Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | T E C H S O L U T I O N S 43 Stage 2 For expediency, subject matter experts must work in parallel. This works best if the review team establishes an editing protocol and dictates that this protocol will be used to document the final terms and conditions. Given the number of simultaneously moving parts — and to provide for long-term editability — edits should be controlled via modifying addenda rather than redlining. Another successful leading practice asks the subject matter experts to create predefined authoritative contractual term proposals — e.g., for records and information management, information security, and data privacy — that can counter terms proposed by clients. Such standards can obviate the need for the coordinator to circulate proposed terms to the SME teams. The term proposals also demonstrate the law firm's expertise, a reassuring standard of care, and service efficiency to the client. Stage 3 Following the SMEs' review, the coordinator summarizes the points of negotiation that need to be addressed. Although this interaction often proves uncomfortable, it's critical that the partner responsible for the client relationship engage with the client directly to ensure the clearest mutual understanding of the contractual commitments. Stage 4 At the conclusion of negotiations, the firm must finalize the engagement terms — often a bundle — and issue them to the client. Today, this responsibility is usually handled by the responsible partner, but — given the number of administrative tasks dependent on the execution of the agreement — Intapp predicts it will become a responsibility of a central coordinator team. Stage 5 Once client commitments are executed, several steps must happen quickly and simultaneously so client work can begin. First, the administrative teams responsible for executing against the agreed commitments must understand those commitments. Second, the firm must update its client-matter management systems — financial management, budgeting, document management, timekeeping, expense tracking, conflicts, records management, ethical walls, and case management | docketing — to ensure the proper, synchronized management of engagement data. Third, the firm must make the terms of the engagement available to the legal team for reference. Follow service level agreements To meet the competitive demands of accepting new business and ensure that appropriate staff are allocated to the tasks, the coordinator team and SMEs should perform against prescribed service level agreements. The model presented above includes five administrative stages. (It almost "The coordinator team and SMEs should perform against prescribed service level agreements."

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