Message From the Executive Committee

As I believe everyone knows, our firm was founded to serve the litigation needs of the insurance industry. As we have evolved, we have expanded our litigation capacities in many ways. We now not only serve the litigation needs of the insurance industry, but also the litigation needs of self-insured companies as well as individuals and companies who have been accused of white collar crimes. We are also providing more counseling to our clients in areas such as employment relations, HIPAA and HITECH readiness and data breach response, just to name a few. Yet, the core principles of litigation management which we have developed in response to the needs of our insurance clients have served as the foundation upon which the service given our clients has emanated.

The members of our firm have been active participants in many professional associations whose mission is the advancement of litigation management services. One of those organizations of recent origin is the Council on Litigation Management. This organization represents itself as "a non-partisan alliance of corporations, insurance companies, law firms and service providers committed to furthering the highest standards of litigation management." Contained within the CLM's maiden issue of its magazine, Litigation Management, was an article entitled "What is Litigation Management." What struck me as I re-read this article was its first sentence. It read, "While litigation management has been around for years, the concepts are relatively unknown to those who do not actively manage litigation." The reason why this made such an impression upon me was that, in our firm, litigation management has been practiced and preached from the first day I joined the firm almost 35 years ago.

Our firm has developed file handling guidelines to supplement our clients' guidelines to ensure that best practices are used to manage our clients' litigation. We have put in place diary systems to ensure that litigation management services are rendered on a timely basis. We train our attorneys in their orientation programs from the day they join the firm about the need to manage our clients' litigation and the importance of doing this in every step in the process. We offer countless classes in continuing legal education designed to elevate the litigation management services which our attorneys provide to our clients. We have a tickler system in place on all cases in which a budget exists to make certain our attorneys are mindful of the expenses incurred on their files and that their services are within the parameters of the budget. We are constantly developing data that helps us gauge the level of success we are achieving in the provision of litigation management services to our clients. For over 20 years, we have had a program designed to audit the work of our attorneys to ensure that the highest level of litigation management is achieved.

In short, our firm is committed to defining and implementing litigation management services designed to provide our clients with the most effective and cost-efficient services that they could possibly need. We are not naïve enough to believe that our litigation management services always ensure perfection. However, I want to assure you that in our firm, the concept of litigation management is not unknown to us. To the contrary, we live it every day. And, we are constantly seeking ways to elevate our litigation management services. Thus, I welcome you to contact me or my fellow members of the Executive Committee with any suggestions you might have to improve the litigation management services we provide to you.

*Pete Miller can be reached at 215.575.2610 or psmiller@mdwcg.com.

Defense Digest, Vol. 17, No. 3, September 2011