Benefits of a Standardized Process for Conflict Checks

I have been reading a book by Sandra J. Roberts called "Creating Conflicts of Interest Procedures for Protecting You and Your Firm from Malpractice", and have found it aligned with what I already knew; while providing additional detail and ideas for our Conflicts Analysis Standardization Effort (C.A.S.E.).

Have a look at a part of the Foreward:

"The objective for an effective conflicts of interest department is to create one that processes client names and associated party information accurately, efficiently and rapidly with minimal time taken away from the attorney's legal representations and valuable billable hours. Developing these effective conflicts of interest procedures has many benefits. Not only can effective procedures enable attorneys to reduce their risk, but it may help lower their professional liability insurance premiums. In order to do that, the process does not need to be cumbersome. It can be completed quickly with the right procedures in place regardless of the size of the firm. These procedures include implementation of the following actions:

• Entering accurate information into a conflicts database.
• Searching party information properly through the conflicts database and other research database resources.
• Reviewing the results to eliminate extraneous information.
• Clearing and approving the applicable results.
• Setting up further procedures to manage potential conflicts of interest issues."

While this is a very simplified 30,000 foot view of conflicts, I think it speaks to the Conflicts Standard that we're looking to develop at RION Corp. under the C.A.S.E.

To that end, we should have in mind the possible benefits of setting up and implementing the standard:

• Reduced Firm & Attorney Risk
• Reduced Insurance Premiums
• Increased Confidence in Accepting Business
• Creation of Competency Standards
• Increased Analyst Confidence = Additional Speed
• Best Practice Always Used
• Heightened Efficiency in Conflicts and Business Intake
• Increased Potential for Profitability

How does your malpractice policy affect your CoI program or vice versa?  Please share in the comments section below.

Cori Blackburn
RION Corp.
224-277-3855
cori.blackburn@rioncorp.com

Conflicts-Centric Highlights from ILTA's 2014 Tech Survey!

In looking at ILTA's 2014 Technology Survey, we noticed some statistics that might be important to conflicts professionals. Note that the respondents to this survey are on the IT side of the house; but because acting as the liaison between IT and legal is part of the job, these results may be interesting to you:

·      A surprising number of firms reported that they do not use any software for conflict-of-interest management (citing the following responses: it is not applicable, we do not track it, or we do it manually). Note that responses from three firms with >700 attorneys are not available.

·      Firms are facing an increasingly competitive market, and leadership is taking note that cutting cost is no longer the most effective measure for increasing profitability – meaning everyone must learn to do more with less. “…the ratio of staff to attorneys continue(s) to fall, which puts pressure on available resources.”

·      A majority of firms with <350 attorneys have no business intake program to speak of.

·      An overwhelming majority of firms with >350 attorneys are MOST concerned with security and risk management. While the IT perspective for risk management is a broad focus, the degree of accuracy and precision related to the processes in conflicts of interest and business intake can contribute to managing risk.

·      Alternatively the overwhelming majority of firms with <350 attorneys are MOST concerned with managing change. This is counterintuitive because most believe the smaller the firm, the more agile and flexible they should be. I think this speaks to the need for centralized IT when a firm reaches a certain size - but it's also encouraging to anyone with ideas related to doing more with less in a larger firm.

The 2014 Technology Survey reports the input of 454 firms representing more than 106,000 attorneys and 217,000 total users.

Here is the link to the report:  http://www.iltanet.org/Downloads/2014-Tech-Survey.pdf

RION Corp. has a survey which is open at this time, and we are looking to include data from the perspective of conflicts analysts. We encourage your participation if your career intersects with this portion of business intake at law firms: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D2H2FZV

And a big thank you from me to anyone who has participated in the survey already!!

Cori Blackburn

Executive VP of Marketing & Sales

RION Corp.

cori.blackburn@rioncorp.com