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The John G. Kelly Editorial Comment:
I’ve just realized that this issue of the Litigation Management Report is all about “walls.” The Waste Management Inc. Case Study provides litigation managers with a strategy for breaking down the wall of resistance that is constructed by in-house professionals and para-professionals as soon as the dreaded “convergence” word is mentioned. Convergence is associated with the development of exhaustive Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Dog and Pony shows. At the end of the day, litigation managers are stuck with a slimmed down panel of outside counsel that they may or may not want to work with. Mike Haysley, Director of Legal Projects at Waste Management, describes how he used e-billing as the lever to induce in-house counsel to embrace a convergence program by foregoing the dreaded label and appealing to their self interest.
The John G. Kelly Report on the ABA/TIPS Staff Counsel Session breaks down the “Chinese Walls” that insurers construct between in-house staff counsel and claims management departments. Ethical codes of conduct in all of the 23 states that permit the use of staff counsel require that claims professionals and staff counsel work independently of one another when representing a common client. One of the unfortunate side effects of this necessary rule is that the claims side of the operation has very little understanding of the issues being confronted by staff counsel. This is your opportunity to take a peek over the Staff Counsel Chinese Wall.
The Ideas article reviews the current best seller World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. This is a book that breaks down many mindset walls and provides readers with insight into how many of what might seem like isolated occurrences are in fact part and parcel of emerging trends. Friedman has a well-earned reputation of being an accurate predictor of the near future. Read it and start understanding how so many things in your professional and personal life are changing at such a rapid speed.
John G. Kelly
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Waste Management Leveraging E-Billing into Convergence
E-billing in its own right is no longer a new force in outside counsel management. However, what is oftentimes not fully appreciated is the leverage it can generate in adding value to an outside counsel management program. Mike Haysley, Director Legal Projects at Waste Management Inc. has leveraged an upgrade in that company’s e-billing system to begin implementation of a convergence program... click here
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G. Kelly Report |
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ABA/TIPS Staff Counsel Meeting
Staff Counsel: so close but yet so far apart! Litigation managers and staff counsel share the same employer, but that is where it ends. Separate offices and separate files with thick “Chinese Walls” ensure that litigation managers and staff counsel are kept apart from one another. However, they do share one overriding goal: cost effective litigation for the insurer. The recent American Bar Association (ABA) Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Spring Session provided litigation managers with some interesting insights on the challenges and opportunities they are facing… click here
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| Ideas |
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The World is Flat
By Thomas L. Friedman
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux
Want to read a big book with big ideas that make imminent sense? Get a copy of The World is Flat. Thomas L. Friedman, the author, achieved considerable fame with his 2000 bestseller, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which proved almost prophetic in predicting the emergence of many of the current business and political tensions between America and the Muslim world. Readers of this book may well also be in an “I told you so” position with their colleagues in the not too distant future in predicting where the technological revolution is headed.... click
here to learn more
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