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summits
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25-27 March 2010
Doral Golf Resort & Spa, Miami, FL , USA |
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Blaine D. Edwards Interview
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Case Closed Slashing Costs in the Litigation Process
Every minute lost costs money, and so settling disputes even just a few months sooner translates to substantial savings for Chief Litigation Officers. With tight budgets across industries as organizations recover from the crisis, the necessity has become to handle cases more efficiently and within a shorter timeframe. Blaine D. Edwards, Associate General Counsel, Litigation at BJ Services Company, the Chairman at the marcus evans Chief Litigation Officer Summit Spring 2010, taking place in Miami, Florida, March 25-27, shares his outlook for the year, long-term strategies for litigation counselors and how conflict can be avoided altogether. How can alternative dispute resolution methods be used to settle disputes most effectively? Blaine D. Edwards: The most effective means of alternative dispute resolution is an early assessment of the case, the strengths, weaknesses and evidence that support the case, followed up by early mediation or settlement discussions. It is our customary practice to try to identify cases within 30 or 60 days after filing or notice of suit, and to proceed to mediation or settlement discussions, within 60 or 90 days after that, if humanly possible. In business cases, we are able to do that fairly easily as almost everyone already has the information necessary to evaluate their decisions. It takes a little longer with personal injury cases, as medical records need to be collected to assess some of the other damages. In my mind, early mediation is the absolute most cost effective means of alternative dispute resolution, at least within the US. How can conflict and litigation be avoided altogether? Blaine D. Edwards: By prior planning; calling your lawyer before there is a problem. That is the best way to avoid problems. If companies are moving into issues that are new or that they are unsure of, they need to speak to their lawyer early or at least know what risks they are facing before going into a particular situation. Another method for avoiding litigation is to learn from your mistakes. After a case ends, assess what went wrong, why the litigation arose, and what you can do avoid the problem in the future. Then, go out and fix the problem at the operational or local level – change procedures, train employees, devise policies, modify contracts, re-engineer products, and so on. What Cost Control Management strategies would you advise to Chief Litigation Officers? Blaine D. Edwards: The best Cost Control Management advice I could give, is to decrease the lifespan of your cases. If it takes you 18 months to close a case either through settlement or trial, the most effective way of reducing expenses is by addressing it early and cutting it down to nine months. The longer they take, the more money they end up costing everyone. What are some of the upcoming opportunities, trends and technologies? Blaine D. Edwards: Some of the new methods I have seen lately have been the sophisticated metrics set up by larger companies to track cases, evaluate expenditures, and determine how the case is doing. You need to be able to evaluate your cases to some extent, and some companies seem to be doing a very good job of coming up with metrics for performance measurement. Some new early case assessment programs show a lot of promise, as they save companies a lot of money. More and more of the larger companies are going to adopt them, and then some of the smaller ones. A problem for in-house counsel is that they have way too much to do, and not enough time or people. They are so busy just trying to handle their job that they do not have time to sit down, think, and come up with and implement ways of working smarter or more efficiently. Most Chief Litigation Officers I know are either on the road, in meetings, in court or mediations. They need something to help them handle their workload, and frankly I have yet to see a solid early case assessment product that can help them do that. I have seen one that is geared towards handling cases in the discovery phase, but by that stage, you are already losing money. You will have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars which you may very well have been able to forgo if you had assessed your case earlier. What is your outlook for 2010, and how can litigation attorneys get ready for future changes? Blaine D. Edwards: One of the biggest changes I see coming is the expansion of the federal e-Discovery rules and procedures to state court cases. We are going to see an explosion of people fighting us over e-Discovery in state cases, which we have not had in the past. So far, we have been able to use emails as evidence in state court cases, and it has not been as expensive, problematic or time consuming as e-Discovery in the federal cases. Everything is going to become more expensive – I look at cases now and actually ask myself whether I really want to go to federal court. What long-term litigation strategies would you advise to Chief Litigation Officers? Blaine D. Edwards: The best advice I can give, especially to someone in a new position is to come up with a way to analyze past cases. Most litigation counselors who have been in their position long enough understand their historical cases and the outcomes for those cases. New litigation officers should figure out what was done in past cases, come up with a plan to handle the new ones, plan how to assess new cases and get rid of them as quickly as possible. The best way for us to serve our clients as Chief Litigation Officers is to close files by settling cases with clear liability against the company or fighting cases with little or no liability through aggressive motion practices. I would challenge people in this position to take time, and devise a plan to shorten the lifespan of their cases. Take a day a month, get away from everything, including your emails and telephone. Information overload is probably the biggest problem we have in this business – there are just too many emails and phone calls that you spend your whole time answering, and not trying to move the ball forward for various cases. Take that time once a month and review your cases to determine what you want done on that case and when you want it done. In-house counsel then need to tell their law firms what they want, making certain that they get the lawyers who will do what they want done or will tell them if their plan is not a good idea. No outside lawyer knows your company, your industry or your people as well as in-house counsel does. Take the lead on your cases.
Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian
This unique forum will take place at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, Miami, Florida, March 25-27, 2010. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on litigation hold orders, e-Discovery best practices and managing outside counsel. Please note that the summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-on-one business meetings. For more information, please visit www.marcusevans.com All rights reserved. The above content may be republished or reproduced – kindly inform us by sending an email to press@marcusevanscy.com
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