Being proactive can be as simple as a production strategy meeting with your case team as early in the lifecycle of the matter as possible or taking the “edu-marketing” approach where you and your litigation support team address document production best practices for your firm at a lunch n learn training session for your paralegals & attorneys.

Proactive Preparation:

Define your firm’s production format best practices based on the technology you have available. Draft a “cheat sheet” for your attorneys to take with them to discovery conferences.

EDRM and elawexchange.com both provide direction and definitions:

• E-Discovery Paralegal Checklist
• EDRM Guide to Document Productions
• Rule 34 & Form of Production

Resources for consulting with your case teams regarding document productions:

• Ralph Losey video: “Paper or Plastic” – a fun discussion of production formats
• An example of what NOT to do can be found here

We discuss document productions, the best formats and production technology management in our LitWorks CLSP and CLSPM classes.

We used to joke around that it was it difficult to get fired from a litigation support job. Today’s legal market environment tells us it’s not a joke anymore. Law firms, government agencies and corporate legal departments have been making cuts for the last 18 months but according to The Cowen Group’s recent job survey, we are on the upswing again with “60 Percent of Legal Industry Expects to Hire eDiscovery Staff in Next Six Months.”  However, for those who have suffered through the downsizing and the changes that have occurred in the legal economy, it’s not easy to forget the anxiety and trauma. According to the article “Misery Loves Company: Team morale has taken a beating – but it’s not too late to prevent a mass mutiny,” found in the April 2010 PM Network magazine, the author outlines the warning signs that should have you concerned about your litigation support project management team:

• Tension or anxiety in the workplace
• Excessive gossip & rumors
• Isolationism & territorialism

It’s never too late to fix things… some causes will be within your control while others will not but you have to be vigilant in protecting the fabric of your team.  Here are some ways to improve morale and get your litigation support / e-discovery project management team focused on their work again:

• Communication – keep team members in the loop, pay attention to non-verbal feedback and create an “open door” policy … don’t leave room for team members to assume the worst
• Training to reduce skills gaps (if you don’t have a training budget here are some ideas)
• Honesty, Consistency and Respect

Our litigation support manager class addresses team building and mentoring for departmental success. The following excerpt from an article I found online highlights some of the concepts and ideas we discuss in our class (the entire article can be found here).

Invest both time and effort in your staff members. Human nature and office politics will always create problems; be there to listen and try to defuse the situation. Always strive to have all parties leave the conversation feeling they’ve gained something, even if it was just an ear to hear them out.

Ask questions and learn your staff members’ personal goals. It’s a little like asking, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” Help define their goals, if necessary, and work to align them with departmental and institutional goals. Then invest the time and effort to help your staff attain those goals. People work better when they are doing something they like.

Take the time to jointly define departmental goals. Our five-year self-study really helped us in this respect. We put forth the effort to identify our mission and goals and, even more importantly, our strengths and weaknesses. We then went to work on our weaknesses as a team, and we continue to do so.

Realize that not everyone will be happy with your department’s services. When the criticism comes, back up your staff in front of others. If there is a real problem, resolve it privately with your staff. Most problems arise from a lack of communication that has led to a misunderstanding or a bad working relationship.

Everyone has limits. Recognize those limits and work within them. This is tricky because there is a fine line between holding people back and letting them work within their limitations. Push a little and see how staff members handle their own limitations. Talk with them, find out how you can help, determine their attitudes. If the work still doesn’t get done, you’ve probably hit someone’s limit. A more difficult situation is when someone stretches beyond his or her capabilities and doesn’t recognize it. Trying to resolve that situation without disillusioning a hard worker can be a delicate matter.

Invest not only time and effort, but money. In our industry, training–including conference attendance and structured courses–is critical and well worth the time and money. Not only does training hone skills and teach tools your employees need to do their jobs, it improves morale and self-esteem. Paying for training shows people they are valued by the organization. Most universities include travel and training in the same budget line, and that is the line that is most vulnerable when budgets are cut. Still, it’s good practice to put as much money in your training budget as possible, even if you have to rob your supply budget to do it. Two years ago, I had a $5,000 budget for training and travel for 19 employees. Last year I increased it to $10,000 and this year I upped it to $20,000; we set a departmental goal to get everyone to at least one training session or conference this year.

What if my organization doesn’t have a training budget this year? Training does not have to be expensive. Maintain a library of resources like the ones found here.

As a manager, you have a tremendous impact on the enthusiasm or lack thereof of your team. This article quotes one of my favorite American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson who once wrote ”nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” The big kids eventually realized that if they were going to have fun, we all had to have fun so they took the time to “mentor” and “train” me to play Monopoly with them. When your litigation support & e-discovery project management team feel confident in their skills and abilities their enthusiasm for the work increases.  Their morale improves. Their productivity improves.

As a leader, have you created an environment that encourages your team to enhance their leadership skills? Do you regularly create opportunities to allow members of your team to take on leadership roles on projects?

Your success as a leader is closely tied to your ability to encourage and coach the people you lead to success. Over the years, I have observed that the most successful, empowered and productive litigation support managers are those who are able to delegate effectively and are not afraid of sharing information or building the skills of the team around them.

This video from Tech Republic highlights 5 ways you can lead your litigation support team to success.

1. Don’t provide all the answers

2. Align people with the stuff they are passionate about

3. Avoid throwing people under the bus

4. Build consensus by letting your team know WHY

5. Trust your people, and let them know it

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

- Jack Welch

• E-Lessons Learned
• K&L Gates – Electronic Discovery Law
• Arkfeld’s E-Law Exchange
• e-Discovery Team
• Quarles & Brady’s E-Discovery Bytes
• Post Process Blog  EDD Bibliography

There are many other sites that provide case law summaries, these are just a few.

The bottom line is that if you really want to effectively communicate something, especially if it is important and will need some discussion, there is nothing as good as face-to-face communication. If that is impractical, if you really want to communicate, pick up the phone and talk. My guess is that many people avoid these two methods because they find it more difficult, and places them outside their “comfort zone.” Effective communication necessitates doing what is necessary, and not simply developing a dependency on these less effective, but certainly easier techniques. Continue…

Be sure that you completely understand all of the options available and have prepared possible answers to your follow up questions before you engage in a face-to-face meeting. Then you will be ready to listen. Listening or “receiving“ information is just as important as “sending” or speaking.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to read more about being a good listener.

You don’t have to register for a Twitter account to read someone’s micro-blog site. You can simply point your browser to www.twitter.com/LitWorks_DTI and you can view all of our tweets (for example). However, it is a lot easier to “follow” someone if you actually have a Twitter account yourself. While it’s strongly encouraged as a two-way street, I really don’t see the harm in following and never actually saying anything yourself.

Using Twitter as an educational resource is simple.

1. Determine who’s tweets you will follow. I recommend that you start with folks listed on Tweet Discovery.com. Look for people who post links to interesting articles, blog posts and white papers that are relevant to your role as a Litigation Support Professional. Also, note who they follow… are they following people from outside of our industry? For example, we follow other trainers and project managers whether they are litigation support / e-discovery specific or not. If their tweets add value to our learning & research objectives, then we follow them.
2. Create a List & Get Organized. It is very difficult to keep up with hundreds of tweets every day. Creating a Twitter List will allow you to organize your Twitter feed into categories. You can also follow someone else’s list.
3. Define Your Personal Brand on Twitter. If you plan to re-tweet or post your own tweets (sharing information is strongly encouraged), be sure that you’ve selected a Twitter identity that is consistent with your personal brand. Remember, your current and future employers might read your posts… This topic recently came up on The Posse List blog here.

Join our ongoing discussion of communication best practices for project management in litigation & e-discovery by commenting/ responding to the following questions:

• How do you communicate with each other?
• How do you share resources?
• How are the resources managed?
  • at the local level?
  • at the regional level?

Working with virtual litigation support teams will include embracing new media and technology designed for effective project management.  Recently,  Paul Easton listed a number of project management collaboration tools on his blog that you may find useful.