Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 10 BEST PRACTICES Using internal administrative resources to support the conflicts clearance process ensures that due diligence is performed while also returning billable hours to attorneys who would otherwise lose them tracking down responses. Transitioning from a decentralized, requesting-attorney-led model of conflicts clearance can be daunting, but busy lawyers faced with ballooning conflicts reports and fewer available hours often welcome assistance even if the firm's risk management personnel are wary. RISKS WITH DECENTRALIZATION In a 2014 Ames & Gough survey of legal malpractice insurers, six of eight insurers ranked conflicts of interest as the leading cause of malpractice claims. Firms have been forced to become more attuned to conflicts of interest as lateral attorney movement continues to increase, and as large corporations and financial services companies spread their legal work. The diversity of ethical, business and subject- area or technology conflicts and corporate affiliations has only made the clearance process more complex. Monitoring compliance with standards is next to impossible in a decentralized model. Law firms must hope that all attorneys will adhere to their ethical and legal duties regarding conflicts. Enforcing compliance with accepted standards and ensuring that complex issues are properly escalated is more easily achieved when there is a dedicated administrative staff following prescribed professional guidelines and reporting to the same manager or director. THE TWO-TIERED MODEL Large law firms employing administrative conflicts clearance typically utilize a two- tiered model: • Analysts who are not responsible for facilitating resolution or clearing potential conflicts perform the initial preparation, formatting and running of conflicts searches. • A handoff is made, when necessary, to a conflicts clearance resource for evaluation of potential conflicts. Working with the requesting lawyer, the firm's lawyer or both, this resource employs multiple strategies to clear the potential conflicts of interest. Administrative conflicts resources offer a clear advantage to direct lawyer communication from the perspective of avoiding bias. An administrative resource can usually research potential conflicts of interest without unintentionally contaminating any of the interested lawyers or divulging client confidences. About the Author Eric Mosca, CRM is the Director of Operations at InOutsource. He assists law firm clients in every aspect of records management and new business intake. Eric's is frequently invited to write and speak about the technology and processes related to client intake workflow, conflicts and information governance. Contact him at emosca@inoutsource.com. Centralize Your Conflicts of Interest Your firm's attorneys are often kept from starting work with a new client because of dozens of pages of potential conflicts. Many law firms send that huge report to the requesting attorney and hope for the best, but there is a better way.

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