Two cents: Firms take financial sting out of litigation

With companies looking at cutting costs, the legal budget is among expenditures often ending up on the chopping block.

However, budgets are hard to predict should litigation become a factor, and budgetary goals much harder to achieve.

Below, Houston attorneys give their advice on keeping legal costs — especially litigation expenses — in check.

Drew B. Tipton
W. Ray Whitman
Partners, Houston office, Baker and Hostetler LLP

Although clients are clearly looking to minimize costs, including fees and expenses, they are also looking for ways to avoid surprises, such as dramatic fluctuations in their fees and expenses on a month to month basis. While legal fees necessarily fluctuate because of issues beyond your control, there are steps and processes that may be put in place to help mitigate these effects.

In document-intensive cases and transactions, law firms must be creative in mitigating the costs of copying and reproducing documents. One way to accomplish this goal is to enter into global contracts with trusted scanning and electronic discovery houses in order to leverage volume and take advantage of economies of scale. In matters involving an abundance of electronic information, firms and clients are performing much of the forensic analysis internally in order to limit substantial expenses paid to third-party vendors.

Client “web portals” are also a cost-effective way to provide savings and efficiency. Generally speaking, a portal is a secure Web site that the client and legal team may access in order to review anything that has been uploaded. This substantially reduces the amount of copies needed of documents and makes them available at the user’s discretion. The portal is also an efficient way for everyone to remain up-to-date on the case without a multitude of phone calls, e-mails and/or status reports.

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Source: houston.bizjournals.com
By: Houston Business Journal