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innovation

Flexible Staffing

SmartPaTH Plus

When appropriate, we explore and adopt staffing alternatives to control costs. High-profile or complex matters typically require more work by seasoned lawyers than routine document review or other day-to-day components of long-term engagements. We discuss options with our clients to identify the most effective resources for each engagement or matter in the context of their budget, goals and internal capabilities.

THE SMARTPATH PLUS ADVANTAGE

  • Our integrated suite of technologies allows us to systematically assess, prioritize and allocate the legal work required to identify opportunities to manage costs without sacrificing results.
  • Using our proprietary Budget & Work Planning tool, we can model different staffing scenarios and evaluate options in advance, both to prevent duplicate efforts and ensure we always have the right level of attorney assigned to each task.
  • Our document assembly/automation and analytics tools give us enhanced visibility, providing a complete live “status snapshot” of any matter and its workflow, so we can immediately adjust or reallocate staffing assignments if and as necessary.
  • In addition to standardization, SmartPaTH Plus allows us to offer specialization in terms of staff skill and focus. For example, we have a dedicated team focused only on e-discovery, but when it makes sense, we utilize staff attorneys, contract attorneys and/or paralegals to minimize costs for specific tasks or projects.
  • We also can help our client assess and coordinate in-house resources to handle parts of a matter.

We invite you to learn more about our flexible staffing capabilities. Email us at Innovation@ThompsonHine.com.

Thompson Hine. Always Innovating. Always Advancing.

Flexible staffing isn’t appropriate for every matter or engagement; however, we take our responsibility to minimize clients’ legal costs very seriously and make use of this option in the right circumstances.

We staff matters efficiently by finding ways to manage costs without sacrificing results. Our strategies include:

  • Systematically planning the engagement to map out the work required to meet clients’ objectives. Thoroughly defining a matter’s scope is the starting point for determining what resources will be most appropriate. In addition, up-front planning provides an opportunity to disaggregate portions of phases and tasks, and assign lower-cost staff where appropriate.
  • Using our proprietary Budget & Work Planning tool to model staffing scenarios with the most apt combinations of resources and costs. In early planning discussions with clients, we present these scenarios and evaluate the benefits and risks of each to make a joint decision on the best way to achieve clients’ desired results.
  • Properly utilizing staff attorneys and paralegals. Delegating work as appropriate to the lowest-cost timekeeper capable of handling an assignment is an invaluable part of a comprehensive staffing plan. Common tasks such as drafting correspondence and preparing status reports may be appropriately delegated, taking into account the complexity of the matter or the task itself in the context of the particular matter, as well as the individual timekeeper’s experience and ability.
  • Deploying resources in creative, cost-efficient ways. Not every task associated with the delivery of a legal service requires a lawyer. We employ non-lawyers when appropriate for special roles (e.g., construction project managers). We also employ lawyers acting in special capacities and not as lawyers (e.g., litigation management, tax return preparation). And, of course, we engage contract lawyers and temporary legal staffing when needed to handle high-volume tasks such as document production.