Location

Three words. Location, Location & Location

So you found out it’s time to set up another (or maybe your first) war room. Now your team will have to have to figure out where you are going to work for the duration of the trial. Maybe you have to figure that out by yourself, or possibly another person will be deciding along with you. Another possibility is that someone else simply says, “location X is where we are going to set up the war room, now make it happen.”

There are different ideas about where that work space should be. Over the last few years, most of the attorneys I’ve worked with have said they want the war room to be in the Hotel they’re staying in. There is a certain comfort factor with being able to work and also have your living quarters in close proximity. There can be some technical advantages as well which I can talk about in another post on the subject of working with Hotels. Another positive aspect to working in the Hotel is it eliminates having to travel back and forth to the war room. The team will already be traveling to the Court, unless it’s magically across the street from your Hotel.

I certainly have built war rooms in empty office space before. There is nothing wrong with doing so, and it could be a better option for your team, depending on the circumstances. I can think of a few instances where the office space we were able to rent and build out was within easy walking distance to the Court. That can certainly have its advantages.

Figuring out where you are going to make it all happen can sometimes take creativity. Actually, the whole process of building workspace and where you are going to put people and copiers and tables to eat at (and I could go on and on) takes some creativity. If you are planning for a trial in a place you’ve never been to, you are basically blazing a new trail. On the other hand, if this trial is in a city where you’ve had trials before then you probably don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

So many other things are going to come into play based on this important choice, so just do the best you can within the parameters you have to work with. Once you’ve made an agreement you can get to work on the next phase. You might have to get utilities turned on, contract to have temporary internet access, figure out parking, catering, etc.

I’ll write about some tales from the trenches soon on the subject of obtaining internet access. That will probably be a long post…..