Get Started

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Next up in my series on topics related to the war room…..getting the ball rolling.

Let me start out by saying that every organization is different. It seems obvious, but different firms are going to have variances in the way they approach trial. For instance, some firms will have their lead paralegal on the matter do the planning as far as where the trial team will be staying, where the work-space will be and booking other things such as Hotel rooms and travel arrangements. Another firm may have an attorney in charge of those types of decisions and yet others may depend on secretaries or legal assistants to do that type of planning. It could be there is a litigation practice group that handles it.

Whatever the case, when you find out that there is a trial coming and you’ll need to start planning a war room, it is very desirable to be brought in on the planning stage as early as possible for a couple of reasons. Nobody likes a surprise when it comes to something like this, and getting things set up takes time and planning. There are a couple of key aspects that will make all the difference in how you go forward.

The primary concerns at this stage are: 
  1. How large is the trial team (you have to plan for internet bandwidth)?
  2. Where exactly will I be setting up the war room (Hotel, empty office space, co-counsel space)?
  3. Who can I contact to start negotiating for getting internet access provided or brought in?

      
A lot of work goes on at this stage in the background that nobody really sees. It’s kind of like the wizard in Oz that’s saying, “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” What everyone else really cares about is that things just work when they get there. Like the man behind the curtain though, you've got a lot to get worked out before people start showing up.

This is business, and there will probably be some negotiating going on. I can get more deeply into the nitty-gritty of the individual details in subsequent posts, but I will give a quick overview here. You’re most likely going to have to travel to the site and inspect to make sure it will meet your needs. You’ll probably be traveling with one of the people mentioned in the first paragraph so you can both agree that it’s a good fit (or the best option you have. Sometimes you have to make due and be creative). Being pleasant and forming a good relationship with the person at the potential space is so important because you most likely will need to have privileged access to the behind-the-scenes stuff later. Same goes with the internet provider.

Just plan ahead, play nice in other people’s sandbox (more on that later too), and make sure that you are doing your best to ensure that your trial team will have what they need with it comes time.


~Leslie

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