Caselawg: Bringing SharePoint to Legal Project Management

SharePoint is a powerful yet easy to use team collaboration platform. It is very useful to e-discovery project managers,^[1]  but it does have a number of out-of-the-box limitations that more demanding users will quickly butt their heads against in frustration. Such users may want to consider Caselawg by Legal Science. Caselawg is a "software and process methodology [for] electronic discovery departments."^[2]

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with the Caselawg team who led me through a demonstration of their product. They agreed to answer some question by e-mail that I could share with readers of this blog. 

Tell me a bit about the history of Legal Science? What was the genesis of the idea for your CaseLawg product?

Caselawg was first conceived and designed in 1993 for an employment law firm in New Jersey as a case management application. The genesis of the idea was to use database technology to permit attorneys and staff members to better document case details. Early on, we focused on best practices for tracking and sharing attorney knowledge gleaned from attorney notes (meetings, interviews, file reviews, phone calls etc.)

Later, we integrated our knowledge management experience (notes tracking) with project management theories to create a comprehensive project management solution. Today, Caselawg is a proven process improvement / project management solution ideally suited for the challenges and opportunities presented by electronic discovery. We continue to be significantly motivated to help lawyers define or otherwise document the value they provide (ROI for clients).

What is the primary use of CaseLawg, what are its "killer features"?

Today, the primary use of Caselawg is the tracking, reporting, and management of electronic evidence discovery. Broadly speaking, our killer feature is an integrated process improvement methodology that permits users to measure, among many items, internal versus external costs. Caselawg permits departments to identify and measure effective utilization of resources including staff, vendors, software, and methods. For example, is it cost-effective to process one gigabyte of data in-house? How about 10 gigabytes, 100 gigabytes? In sum, our killer features are: 

1. proven litigation support methodology for handling electronic evidence;
2. built in quality control and assurances; 
3. seamless integration with Outlook, MS Excel and MS Access; 
4. our menu driven, end-user customization driving continual process improvement.

Is CaseLawg targeted primarily at law firms or corporate legal departments?

Presently Caselawg is primarily used by law firms although we have had notable success with legal departments and providers of electronic discovery.

How many law firms / corporations are currently using Caselawg? Can you list some of your referenceable clients?

There are dozens of law firms, corporate in-house departments using Caselawg. References can be provided upon request.

Who in a law firm are the primary end users of Caselawg?

The primary end users are litigation/practice support members. Recent installs have included lawyers and paralegals as primary contributors.

Why don't traditional project management applications, such as Microsoft Project, and traditional case-management applications, such as TimeMatters and Prolaw, meet the project-management needs of litigation support?

There are two overarching lessons we've learned that support our success. First, a project management solution for the legal market must be flexible. Not all matters need to be documented with the same specificity. Second, technology is not as important as the process. Caselawg integrates our proven methodology with the needs of an individual group ordepartment.

With Caselawg, unlike other options, you have an electronic discovery project management application and methodology that is:

1. flexible enough to permit the litigation support professional to document his or her project as necessary and
   
   
2. structured enough to measure and track results.

Why did you develop your tool on SharePoint? What advantages does SharePoint provide?

Developing Caselawg on SharePoint has been a tremendous benefit. First, SharePoint is a great platform for providing continual process improvement. Because much of SharePoint is end-user driven, we permit legal support professionals (who are many times very technical) to continually improve Caselawg. This flexibility permits the user to learn from each project and integrate new experiences back into the process. Second, we do not have to recreate or otherwise develop the integration with all that is Microsoft, such as Outlook, Excel, and Access.

In summary, with SharePoint you have:

1. sate-of-the-art collaboration functionality;
   
   
2. lots of plumbing out of the box such as user interface framework, Windows Services, SQL Databases, Persistence Layers, CRUD UI screens, Security, Workflow engines, File Upload, Deployment Framework etc.; all this is there at your disposal with a few lines of code or clicks in the User Interface, which saves a significant amount of time up front;
   
   
3. unlimited growth using .NET Framework;
   
   
4. a platform that is becoming more and more common across IT infrastructure; 
   
   
5. a platform that allows you to build solutions and not have to focus on things such as: scalability, disaster recovery, performance, interface design frameworks, security and deployment;
   
   
6. a platform that is evolving--Microsoft continues to enhance significant features with version upgrades; and
   
   
7. a very robust platform--with dozens of installs over three years we have had zero support calls.

Is a certain level of project management maturity necessary for firms to get the most out of your product?

No, we have seen success from both ends of the spectrum. The most predictive factor is the degree to which an internal member takes ownership of the implementation.

Do you provide project management consulting and training services so that clients can get the most out of your tool?

Absolutely, as lawyers and litigation support professionals, much of our team enjoys the coaching and evangelizing as much as they enjoy software development. The opportunity to improve the legal operations of some of the most prestigious firms and companies in the country is very rewarding.

What is the biggest barrier to the implementation of project management systems that you encounter in law firms and legal departments?

The largest barrier to a successful or pain-free implementation is trying to do too much too quickly. Our best results are generally found when we incrementally improve a department's process.

What would your ideal customer look like? Who would most benefit from your product?

While we have seen good results from a broad spectrum, a pattern we continue to see are new or relatively new department managers looking to make a strong early impression. Our proven and flexible framework permits any number of objectives to be identified and met, which fits nicely with a new management position.

Who might your product not be ideal for?

Caselawg is very flexible and best used in an environment where all stakeholders are given the broadest opportunity to contribute and to define value for the client. We have had less success in legal environments where a single project manager is looking to micro-manage one or more individuals using a task monitoring tool. We believe placing too much emphasis on task monitoring misses critical opportunities to gain insightful input at all levels. Moreover, Caselawg significantly encourages early adoption because it gives all contributors the opportunity to shine or to look good. In other words, our approach quickly permits users to see that this tool is a benefit to them, not a requirement of them.

Who should readers of this blog contact if they are interested in more information on CaseLawg?

Please contact Harrison Flakker at hflakker@caselawg.com or 866-641-8188.