of caserelated events and the case "flow" once the suit
is filed
- A case todo list with a system of sophisticated and
impossible-to-ignore "alerts"
- "Date chaining" capabilities that permit a series of related events
to be tied together and automatically counted and posted (for example,
using a statute of limitations date as a key date and automatically
counting back and posting 1, 7, 30, 60, 90, 180, and 365 day ticklers;
or a trial date and counting back all the dates on a typical trial court
scheduling order and three ticklers for each). Date chaining can save
hours of posting time and reduce manual date miscounting errors. It also
has the ability to move the entire "chain" if a trial gets bumped.
- Conflicts-related items for conflicts searching
All of this information is easily searchable, printable, Palmable,
and so on.
Document management. While I tend to believe most
firms are still better off with separate document management products,
there are some helpful capabilities for attaching documents to cases and
being able to launch them while looking at, and thinking about, the case
being worked on. Such capability doesn't exist with generic personal
information managers.
Conflicts checking. How many small firms have a
system for checking for conflicts of interest when a new case is opened
that is about as sophisticated as standing out in the hall and yelling,
"Anyone ever heard of ABC Corporation?" If there's no answer, the case
is accepted because the "conflicts check" is done. In legal case
managers, conflicts checking is an incredibly powerful text search
system, scouring every scrap of case information in your system, down to
the level of individual time slip entries. Generic personal information
managers cannot perform the same function.
Integration with billing systems. Case management
systems can integrate with billing systems like TABS, PCLaw Jr.,
Timeslips, QuickBooks Pro, and so on, for passing client/matter
information back and forth and for passing time entries from the case
manager to the billing system. Typically, a couple of months of captured
time that otherwise would be lost should pay for the entire case
management implementation. You also gain efficiencies by reducing
duplicative information entry. There is no such functionality with
generic personal information managers.
Easy integration of contact info with your word
processor. With case managers, there is relatively easy
integration of address/contact info into WordPerfect or Word documents.
As an example, my company has long used a set of WP macros. While
customized for each firm, the essential core macros are the same - the
"Smart Correspondence" macro can pull addresses right from TimeMatters,
for example, into Word as part of a process of inserting inside or
cc/bcc addresses on correspondence. We haven't been able to accomplish
that in any simple way with the Outlook/WordPerfect combination.
Document assembly - building "smart documents." By
using a legal case manager as the perfect repository for assembling
routine documents and tracking the mass of information stored, you can
integrate with Word or WordPerfect, with or without HotDocs, for
comprehensive document assembly. To not do this is utterly illogical for
routine documents where little content changes other than the client
names, counsel names, captions, and the like.
Timeline/chronology function. In TimeMatters, for
example, this function shows the progress of work on a case and lets you
see a pattern or chain of case events, which is incredibly useful. And
CaseSoft's new TimeMap is specifically designed for this purpose. For
that matter, firms should look at CaseMap also as a more freeform
approach to overall knowledge management, of which case management is a
subset.
Synchronizing with laptop/remote systems. The
ability in TimeMatters and Amicus Attorney, for example, to send a
remote update file to a branch office PC, a mobile lawyer's laptop, or a
partner's home PC system via email is nothing short of ingenious.
It is clear that generic personal information managers like Microsoft
Outlook, Novell GroupWise and their genre are not the functional
equivalent, or even a suitable replacement for, legal case management
systems.
Get Consensus from Each Team
The next step is to get consensus on the "team reasons" for
implementing the case management software. Smart firm technology
committee heads and managing partners anticipate and answer the most
important question for everyone in the firm: "What's in it for me?" You
must clearly demonstrate the personal benefits of case management
software to every class of employee in the firm. Failure to do so will
mean that roadblocks will appear, which sometimes may be insurmountable.
At best, these obstacles can undermine the success of the project; at
worst, they can derail the project and turn it into an expensive
disaster. Instead, focus on what makes different people tick and the
right "buttons" to push to get the buy-in you seek. Examples
include:
- Partners - bill more time during the same-length workday and make
more money
- Managing Partners - making more money is a good thing, but staying
out of trouble is equally important; case managers help lawyers avoid
malpractice by making it difficult to miss deadlines and making it
easier to keep clients apprised of their case status
- Associates - respond to clients' and partners' requests faster,
which makes you look good
- Paralegals - respond to clients' and partners' requests faster,
which makes you look good and reduces stress
- Legal Assistants - find everything seemingly instantaneously, which
cuts personal stress and increases time available for productive
work
- Firm Administrators - a godsend for tracking otherwise disparate
information such as equipment leases and depreciation schedules,
tracking lawyer CLE attendance, logging staff vacation time and other
human resource information, monitoring legal research subscriptions,
tracking equipment maintenance, and so on
These examples tie into primary concerns of each group of
participants in the case management process. Case management satisfies
very basic and very motivating needs for everyone in the firm. But
typical lawyers or legal assistants will not arrive at this conclusion
on their own - they need to be educated and led to see these expected
results. Once the revelations occur, you'll be hard-pressed to rein in
the enthusiasm everyone will demonstrate.
NEXT MONTH: The second article in this two-part series will discuss
how to choose, train staff for, and use a case management system.
Wisconsin
Lawyer