Peer to Peer Magazine

WWW.ILTANET.ORG 13 The Heavy Lifting of Conflicts Clearance There's some heavy lifting involved with clearing potential conflicts of interest. Consider the attention to detail, meticulous documentation and data analysis skills required to efficiently and accurately analyze a large volume of potential conflicts in the following steps: Remove False Positives: The conflict search might turn up results not matching the parties in question. This could require additional research and communication with firm lawyers managing the existing client relationship. Remove Benign Results: Many firms choose not to report valid results that do not represent ethical or business conflicts. For instance, a conflict search for a long-term client's newest matter need not include the 20 previous matters worked for the client. Obtain Additional Detail: Searches for larger and longer-established firms will typically include incomplete or vague data. For instance, a billing lawyer might need to be contacted to determine the true relationship of parties listed as "other." Research Corporate Affiliates: Whether as part of thorough research or in response to dictums in a client's outside counsel guidelines, research on corporate affiliates and competitors is becoming the norm. Review Previous Clearance: Existing conflicts analyst notes, warnings and clearance summaries can be a treasure trove of information. When the conflicts issue cleared for lawyer A on Monday arises for lawyer B on Wednesday, the information is ready. Address Practice-Specific and Business Conflicts: Firms can turn to practice or technical experts to evaluate potential conflicts. New clients, for instance, might require committee review from a business conflict perspective, and intellectual property matters could require a technical review. Pursue Clearance: This is where the actual clearance work begins. It might involve: • Highlighting direct adversity • Determining whether a past engagement and the proposed matter are substantially related • Researching whether an existing client is a current or former client • Reviewing advance waiver conditions on file for an existing client • Determining the lawyer's willingness to contact the existing client to request a conflicts waiver and managing this process through to completion • Drafting proposed conflicts waivers Document Clearance: All of this activity should be memorialized in the firm's databases as evidence of the steps taken and to aid future conflicts of interest research. As George Santayana put it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." AUG 30 – SEPT 3, 2015 CAESARS PALACE, LAS VEGAS • Can't miss Monday morning Keynote: Sir Ken Robinson, the most-watched TED speaker of all time • Problem-solving Workshops, Eventpad sessions, Storyboarding, • Experts from your law firm and law department peers, vendors and consultants, judges, professors, IBM Watson & ROSS Intelligence • Hot topics like Security, Futuretech, Business and Legal Process Improvement, Information Governance LEARN MORE AT WWW.ILTACON.ORG

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