Innovation in the Delivery of Legal Services
With the demands on today’s law firms to work more efficiently and cost effectively, Knowledge Management (KM) at Littler represents the firm’s effort to connect our attorneys and clients to the collective knowledge and insights of our more than 900 attorneys, and to provide our attorneys with the tools, services, products and support necessary to consistently deliver the highest quality client services across practice areas and geography. KM leverages our collective experience in handling the most complicated, as well as the most common, employment and labor issues, enhances access to our vast library of outstanding work product and employs creative technologies to distribute legal information and deliver legal services to our clients.
Littler’s KM Department is made up of experienced employment attorneys, dedicated technologists, legal researchers and content administrators, dedicated to enhancing client access to the firm's considerable knowledge, expertise and resources. Through KM’s research support services, technologies and applications, we have developed innovative ways of delivering legal services to our clients.
Littler CaseSmart®
Littler’s latest innovation in delivering legal services to our clients is Littler CaseSmart®, a case management solution that combines a Littler-developed proprietary technology platform, with rigorous quality assurance measures that control how we structure and deploy our client service team to cost effectively achieve optimal results. Currently deployed to handle administrative agency charges, the Littler CaseSmart approach is based on our detailed analysis of the “life-cycle” of a charge and how responsibilities for processing charges are distributed. From that analysis, we identified efficiencies gained from business process re-engineering, and developed a methodology that optimizes Littler’s vast experience and employment law knowledge with Littler’s nationwide scope.
The Littler CaseSmart approach integrates a sophisticated technology platform with a creative combination of traditional and innovative legal representation resources, enhancing the Firm’s level of efficiency, while providing clients with a real-time view of key data and critical metrics regarding the administrative charges being handled. In particular, Littler CaseSmart allows clients’ in-house counsel and management to review data and statistical reports based on a variety of metrics through a custom client dashboard, including reports related to individual types of charges, any grouping of charges (e.g. by Division, Region, District or Facility), or all charges filed against a client as of a certain date. Together, clients and Littler can use these reports to analyze data and trends and develop proactive solutions to assess and manage employment related risk.
Another key component of our ability to deliver the Littler CaseSmart service efficiently, while meeting our client’s expectations for quality work at a predictable fixed-fee, is the development of a cadre of attorneys dedicated to performing this specific type of work. Our FlexTime Attorney position benefits both our clients and a growing number of our attorneys who are interested in an alternative career path. The FlexTime Attorney position has been designed for attorneys wishing to exercise greater control over their work-life balance, while still performing valuable and interesting work for clients.
In the near future, Littler will deploy the Littler CaseSmart approach to additional legal services including single-plaintiff litigation, class and collective actions and arbitrations. Littler CaseSmart is the winner of the International Legal Technology Association’s Distinguished Peer Award as the 2011 Project of the Year.
Smart Search
SmartSearch allows Littler’s attorneys and staff to locate work product, internal subject matter expertise, and client and matter information in a single, easy-to-use system. Combining Google-like simplicity with advanced filtering capabilities, SmartSearch was designed to help our attorneys find relevant precedents, identify the firm’s know-how and review client and matter profiles quickly and easily – all with the goal of providing efficient and quality service to our clients.
Litigation Resource Center
The online Litigation Resource Center was designed by the KM Department to provide timely and easily accessible resources for attorneys working on single-plaintiff employment, benefits, and wage and hour litigation. By dividing up the litigation process into eight phases, from initial case investigation to post-trial, the site provides an easily navigable road map for attorneys to follow to better serve the needs of our clients in litigation matters. The Center is designed to be an all-inclusive portal for litigators, paralegals, and litigation secretaries to permit them to find sample documents and resources quickly and efficiently. This tool provides our attorneys with the tools necessary to provide exceptional and effective client representation.
Keeping Clients Informed
In today’s ever-changing legal landscape, clients need to know about new laws, regulations and court decisions that could affect their day-to-day operations and long-term strategic objectives. In addition to our award winning publications, Littler’s KM Department provides subscription services and extranets to keep our clients up to date on emerging issues in labor and employment law and can provide 24/7 access to client matter information via extranets.
Littler GPS® - Tracking Labor & Employment Law Nationwide
Littler GPS® offers client subscribers online access to a wealth of information concerning federal and state labor and employment law. Users can review legislative and regulatory developments, and read concise, substantive analyses by Littler attorneys concerning how employers will be impacted by these laws and what compliance actions can be taken. Littler GPS® also contains a comprehensive library of nationwide (federal, state, D.C.) surveys which cover a range of topics that are relevant to employers of all sizes, e.g., background checks, discrimination & harassment, wage & hour.
Extranets
Littler can provide clients with password protected extranets that are hosted on a secure server to facilitate a client’s ability to monitor the progress of ongoing projects. Using a secure password, clients can: (1) track case calendars, deadlines and action items – including alerts and pushing calendar items into Outlook calendars, if desired; (2) retrieve status reports and updates; (3) access contact lists and information about their client team members; (4) access an online library of existing legal research, documents and content developed specifically for or provided by the client; (5) review newsletters, legal bulletins, opinions and other publications written by Littler’s attorneys; and (6) access Littler’s online subscription services.
Online Publications
The most effective way the KM Department communicates with clients about ground-breaking changes in labor and employment laws is through the Littler Blogs and our ASAP and Insight newsletters. These online and print publications cover the latest developments and trends in labor and employment law. To provide the fullest and best coverage of issues, Littler ASAPs and Insights cover developments across all regions of the U.S. (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Pacific Northwest and West) and internationally, particularly in Mexico and Venezuela. In addition to geographic depth, Littler ASAPs and Insight newsletters cover issues specific to various industries and areas of practice.
The Littler Blogs are always available online. These 11 highly focused updates are particular to the following subjects: the digital workplace (Digital Workplace Blog);E-discovery (e-Discovery Case Law Update); Employee benefits (Employee Benefits Counsel); International employment law (Global Employment Law); Immigration (Global Mobility & Immigration Counsel); Issues impacting healthcare industry employers (Healthcare Employment Counsel); Labor-management relations (Labor Relations Counsel); Unfair competition and trade secrets (Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Counsel); Wage and hour (Wage and Hour Counsel); Federal labor and employment legislative & regulatory developments (Washington DC Employment Law Update); Privacy and data protection (Workplace Privacy Counsel). Clients can subscribe to these via RSS/XML feeds.
Littler Publications
Littler’s KM group oversees the writing and editing of numerous books, including:
- National Employer® Books, an annual 3,000-page compendium of employment and labor law with 11 state and regional supplements covering the laws of 31 states
- Littler Mendelson on Employment Law and Class Actions, a comprehensive treatise that covers all aspects of employment law class actions
- Littler Mendelson Guide to International Employment and Labor Law is a country-by-country analysis of employment and labor laws in 31 countries and the EU
For a complete list of Littler Publications, click here.
