Litigation and Dispute Resolution

The Fulbright Difference

Steve Dillard
Chair, Global Litigation
E-Mail
+1 713 651 5507

Fulbright's Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice is well known for delivering excellent results. What you may not know is Fulbright's Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice also cares about how we deliver results. One dimension is Fulbright's focus on managing litigation costs.

Know Where You're Going

As simple as it seems, many lawyers ignore the important first step—figuring out where the client wants to go and how to get there. Defined objectives drive Fulbright's litigation strategy.

• Meet to identify and understand client goals—business as well as legal—and develop a plan to align our services to those goals
• Perform early case assessment to develop a litigation plan, evaluate the possibility of early settlement and assess costs for different litigation strategies
• Enable strategic success via efficiency, predictability and client satisfaction

Litigation Budgets that Matter

The foundation of managing litigation costs is the budget. Fulbright's litigation lawyers understand this critical financial planning component and make sure our budgets fit the client, the case and the desired result. Fulbright's governing principles:

• Leverage Fulbright's deep knowledge of case costs to prepare detailed budgets
• Provide regular progress reports on budget-to-performance status
• Update budgets as litigation and client needs change

Intelligent Staffing

Download Fulbright’s
6^th Annual Litigation Trends
Survey Report

The Fulbright approach utilizes the right combination of lawyers and other professionals best suited to clients’ specific case needs.

• Incorporate lean and focused staffing strategies
• Match the right people to the right tasks to optimize value for the client
• Apply project management skills to ensure value throughout all phases of a case

Monitoring Litigation Expenses

Fulbright cares about the legal expenses clients have to pay and takes steps to manage them.

• Contain the scope of eDiscovery through effective meet and confer strategies
• Partner with best-of-breed providers through use of master service agreements
• Employ cost-effective document review strategies

Value Matters

Fulbright's approach to delivering value works… to prove it, in appropriate circumstances Fulbright's Litigation and Dispute Resolution lawyers are willing to share the risk through alternative and flexible fee arrangements.

• Fixed-fee billing, including fixed annual and fixed fee per case
• Performance Based Billing (PBB), subjecting portions of our fees to success criteria
• Contingency, blended rates or other alternative fee arrangements

Focused Technology

Fulbright's Litigation and Dispute Resolution lawyers have been pioneers in cost-saving technologies for its clients. Some examples:

• Ringtail Legal™—Web-based searchable tool for document review and management
• Recommind Axcelerate™—Intelligent concept search tool for efficient document identification, analysis and review
• Electronic Preservation on Demand (ePOD)—Fulbright-developed tool for gathering preservation and collection information
• Electronic Discovery on Demand (eDOD)—Fulbright-developed software to manage and document the eDiscovery process through life of case

No Surprises

Litigation is inherently unpredictable, but through Fulbright’s budgeting, case management and proactive communications we minimize surprises. Fulbright communicates regularly with clients to provide cost management updates and to identify potential price-changing events early on.

Clients are Talking About Value and Fulbright is Listening

Fulbright cares about your cost management goals and always works to maintain the level of service you require. At Fulbright, we continually improve our approach with extensive industry and related research, including Fulbright’s Annual Litigation Trends Survey.

Fulbright welcomes the opportunity to learn more about your litigation needs and how we may assist you in managing your litigation costs.

Steve Dillard
Chair, Global Litigation
E-Mail
+1 713 651 5507

Awards

• The National Law Journal included Fulbright on their annual "Appellate Hot List," a list of 20 firms who have made singular contributions to the appellate practice during the past year. (2010)
• For the fifth consecutive year, the Chambers USA Guide listed Fulbright as one of the leading law firms for products liability. (2009)
• The Chambers USA Guide ranked Fulbright as a leading litigation firm in Texas. (2009)
• Benchmark: Litigation recognized Fulbright for its litigation work in environmental law, intellectual property, products liability, mass torts, antitrust, securities and health law. (2009)
• Benchmark: Litigation ranked Fulbright as a highly recommended firm in Texas and recognized six of its lawyers. (2009)
• The U.S. Legal 500 Guide recognized Fulbright for its work in energy litigation in the U.S. (2009)
• Best Lawyers listed 11 lawyers as Best Lawyers for their work in personal injury litigation. (2009)
• Corporate Counsel reported Fulbright as one of the most-mentioned firms in the country for litigation work by Fortune 250 companies. (2008)
• Who’s Who Legal - The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers recognized Fulbright as a leading firm globally in dispute resolution. (2008)
• Who’s Who Legal listed eight Fulbright lawyers among the top litigators in the world. (2008)
• American Lawyer named Fulbright to its Litigation Department of the Year Honor Roll as one of the top litigation firms in the U.S. (2007)

When you think LITIGATION, Think Fulbright.^TM