| contact |

Consulting services

General and case-specific consulting

Magellan's Law Corporation provides consulting services in specific litigation, as well as general consulting services to assist litigation practice groups. Most of our consulting services fall into one of three categories:

Litigation Practice Analysis

Most firms can make their litigation practices more efficient, especially when it comes to managing discovery materials, establishing processes, and effectively using technology. Magellan's Law Corporation takes a look at your litigation practice -- the cases, workload, organizational structure, methodologies, culture, technology -- the whole picture. We then work with the practice group to identify opportunities for improvement and make specific recommendations, tailored to the practice.

Our analysis uses a defined process, beginning with information collection via questionnaires and interviews, proceeding through tentative recommendations and discussion, and concluding with a set of final implementation recommendations.

The process is intense -- we typically conduct the entire analysis within a six-week period -- and gives the practice group an expert outsider's view of what steps can be taken to make the practice more effective.

In the past, our clients have told us that some of our recommendations confirmed their own suspicions (but required an outsider with concrete evidence to make the case) and that some of our recommendations identified previously undetected issues that were clear when pointed out.

Our practice analysis can be applied to the entire litigation department or to one or more sub-groups within the department.

Large Case Planning and Management

A large case needs good planning up front to take maximum strategic and tactical advantage of discovery information -- and to ensure that the collection, analysis, and management of that information is cost-effective.

Magellan's Law Corporation can assist with that process.

We've got decades of experience running massive information management projects for the Fortune 50, projects involving millions of documents and hundreds of millions of dollars. Projects that ran for years and projects that had to be completed in ninety days. We can put that experience to work for you.

In this package, we'll come in up front and work with your team to define an information plan for the case -- tasks, processes, schedules, budgets, organizational structures. If you like, we'll stay on and project manage that plan, or if you prefer, we'll turn it over to you and be available for advice as you proceed.

Solving Special Information Management Problems

You've heard the saying: "If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." We see the same thing in litigation information systems -- the same software and the same techniques applied to all information, regardless of the needs in the case and regardless of the nature of the information.

That can be a good thing, if it's the other side carrying the hammer, and you're applying a more sophistated tool box.

Over the years, we've designed specialized information systems that gave our clients significant advantages in their litigation. Some of the things we've done:

For a top U.S. corporation, we designed and built a huge database of summarized sales records for the past decade and then worked with lawyers and experts to slice that database in hundreds of different ways in order to determine possible exposure in a huge class action matter. We were called in when the corporation's own staff said the task couldn't be accomplished within the litigation's timeframes.
For a top international corporation, we designed and built a huge database that tracked and analyzed several years of paper-based transportation records that enabled us to draw very specific lines around operations that would be included in damage calculations. The opposition -- working from the same paper data but creating a less sophisticated database -- reached deeply flawed conclusions that put them at a significant disadvantage in settlement discussions.
In a major toxic exposure case, we designed form interrogatories to thousands of plaintiffs that enabled us to build a combined database of medical records, interrogatory responses, and deposition content. Our client used that database to quickly develop profiles of the weakest and strongest plaintiffs.
In another major toxic exposure case, we built a plaintiff information management system to track tens of thousands of plaintiffs -- from receipt of their complaints, through interrogatories, medical records, and depositions, to settlement or trial. The system was designed to identify claims that could be quickly settled versus those that needed special handling. In that particular case, we also established processes, hired and trained the staff, and managed the operation until the client was ready to bring it in-house.

We can work with you to define information systems that give you a strategic advantage over your opponents. In some litigation, it's not enough that you have an information retrieval system, sometimes you need an information analysis system. We know how to do both.