litsupport summary for the week ending on 10/26/08

A lot of important and useful information is posted to litsupport each week. The following is a distilled summary, in the form of questions and answers.

Q. What do litigation support professionals (LSP) see as the best way(s) for vendors to do their work?
A. Not strictly a technical question, but one that inspired important discussion. Note also by the style and sometimes capitalization that LSPs have responded earnestly to the issues that bother them, thus, it represents important input from them:

1. Vendors should have a clear understanding of what they DO BEST at the time they are selling their worth; assess your talent (Operational - Managerial - Sales - Accounting/Payroll) and set GOALS for each department and review these goals (really review) these goals every month; HIRE GOOD PEOPLE: hungry, optimistic, creative, "I will do whatever it takes to get the job done” and have
   a clear understanding of what it means to excel as a TEAM; have clear GOALS defined that can be easily explained to customers in less than 10 minutes that RESONATE; decide what is important in the market place TODAY – what clients need to solve their problems TODAY and what their problems
   ARE; make a decision that you will or will NOT be willing to invest in the TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE to offer your clients; hire managers that have "PERSONAL INNER POWER" and believe in themselves and KNOW how to get the best out of people an know how to identify the "PERSONAL POWER" in others; finally, hire people that like the business, are passionate about what we are trying to accomplish and ARE WILLING TO again "DO WHATEVER IT TAKES."
2. It's very frustrating for me to see a vendor wear down and drop the ball instead
   of riding out the wave with me until the case is put to bed. PLEASE hire
   GOOD TALENT that's willing to work any hours of the day since large law firms
   have 24hr needs (especially here in New York City). First thing I would do if I
   ran a vendor shop is to replace all of my "9-5 minded" employees with true
   soldiers;
3. In complete disagreement with the items 1 and 2 above: highly skilled people are hard to find; when you find them they often have professional development
   activities and/or a family that's just as important as 24 hr on-call; if you have employees who are married to your firm they will have a hard time keeping up with latest trends and tend to "burn-out" quicker because they're always "processing" and never see the light of day; if the vendor is lucky to find some person with no life that's willing to work at its beacon call, the salary they want for that far out weighs the benefits of hiring them to begin with; with great leadership, communication and team work these obstacles can be avoided to begin with – and then no one ever needs to bear the weight of a project(s) on his shoulders alone and everyone can have a life and a great professional career;
4. In disagreement with the item 3 above, remember that "I'm sorry your Honor, but my vendor has a life" doesn't go over very well when explaining why deadlines were missed. Any vendor who can't support a 24/7 solution is probably in the wrong business. You will always have the 2:00 am request that is needed by 7:00 am and the vendors who can support this will always win out in the end;
   
5. If the vendor can't meet a deadline, tell the law firm upfront. There may be a court order in place subjecting the firm to sanctions, malpractice, etc.;
6. Vendor point of view again: if you want the 24/7 service, you should be ready to pay at the price level required for it.
   

This summary from the Litsupport Group postings created by the wonderful and talented members of the group has been culled by Mark Kerzner (mkerzner@top8.biz) and edited by Aline Bernstein (aline.bernstein@gmail.com).