As temperatures rise, the economy continues to strengthen and hiring confidence continues to increase. We at Special Counsel have been analyzing the legal employment landscape and the overall recruitment and staffing industries to provide you with information that will enable you to more efficiently and productively focus on your core business. This edition of The Special Counsel Column is, once again, replete with recruitment, retention and management recommendations through our experience “in the trenches.” We hope that you find the articles informative as you continue to implement your 2005 staffing plans.

As always, we welcome any suggestions, comments, or questions you would like to share with us so that we may incorporate your thoughts into future editions of the newsletter. Please email us at the following address: column@specialcounsel.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Jodi L. Nadler
Vice President, Special Counsel

MPS Group, Inc., the parent company of Special Counsel, is pleased to announce its recent acquisition of Alderson Reporting, a privately held company that is a leading provider of technology-enabled litigation and conference support services, including national court reporting, video conferencing and video depositions.

Founded in 1938, Alderson revolutionized court reporting when it carried the first stenotype machines used in Washington, D.C. to report U.S. Senate committee hearings. Since that time, Alderson has been on the leading edge of litigation technology and become a mainstay in the halls of the federal government. It was the first company in Washington, D.C. to offer computerized transcripts; the first to deliver magnetic media to the House of Representatives; the first to offer PC-based software programs that attorneys could use with depositions; and the first to archive transcripts and exhibits for remote access by attorneys. Alderson utilizes leading-edge technologies to offer complete video-to-text synchronization and exhibit indexing and linking.

Through the years, Alderson has been asked to cover highly sensitive investigations as well as matters of great public interest. These include the Warren Commission on President Kennedy's Assassination, Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (1986), and the September 11, 2001 Victim’s Compensation Fund. Alderson’s client base includes top law firms from across the United States, Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Whether you are a General Counsel committed to containing outside legal costs or a Managing Partner focused on increasing firm productivity and solidifying client relationships, partnering with a specialized professional staffing firm to fill your staffing needs can make good business sense. Choosing your staffing partner is an important decision since any resultant hiring decisions reflect directly on you and your company/law firm. The responsibility you delegate is large and, occasionally, so is the price of this service you purchase. To make sure you are really getting what you pay for, you should require that your staffing partner perform the following:

1. Thorough Screening Process and Professional Reference Checks.

Candidates submitted for consideration must be personally interviewed by the staffing firm that represents them. A substantive interview should take place during which the information listed on the candidate’s resume is confirmed and vital information is exchanged including reasons why the candidate left prior jobs and why the candidate is currently investigating other employment opportunities. Based on this personal interview, the interviewer should be able to comment on the candidates’ ability to express themselves, their communication style and their overall presentation. These are qualities not listed on a resume but in most cases, are equally as important as fundamental skills and work experience.

You should require that a minimum of two professional references be checked. It is simply not enough to verify dates of employment or eligibility for re-hire. During these reference checks, substantive information must be exchanged. These professional references should be from former supervisors or people who will comment on the quality of the candidate’s work and their interaction with other co-workers and supervisors. The difference between a good placement and an excellent placement is the ability of the candidate to fit into the firm’s/company’s internal culture. Since the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior, professional references are an excellent source of vital information regarding how you can expect a candidate to fit into your organization.

This initial screening process is one tool that your staffing firm uses to determine whether any candidate is appropriate for placement. It is not possible for your staffing partner to make a competent decision regarding whether to present a candidate without completing this background screening process. A good professional staffing firm will gladly explain its process and when possible, customize its process to meet your individual needs.

2. Securing Candidate Permission to Submit Resume and Supporting Materials.

You should expect that any candidate whose resume you review has granted the staffing company with which they work express permission to submit their resume for consideration. A reputable staffing firm invested in ethical business practices will inform their candidate of the specific opportunity, identify the company to which their resume will be submitted, and submit the resume and supporting materials immediately after being granted permission.

Because candidates often register with more than one agency, clients often receive the same resume from different agencies. Many clients respond to this confusion by adhering to the “first in time” rule which rewards the staffing firm that first presents the candidate's resume with credit for the placement should the candidate be hired. This practice makes perfect sense when every staffing firm is pre-clearing submissions and completing a thorough candidate screening process. The sad reality is that this is not always the case.

As a client you have the right to demand that your staffing partner is earning its fee and treating both the candidate and client with respect. It is a dangerous practice to submit a candidate's resume without permission, as an employment search is almost always a confidential process for a candidate. A misstep can be a fatal mistake in a candidate's career. You are hiring a staffing firm not a resume broker. You have a right to expect that your staffing partner is working hard to earn their fee. You have a right get what you pay for.

3. Your Staffing Partner Must Be an Expert.

In order to have access to the most highly qualified candidates, a staffing firm must exhibit both a presence within the legal community and an intimate understanding of the legal profession and the local market conditions. The staffing professionals who make the most successful placements have formalized legal training and practical work experience. When your staffing partner is a member of the very industry they represent, you have greater assurance that your staffing partner genuinely understands and appreciates your internal staffing needs. You will also have greater access to a higher quality candidate pool as the best candidates are most likely to trust and work with those to whom they can relate. You have a right to expect that your staffing partners are legal professionals with strong contacts in the legal community in which they work. Ask for an office biography and learn about the people who you have decided to make your partner.

By no means is this an exhaustive list of your rights. This article is designed to provide a starting point by outlining expectations that make good business sense. The next time you speak with a Special Counsel representative, please ask us about our company policies as they relate to the items outlined above.

Jennifer Grossman, Executive Director
Special Counsel, Troy, MI

Statistics show that the number of lawsuits filed in federal court in the last year remained fairly steady. What changed was the type of lawsuit filed. Products liability cases are on the upswing and now make up nearly ten percent of all federal civil filings. Of those cases, more than 90 percent are related to personal injury. Pharmaceutical and medical device companies now face numerous lawsuits. Given this trend, it is clear that the type of documents being produced has also changed.

Medical Records

When your practice is in products liability, toxic tort, medical malpractice, or personal injury, medical records are vital to your case. And it is essential that you understand what those records say. While you traditionally may have relied on the staff you have on hand to review the records, it may be time to rethink that strategy. A new breed of quasi-legal professional is emerging. They are legal nurses -- and they are taking on work previously reserved for physicians and lawyers and saving everyone involved thousands of dollars, while allowing your legal professionals to focus on the issues of law.

Just as firms welcomed paralegals years ago, they are now welcoming nurses. More and more firms are choosing to hire nurses to manage medical record libraries and report to attorneys on medical record content. Many can also perform traditional paralegal tasks. Using nurses in your practice will not only save you time but also provide you with medical expertise at a very reasonable cost.

Nurses can review the medical records for relevance cutting back the volume of materials you send to your medical experts, thereby saving you time and money. They can create chronologies and summaries that you and your experts can use to navigate through the records. In addition, they are less likely to miss important pieces of information that may be overlooked by those who are not familiar with reviewing medical documents, which avoids costly errors. Your attorneys and paralegals are excellent resources in your practice. But when you have medical records, they are not as proficient at understanding and analyzing the content as professionals who have worked in hospitals and medical departments for years.

The legal nursing profession is flourishing. Certification programs are popping up across the country offering nurses an alternative to traditional medical employment. Many colleges and universities, including some nursing schools, offer paralegal certificates or bachelor’s degrees in paralegal studies; several of these programs have been approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). As you go forward with your decision to use nurses in your practice, you will quickly find there are many options available. Depending on what you prefer to have nurses do, you can decide whether you need a Nurse Paralegal, a Legal Nurse Consultant (LNC), or a Registered Nurse.

Nurse Paralegals

Nurse paralegals are typically nurses who have attended a paralegal training program. Because of their legal training, many nurse paralegals are able to perform traditional paralegal tasks, in addition to reviewing the medical records. These can include cite checking, researching legal issues, interviewing clients, acting as liaisons to medical experts, locating medical experts, preparing for and attending depositions, and drafting interrogatories, requests for productions, and requests for admissions.

Legal Nurse Consultants

Nurses interested in working in the legal community can do so as an LNC. Attendance in LNC certification programs is rapidly growing. LNCs graduate from these programs with the intention of starting their own businesses. Associations including the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC) as well as local organizations have been established to promote the profession. An increasing number of LNC college and university programs are being approved or sanctioned by the ABA.

LNCs do not consider themselves paralegals but use their medical knowledge to assist on cases. The more legal experience they acquire, the more valuable they can become in quickly analyzing a case from not only a medical perspective, but a legal perspective as well. Some LNCs consider themselves experts and will provide deposition testimony or testify in court.

Registered Nurses

Registered nurses (RNs) with several years of clinical experience are excellent candidates for medical record review and may be all you really need. They can decipher physicians’ notes, translate medical abbreviations into plain English, define medical terminology, record prescriptions, and give an overview of what the records say. Most are comfortable providing an initial assessment regarding whether the records reflect an appropriate medical standard of care.

While it is true that there is a nursing shortage in hospitals and doctors’ offices, it is due in large part to nurses leaving the profession. That trend provides the legal community with access to talented nurses interested in a new career, and gives you a new way to control escalating litigation costs.

Patricia Collins, Project Manager
Special Counsel’s Legal Nurse Service

As employers, we all feel the “pain” in our organizations when key employees leave. By better understanding why employees leave and the impact their departures have on your organization, you can better determine what can be done within your company to not only attract the best talent but increase employee loyalty as well. But, how do you keep these important members of your legal team?

Contrary to what most employers believe, employees do not primarily leave for more money. In fact, the key motivation for employee departure is rarely compensation. From our experience in working with transitioning legal professionals, the following is a list of key reasons why these individuals are searching for new jobs:

As discussed in articles appearing in previous editions of The Special Counsel Column, there will always be natural attrition in your organization due to circumstances beyond your control. However, by having a better understanding of why employees make career changes, you can better prevent some employees from leaving and protect and prepare for those inevitable employee vacancies as well. Remember, with the assistance of your staff, the key is to systematically fine-tune your hiring and retention programs with a goal of increasing loyalty and your image as an employer within your marketplace.