The Proactive Client

Help Your Lawyer Help You
​Get the Best Outcome Possible
The Proactive Client is devoted to assisting business managers and in-house counsel proactively manage legal risk by helping the organization develop legal risk management practices and actively engage in the strategic resolution of legal disputes.

First, we want you, the client representative, to understand your rights and the lawyer’s responsibilities toward you. We explain the lawyer’s basic fiduciary duties of loyalty and care and introduce the Rules Of Professional Conduct, which spell out how those fiduciary duties apply to communication, legal fees, competency, conflicts of interest, and more. And we will provide guidance on what you should look for (and refuse to accept) in an engagement letter, how to analyze legal bills, and how to evaluate the quality of services you receive.

Second, we provide a guide to legal risk management, with which you can take charge of dispute prevention, legal risk intelligence, and strategic dispute resolution.

Third, we introduce the fundamentals of negotiation analysis and practice as they apply to the negotiated resolution of disputes.

Fourth, we share the theory and practice of case assessment, with which you can help estimate the financial value and risk of a lawsuit, whether your organization is the plaintiff or defendant.

Fifth, we delve into how you can manage judicial and negotiated dispute resolution to obtain the best possible outcomes when caught up in a lawsuit.
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Win Before Trial welcomes your participation in the development of The Proactive Client Blog. We want to respond to your needs and address your concerns. To that end, we invite you to comment on individual posts and articles, to suggest topics we should address, and to contribute your own posts and comments on legal issues from the client’s perspective.

The Strategic Lawyer

The Strategic Lawyer contains information that helps lawyers serve their client's interests competently, efficiently, and cost-effectively. We see the lawyer as a legal risk manager, not just a lawsuit processor. 

Major categories of this section include
  • legal dispute prevention
  • legal intelligence collection and analysis
  • bias awareness and mitigation
  • strategic negotiation
  • negotiated dispute resolution

The articles build on the work of scientists and scholars in psychology, law, economics, sociology, and other disciplines. 

We welcome active participation by lawyers, mediators, and clients. Please share suggestions for topics as well as comments on articles.