by Tony Klapper Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting I was reading the Washington Post’s Business section on Sunday morning, and a front-page article about Sean Parker caught my eye. Parker, dubbed “Silicon Valley’s Bad-Boy Genius,” co-founded Napster and was the first president of Facebook. He was also played by Justin Timberlake in “The Social Network.” Far from a routine business profile, this article provides several fascinating lessons concerning the importance of creative collaboration. Apparently tired of catering to the entertainment needs of millennials, Parker recently launched the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Although it was notable that Parker invested $250 million to support groundbreaking research into eradicating a disease that kills millions each year, even more important is his model of creating a “sandbox” for scientific research. At press time, six premier medical research institutions—Stanford, Hopkins, MD Anderson, UPenn, UCSF, and UCLA—had signed up to be part of the consortium that Parker is creating to fight cancer. The premise behind the effort is that working together in the sandbox is far more effective than working alone. That truism is not one that is always followed.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting We often work on large cases, and large cases often have joint defense teams. A joint defense team is simply a group of law firms working for a group of clients and/or working on some issues together in a case. Some joint defense teams work together brilliantly. It's like watching the best NFL players come together for the Pro Bowl game when each of them plays as a member of the same team. In a trial, sometimes the whole “dream team” unites to prevail. It's a beautiful thing to watch -- when it works. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work that way very often. In a recent engagement I watched a well-organized team in the run-up to trial perform beautifully. They had sorted out communication, who handled what issues, leadership, client communications, and billing arrangements with no apparent drama. I can contrast that with any number of large cases where the opposite is true. These are unfortunately the majority of joint defense efforts. In these cases, turf battles are common. As much time is spent on politics as is spent on winning the case. I suspect cases have been lost entirely because a joint defense effort has failed.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting
by Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting I have seen some great law firm litigation graphics departments over the past 20 years. The best was at Howrey, which is where A2L's second team member and others came from in the mid-1990s. Back then, Howrey's litigation graphics department was led by an Academy Award-winning artist and producer.
by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting
by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting
Thomas F. Carlucci Partner Foley & Lardner LLP John E. Turlais Senior Counsel Foley & Lardner LLP Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting
by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting It has been said that management is either dead or dying. That is, when defined as the act of telling people what to do, management is needed far less than it used to be.
by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting These are times of economic uncertainty - or are they? I believe that litigation support consultants and lawyers, especially leaders of medium and large law firms, can use a simple economic forecasting tool to better plan staffing and business needs. If you use this tool, you will likely know when business is going to turn up, and when it is going to turn down, well before most of your peers.
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