War Room Advocate

I used to work for a network security provider, so maybe I think about security a little more than some people. I believe that it is so important to ensure that access to the war room is controlled as much as possible. I know that trial teams can’t have a security guard standing at the door all the time checking identification, but the team needs to be aware of keeping the space secure. From a physical security standpoint, it means that the last person to leave the workspace needs to pull the door closed and test it to make sure that it doesn’t open with a hard pull. Sometimes there will be a lot of people if you’re in a hotel, and their curiosity will get the best of them. It can look like a parade of people walking by and looking in to see what’s going on in there. It is really an interesting thing to the hotel guests to look at what they think of as a conference room and see a fully functioning war room. It’s like a train wreck that they can’t look away from. There is...

Over the years, I’ve done so many trials. I would like to say I’ve done hundreds because sometimes it feels like it, but that wouldn’t be true! I’ll guess that I have supported some 50 to 70 trials in one capacity or another over the last several years. Of course those trials run the gamut from settling or being continued, to going the full length in court. With the trials that get settled, or even continued, the whole war room space still gets planned out and built. You have to build it because you can’t count on anything other than the fact that you have a court date and must plan to be ready to go. I can post about the prospect of “pencils down” in a subsequent post. What I’m writing about in this post are some quick thoughts about war rooms in general and what they turn out to be in real life. There seems to be a prevalent feeling with those that don’t go to trial that it is a vacation. People see that you leave the office and travel to (sometimes) interesting locals. Their thi...

Firms that go to trial frequently know that there are a lot of puzzle pieces that come together to be successful at a trial. Obviously, the lawyers doing the lawyering are the most important part! Beyond that, there are a lot of other parts that have to come together to make everything go as well as possible. Staff – many firms have various staff members that they bring along and they are all important. Paralegals clearly have a critical role in organizing everything and ensuring that the trial team is prepared for their court date. Assistants (secretarial) can be the right-hand of attorneys and/or paralegals and also provide a very valuable service. Some firms bring IT and Office Services personnel along as well to help with all of the things that come up. Graphics – there are firms that have “in-house” graphics people and many that use consultants for this type of work. Many graphics people are proficient with programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, animation software an...