Government/NonProfit | Contract Staffing | Direct Hire Search | Case Studies | Document Review
DOCUMENT REVIEW
Contract Attorneys and Paralegals in Local Regions Reduce Litigation Support Costs by Up To 62%
The legal department of a global manufacturer has significantly reduced the legal costs of tasks related to asbestos litigation, by using localized teams of contract attorneys and paralegals. In one region, costs have gone down 62%.
SITUATION
The corporation’s AGC approaches Lumen Legal, through a partner from their coordinating national law firm, with an idea that would potentially alleviate the rising costs of litigation by addressing the commodity-level tasks being performed by local counsel in various jurisdictions, nationwide.
SOLUTION
Lumen Legal is asked to work with local counsel to identify and deliver contract paralegals and attorneys that have a well-defined skill set and experience level. These legal professionals are then utilized to perform routine tasks.
The commodity-level tasks these legal professionals
perform include:
• Trial preparation
• Deposition scheduling and coding
• Deposition summaries
• Responses to complaints
• Settlement summary drafts
• Reports (trial/pre-trial, budget)
In addition, Lumen creates a “pool” of three to five attorneys that handle depositions on an as-needed basis in seven unique jurisdictions.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
A team of legal professionals work in multiple locations throughout the U.S. The work being performed by the contractors is managed and reviewed by local counsel. Regular communication with legal professionals and local counsel working at the locations confirms continuity and quality assurance, and is reported at monthly intervals.
RESULT
Lumen Legal receives favorable feedback from the manufacturer’s Office of General Counsel. They decide to expand the initial program as they believe that they can realize a sizeable cost-savings. At one local counsel office, by utilizing a contract paralegal, the annual cost for the corporate client is reduced by 62%.
Team of Contract Attorneys Review Manufacturer’s Sub-Contractor Agreements with Faster Turn-Around
Flexible Workforce Assembled by Lumen Legal Using a Customized Skill-Match Testing Tool
SITUATION
The legal department of one the world’s largest manufacturers of brand-name home and building products is faced with rising legal costs related to the function of reviewing sub-contracts.
The corporation’s Senior Counsel asks Lumen Legal to develop a cost-effective process to review builder sub-contractor agreements, a function that had historically been performed by both client managers in the field and staff legal professionals working out of one of the client’s locations.
SOLUTION
Lumen works closely with the corporation to establish a systematized review process of builder sub-contractor agreements. From a quality perspective, it is critical that the process deliver the level of production the client requires, with zero defects or errors. Lumen begins by mapping the agreement review process, performing a cause-and-effects analysis related to the variations and analyzing data for sources of variation (Six Sigma). The resulting process
includes monitoring, tracking, and overall performance management of the Lumen Legal team in addition to review of the agreements.
A team of attorneys is then carefully screened and selected by Lumen Legal based on contract review experience. Lumen develops and utilizes a skill-match testing tool that simulates how candidates will perform in reviewing specific agreements. The tool proves to be a key factor in employee retention.
Determining the number of reviewers for the initial team is challenging because it is unclear how many out of the several hundred client field office locations will forward agreements to be reviewed. Additionally, the overall workload fluctuates and can be impacted by seasonal factors, backlogs
that occasionally build up in the field, and other factors. Therefore it is important to have a flexible workforce to meet the changing need.
Project Management/Metrics
Lumen Legal uses its Royal Oak, Michigan corporate headquarters as the work-site for a team of between five and fifteen reviewers, based on workload. The project manager is an attorney who has supervised document reviews. She is instrumental in developing the training manual, training the reviewers, supervising and tracking reviewer’s performance and providing administrative supervision on the project.
Work activity measurements for the project include:
• Agreement review turn-around time per document,
and per reviewer
• Pages reviewed per hour, and per reviewer
• Agreements reviewed per day, and per reviewer
• Reviewer score based on contract parameters
• Category of defects or errors, per reviewer
Result
The client communicates to Lumen Legal that they are pleased with the quality of the agreements reviewed, and requests that Lumen’s project manager visit their primary location to assist in training a small core group of reviewers that continue to perform the agreement review function. Lumen also develops a quality control program for them to utilize. The client provides a written recommendation to a professional association in regard to Lumen’s ability to accurately review agreements and meet the client’s ambitious turnaround objective.
Seasoned Project Attorney Reduces Medical Manufacturer’s Legal Spend for Review of Agreements by 50%
Platinum Partner Group members perform high-level tasks on an as-needed basis.
SITUATION
A large, global manufacturer and distributor of medical and surgical supplies and technologies seeks a project attorney to work on a part-time basis reviewing and negotiating a wide range of agreements, from software licenses to supply contracts (including outsourcing). The task requires a seasoned corporate attorney with a background and experience similar to that of their in-house attorneys.
SOLUTION
Lumen turns this order over to its Platinum Partner Group, a national network of experienced attorneys who are interested in utilizing their expertise for discrete legal projects. Lumen Legal implements its detailed and systematic process of searching for and clearing attorney candidates.
An attorney is selected who has over 15 years of in-house experience in the review, drafting and negotiation all types of agreements, including:
• IT-related agreements (telecommunications, software licenses, technology services agreements, privacy, outsourcing agreements)
• Marketing, advertising and sponsorship agreements
• IP work (trademark prosecution, copyrights and case management)
• Corporate governance
• Real estate
• Securities
Result
The attorney begins working for the company on a per-project basis, averaging eight hours per week. The company reduces their legal spend by approximately 50% as a result of using this highly-experienced attorney, and reports a high level of satisfaction with his work.
ABOUT THE PLATINUM PARTNER GROUP
Part-time project employment often meets the workload and lifestyle preference of seasoned attorneys, allowing clients to tap into highly-experienced talent very cost-effectively.
Lumen Legal’s unique Platinum Partner Group (PPG) includes former GCs and AGCs, law professors, attorneys who are balancing family obligations, and other senior attorneys who want to scale back on their hours and responsibilities. These professionals are interested in applying their experience to higher-value tasks. Savings to the client are typically 50% to 70% for work that otherwise would cost $250-400/hr. PPG recruiters work proactively to identify and contact candidates, including hard-to-find professionals for unique projects. Areas of PPG expertise include M&A, contracts, IP, privacy, regulatory compliance and environmental law.
Fourtune 100 Corporation Facing Major Litigation Accurately Process Over 700 Boxes of Documents
Challenge: Review of the thousands of documents had to be completed in a 10-week period to meet an aggressive court date. The corporation’s outside counsel lacked the resources to quickly assemble a review team. The remote location of the project required contractors willing to travel and remain on site five days and four nights per week.
Solution: Within seven days of receiving the assignment, Lumen Legal identified, interviewed, referenced and deployed 12 attorney contractors who worked under the direction of the outside counsel. This effort was completed before the scheduled court date. Outside counsel was fully prepared to defend the case and the client saved over $350,000, because Lumen Legal delivered the talent at less than half the cost quoted by others.
Senior-Level Paralegal Needed by Corporation with Multistate Operations
Challenge: Corporation could not add permanent staff due to a company-wide hiring freeze
Solution: The Lumen Legal database was leveraged to quickly identify dozens of experienced legal professionals in the work-site area. Three were interviewed and reference-checked, and their profiles submitted to the client. After six months on the assignment, the chosen interim paralegal was notified of the corporation’s intention to make her a permanent employee once the hiring freeze was lifted.
Global Medical Device Company Needs Highly-Experienced Attorney for Corporate Transactions
Challenge: The corporation needed an attorney with six to nine years of corporate transactional experience at a large firm (merger and acquisition, securities, government relations, employment and labor relations). Past academic achievement was also important. In addition to meeting the qualifications, the structure of the department mandated that new employees remain satisfied with the position for which they were hired, because rapid upward mobility was not probable.
Solution: Lumen Legal undertook a nationwide search, evaluating hundreds of experienced attorneys. Four viable job candidates each spent a day on site with the legal department. They chose a trilingual attorney who had worked for a top-tier firm serving Fortune 500 clients, both domestically and internationally. Having earned an undergraduate degree with honors and a law degree with high distinction, this Order of the Coif member was not only highly intelligent, but also very approachable and genuine. The company was delighted to find a seasoned and skillful performer whose selfless attitude made him a valued team member.
Fortune 50 Corporation Uses E-Discovery Teams for Large-Scale Review
What: Governmental investigation of several unrelated matters
Challenge: To comply with inquiries from a government investigation, an electronic review of over one million documents was needed. To comply with the inquiries, an electronic review of over one million documents was needed. Through past experience, the litigation management team realized that this undertaking would be budget breaking.
Solution: The head of the litigation team was price-point focused. He resolved to realign the company's purchase of outside legal services at the associate attorney skill level; he selected to have associate-level work completed by licensed attorneys working on a contract basis under the supervision of outside counsel managers.
Lumen Legal was asked to work collaboratively with outside counsel to establish, launch and maintain two e-discovery teams located in two diverse labor markets. Particular consideration was given to providing attorney team members with workplace incentives and benefits meant to reduce turnover and enhance daily productivity. Lumen Legal and outside counsel managers maintained a high-level of personal contact and planned communication to ensure that productivity targets were being attained.
During the first nine months of the investigations, six distinct e-discovery projects were systematically produced by the integrated attorney teams. Through the realignment of associate-level legal spend, $1.8 million in savings was realized during the same nine-month period. Corporate litigation managers are now working to expand the collaborative, integrated team model with their other law firm providers.
