Case Management Software Managers

Customer Service for Law Offices

My company consults with law firms throughout the United States and happily recommends Needles to many of its clients.  Catalyst believes Needles is the new generation of software that can partner with a firm for better efficiency. (By the way, our company recommends vendors based upon a commitment to client service and values and does not nor will not accept remuneration for referrals).  We have assisted with installs in firms and we have gone in and reorganized where the law firm owners have not utilized Needles to its fullest capabilities.  Without exception, those firms that have a designated Needles Manager win hands down for full utilization of Needles.

This year's Needles theme "Knowledge is Power" seems to describe the Needles Manager I wish to nominate on behalf of myself and the law firm of Hardison & Leone, L.L.P. -Elizabeth A. Leone, Needles Manager for the firm.

Hardison & Leone, L.L.P., is one of our clients, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. I currently serve as its Chief IT Officer through Catalyst.  I started consulting with this firm in 1999 and helped them install their first case management system.

Beth's reputation in North Carolina as a litigator is well known but as she progressed in her career, the future of her law firm and how it would be run well into the 21 st Century became a quest of hers.  She handles the management of the firm and her partner, Ken Hardison, handles the marketing.  The firm has three manned offices, twelve lawyers, and some fifty staff members.  The firm's reputation within North Carolina is one of respect for their legal services and their commitment to client service.  The attorneys and staff are highly talented and well-trained. She hires the best of the best.

Beth became convinced that law firms in the 21st Century had to make use and have available the best technology tools to make them cost efficient as well as operational efficient.  Without technology, the law firm would not grow and prosper. 

She searched many programs and designed a plan that would ultimately convert her firm to a system that would allow the proper management of the firm and fit in line with a work culture that allowed both skilled and process driven positions.  After much thought and deliberation, Beth made a decision which has proved to be correct:  she jettisoned all existing software systems and converted her firm to a Needles based firm.  Her bottom line mandate was that if the firm was going to be a Needles firm, then it would utilize 100% of the program.  To accomplish this, to work in her firm you would understand Needles!

Thus the firm's "Eye of the Needle" program was launched.  She put into play a six month pre-program that was designed to get the firm into shape to absorb Needles.  She created an enthusiasm in her firm that allowed her lawyers and non-lawyers to become both excited and creative in the design of Needles for all practice areas.  By the time the install took place, Hardison & Leone, L.L.P. was ahead of the curve.  In talking with our trainer, it was obvious that Beth's pre-prep had worked to everyone's benefit.  The remainder of the first year was one of ups and downs but with the firm moving quickly up the Needles system ladder.  Within the first year, Beth personally wrote operational manuals for all areas of practices for her firm with the processes defined and Needles driven.  She created operational manuals for all management and marketing programs through Needles.  She personally designed and developed well over 1000 templates for use in her firm's practice areas.  And she did it all by creating an environment of trust and learning with her lawyers and non-lawyers as a team.

Quality Assurance Auditing is a new phrase for law firms but Beth quickly saw the wisdom of having an audit system to support her lawyers and her staff.  She held many training programs to show the importance of timely data input.  She basically held everyone's feet to the fire until they got it down pat.  She was able to track productivity of cases and get rid of menial problems that slowed down the control of the case.  She has reduced the case time enough that the affect on the firm's income made a noticeable jump in 2005.  She created new positions within the firm to meet the Needles demands and with this lowered the overhead of the firm.  She made Needles pay for itself.

This was done through the use of some 120 user reports that are used with MS/Excel to combine financial and marketing data.  Calculations are done for burden rates for profit centers, financial projections on revenue and overhead, and process efficiency for the resource centers.  Since the processes were incorporated in Needles using the checklist, the reports could identify process problems.  One of the underlying values of her quality assurance concept was that in a process driven system, any error is the fault of the process, not the staff.  This allowed for many process improvement studies and a reduction in burden rates.  All this drove improvements in case performance.

The next year was one of development of report systems that would enable her staff of lawyers and non-lawyers to monitor their cases through checklist reporting.  Since she adopted the concept of a balanced scorecard driven by quality assurance, several areas were measured by Needles reports.  Her firm is built on client service and she was able to design reports that showed that all clients were contacted every thirty days by staff and every sixty days by attorneys and she got a 95% and above compliance from her firm.  This was just the tip of the iceberg for her.  She then added reports that would allow everyone to see how long it took to get a case ready for settlement and, with Needles, shortened the time for the case to be settled or sent to trial.

She also began a training program for her firm that was designed to make Needles user friendly and one of a work partner.  As a result, her staff is Needles happy!  They see the reason for the system and have come to rely on it as a tool that makes their jobs easier.  She made Needles non-threatening and she helped everyone interpret Needles.

Law firms generally utilize skilled base employees to run their cases, most notably lawyers and paralegals.  Beth has created a law firm system based on Needles that allows her to hire process driven employees who have the ability to step into a law firm without training or legal background and help support the large number of cases her firm handles.  These positions support the skilled base people.

And because client service is important to her (her number one Rule), she has designed a survey system that allows reporting by the clients of their satisfaction with major areas of the case work. And she runs the reports to prove her point.   Beth has been consistent in her commitment to Needles. If you work for Hardison & Leone, you are a Needles Nut!   Beth was not willing to allow people just to do their job -they had to think outside the box with Needles.  She has created an atmosphere where her lawyers and non-lawyers contribute constantly to ideas to improve the system which allows the client the best possible case handling.

Beth has truly taken her law firm into the 21st Century with proper utilization of the Needles system.  Needles is more than just case management; it is a way of life for a law firm.  At Hardison & Leone, Needles is the third partner in the firm.

And as always when I work with law firms, the question becomes what is the pay-off.  As a former auditor and upper level project manager for a Fortune 500 company, I appreciate it when I see a law firm running efficiently.  Under Beth's guidance I have seen this firm exceed all possible expectations through Needles utilization. Her achievements go beyond that of an owner to one of a leader.  She has set the standards in her firm for all that follow.  And it appears she is not through with all her ideas for her firm and for Needles.  She is taking her firm paperless this year and she has implemented many management ideas into Needles which help her track her firm's operations.

In the leadership courses I teach, I say that a born leader surrounds himself or herself with good people and good products to drive the firm forward. I have watched Beth come from an associate, to a partner, to the management partner within a seven year period.  Most importantly I have seen her take complex technology coupled with Needles and drive her firm beyond everyone's expectations.  She works many long hours every week running a large volume of her own cases, handles the management of this large firm, and still devotes many hours to making Needles better for everyone.  She has been instrumental with my company in graciously allowing many of my own clients to come into her firm and see how Needles can work.

Beth realizes that Needles is built on a true team concept and she has been unselfish in her commitment to making Needles work for everyone.  She is willing to listen and willing to try new ideas; all of which makes her firm a great place to work.  She neither seeks credit nor seeks approval but rather seeks excellence in what her firm can do with Needles.  She believes in her people and because of that, Needles works!  It will be interesting to see how far she goes in the future with Needles.  She has kept true to her word -if we buy it we use it!

Beth, by the way, has worked all positions in a law firm before going to law school, is an AV rated attorney (within five years), has been active on a chair level in many professional associations, and lives in Raleigh with the "golden girls"; her two golden retrievers named "Hearsay" and "Piper". She is known for her integrity and commitment to her profession.

There are many prestigious awards I believe Beth can qualify for but I truly believe recognition for her commitment to Needles and her firm qualifies her as the Needles Manager of the Year. She deserves the trip as she seldom does for herself and puts others first both professionally and personally.  She has a genuine compassion for those less fortunate and does many things for others without recognition.  Most importantly in today's world of law, she stands out as an attorney committed to integrity and to her clients and holds her firm to those same standards.  She simply believes in doing the best job possible with unswerving attention to doing what's right for her firm and her clients.  And she has utilized the very best of Needles to make it happen.

Nominee: Beth Leone
Nominators: David Favor & Staff
Firm: Hardison and Leone, LLP now Leone, Noble and Seate ,   LLC and Hardison and Associates, LLC

Be at the top of your game with Case Management Software

Nominee:  Reva Archer
Nominator:  Michael Kozlowski
Firm:  Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney Reno, NV

I nominate Reva Archer of our firm for Needles Manager of the Year.  Reva has extensive working knowledge (i.e., eight years' experience) of Needles merge documents, reports, calendaring capabilities, and administrative tools, etc.  She is a natural team player and has assisted all our staff in gaining knowledge and training for the powerful tools Needles has to offer.  Our attorneys and entire firm have benefited from the use of the powerful case management/database software.  As a result of Reva's tireless efforts, which are ongoing, our firm has rocketed into the new millennium and we have become more productive, streamlined, and competitive as a leading litigation firm in our state.  Quite simply, without Reva, we would be limping along at a much, much slower rate of learning and productivity since having obtained Needles at the beginning of this year.  With Reva and with Needles, we are at the top of our game.

Case Management Software Manager

Lovedy Berkley, our Needles Manager (and who by the way wears many other hats in the office) has an "old school work ethic."   She takes on a task, makes it her own and see it through to fruition.

When Lovedy started working for us, she had never heard of Needles.  She has made it her mission to learn all that she could.  She was relentless in her pursuit to discover what Needles has to offer and how it could best serve our needs.  Our system was so underutilized at the time. She met with the attorneys and our staff as a group and individually, to find out how we could get the most out of
Needles.  She scheduled training sessions and made many calls to our Needles representatives.  Everyone turns to Lovedy with their questions, and if she doesn't know the answer, she's on the phone to get the answer.  She stays in contact with the Needles reps to get updated information.  She meets with our new employees to discuss the importance of inserting all necessary data in the
correct spaces to make their jobs flow easier.  When she reviews a case and notices that some information has not been entered, she immediately contacts that staff person to find out why.  She also reviews our needs, as they sometimes change, and contacts the reps to discuss better ways to accommodate us.

Lovedy is an excellent Needles Manager. I really can't imagine anyone else who would take such pride and interest in Needles and the firm.

Nominee:  Lovedy Berkley
Nominator:  Jean Potter
Firm:  Potter, Carmine & Aaronson Wilmington, DE

Running the lawfirm with case management software

Nominee: Lauren Denton

Nominators: Jill Matz & Staff

Firm: The Injury Lawyers PC Mobile, AL

Lauren is an excellent asset to our firm. We have had the pleasure of having her monitor our Needles system's data to ensure its accuracy and help eliminate  errors in data entry.  Lauren is extremely organized; she possesses knowledge  and understanding of the Needles system.

She is responsible for many of the basic office administrative and clerical functions and works very hard to communicate all Needles system updates and changes to our staff.  Lauren continues to work with the Needles program to ease our workload and improve the firm's Needles set up which includes making any changes needed.

An example of Lauren's quick wit: Our Firm had an issue with one of our  programs.  Lauren contacted Maggie Myatt "Our Needles trainer" in hopes to resolve the matter.  Maggie stated that Lauren had stumped Needles for the first time.  IN FACT: We've been told that Needles is considering an upgrade as a result of Lauren contacting Maggie.  There is no task that Lauren is not willing to tackle.  Therefore, we praise her and her ability to continuously work to develop an easier more effective way for our firm to adapt to the much appreciated Needles system.

Case Management Software Paralegal Superstar

Nominee: Jill Miraglia
Nominator: Marie Lang & Eric Sanchez
Firm: Law Offices of James Scott Farrin,  Durham, NC

Reasons Why This Employee Deserves Needles Manager of the Year:

Jill Miraglia is the unofficial Needles guru in our law firm.  She first started working for our firm in August of 2000 as the administrative assistant to the President.  At that time, the firm was only 15 people.  She quickly learned Needles and over time has mastered it entirely on her own and become the person to whom everyone goes when they have Needles questions.  We are now a firm of 85+ and growing. In addition to performing her full-time job as a paralegal in the litigation department, she provides her Needles expertise to the rest of the firm in all aspects of Needles management.  Specifically, she creates all the merge documents (currently over 200) and all the user defined reports (now over 125) for our firm.  She has created and continually updates the Needles custom tabs and fields, case types and checklists.  Her knowledge in creating custom fields allows the firm to create reports specific to its needs.  She has recently converted all of our merge documents from WordPerfect to Word on her own in a 2-3 week period.  She accomplished this by working significant amounts of overtime in addition to her regular work week which is often already over 40 hours per week!  She has also been involved in training employees on Needles and of course, answering all of the out of the box questions and coming up with solutions for any needs or problems!  In fact, when Needles trainer, Lonnie, came to our firm several years ago, she indicated that Jill knew it all and there was nothing more that she could teach her.  When Jill inquired of Lonnie about creating a particular user defined report, Jill was advised it was impossible.  Jill of course, could not be satisfied with that answer and figured out a way to create it!  We are fortunate to have a person like Jill who works tirelessly and is able to provide our firm with unequaled Needles expertise acquired almost entirely through her own efforts and dedication.  She is highly deserving of the Needles Manager of the Year!

Handle mass torts and thousands of clients with case management software

Nominee: Stuart Tryon
Nominator: Kay Holley
Firm: Law Offices of Kay Holley Richmond, CA

While the user-friendly aspects of Needles as well as the ongoing support received from Needles staff is of monumental assistance to any Needles Manager, the real skill of the in-house Needles Manger has to be the ability not only to utilize Needles in its' obvious applications but to adopt and adapt the program to the individual law firm.  Stuart Tryon, Needles Manager for the Law Offices of Kay Holley, has made your program dance for us.  Stuart is the individual in our office who has engaged in a true partnership with the program, your support staff and the trainers who have come to our office.  Needles is unique in what it offers and because of that I can recommend your case management program without reservation to other attorneys.  However, there are other case management programs on the market and while your product stands alone in what it has to offer, I do not believe that without Stuart, we would have been able to utilize the everyday capability of the product to the extent we are able to do so as well as "challenge" Needles to fulfill the unique needs of our office which deals exclusively with mass torts and many thousands of clients.  In addition to the daily use of Needles, Stuart trains office staff and provides ongoing in-house support in the use of Needles and how it interfaces with other programs we use.  For me, the important aspect of Needles is tracking our enormous client database and preparing reports from the information we input.  It is such a pleasure to request and receive reports containing compilation and the synthesis of information that formerly required new programs and hours of intellectual labor and meetings among the computer staff. 

Stuart performs every function listed in your checklist of "The Exceptional Needles Manager" but most importantly, he does even more and makes it seem easy and effortless.  Bravo to Needles and hip, hip, hooray to Stuart!

Superwoman uses Case Management Software by Needles

Nominee: Maria Fox

Nominator: Jennifer Fay

Firm:  Law Offices of James E. Morris Buffalo, NY

Reasons why Maria Fox deserves to be Needles Manager of the year:

Who can provide secretarial support for two or more attorneys and act as the main receptionist for the office, all while entering over 130 open cases into the recently acquired Needles program almost single-handedly?  It's not

Superwoman, but you're close. It's the Law Offices of James Morris' nominee for "Needles Manager of the Year," Maria Fox!

In spite of the fact that our firm is on the small side, (four attorneys, two law clerks, and two secretaries) it does not mean that things around the office are quiet.  To be sure, even in the smallest office, getting the Needles program up and running would be no small task.  Since we first got Needles in July, Maria has taken charge of entering the bulk of our firm's open files into Needles, training other staff members to use Needles, and encouraging staff once they learn how to use the program to actually use the program themselves.   Without Maria's unwavering commitment to spending sometimes several days in a row only entering in data into Needles, we would not be able to be use the Needles program so efficiently already.  The Needles program has revolutionized our law offices.  After only three months, we have already become dependant upon how easily the information can be accessed by any individual in the office, at any time.  This has already saved us a tremendous amount of time we would normally have to spend asking other employees for information on a file, or pulling the file and digging through it for names, dates, and so on.  In case

meetings, Maria is able to set up her computer in the meeting room with a

projector and screen, and we are able to go through all the cases in Needles, so we save time by not having to leave the meeting repeatedly to go grab a file.  The prospect of entering a Needles database alone could be daunting to some people, but immediately after training, Maria rose to the task with an exceptional attitude.  She spent three weeks or more solely entering information into Needles day in and day out, and all the while she did so with a smile and an optimistic attitude telling people how great the program was, and how she couldn't wait to see how it changed things around the office once she was finished.  I'm sure there are moments when her job is frustrating, but she always manages to keep going and remains positive. She has the utmost patience with all the staff members as she tries to coach us to use features of Needles that we aren't yet proficient in, and even coaching us through the steps we already know when we feel unsure of ourselves.  She is always kindly encouraging us to do more with the program and reminding us how to make the program work best for our office.  Maria is the only person at our office in charge of implementing the Needles

program, entering the bulk of the data, and overseeing the transition to Needles.   Things are progressing extremely well, but she still has a long road ahead of her.  I am sure there are few others who are capable of undertaking such a colossal task by themselves and doing so as thoroughly and exceptionally as Maria has done.  For these reasons and more, Maria is certainly our office's pick "Needles Manager of the Year," and she should get your vote, too!

The Zen of Case Management Software

Nominee:  Larry King
Nominator:  Sherri King & Michelle Bacotti
Firm:  Law Offices of Larry King Newport News, VA

Describing him as Manager of the year would be an understatement.  He is more like a Needles Zen master, a high ranking black belt, which is understandable because of his accomplishments in the martial arts.  He has made Needles part of our minds, not a separate tool, but more an extension of ourselves, an extension of our mind and body and attitude.  And, like a Samurai warrior who teaches the importance of maintaining and respecting his sword, through him, we have learned to maintain and respect Needles as a special friend with powerful abilities.  He daily motivates that we and Needles provide a life giving opportunity to come to the aid of our clients.  He stresses that Needles is a powerful, flexible, precision weapon of knowledge and information that helps protect those in need, and that's why we do what we do. 

And, he is never satisfied; he is never complacent.  He always calmly, but obsessively strives to improve, to make things better, to be more accurate, to be more precise; to be more efficient.  He sees things as they were, as they are, and how they can be, and easily applies his insights with Needles.  He always encourages interaction, "If you think of a way to improve things, to be more efficient, or see a shortcoming, send me a Needles message," and we do, and Needles does.

Like an experienced General in pursuit of excellence, he peers into the legal environment, analyzes the details of conflicts, evaluates adversaries, and options, and readily employs Needles in a precise, detailed, and successful manner.  Checklists are clear, flexible battle plans with room for options and variations and feedback; accurate mission notes are always readily at hand;  troops (personnel) are automatically assigned to actions based upon their ability, training, and experience; all actions are reliably coordinated by Needles for optimum results; whether in the office or in the field, case status of all relevant information is designed for immediate feedback.  He insures, with Needles, that limber, focused decision-making is always available; and I can go on and on.

I could list pages of all the standard plaudits and details that are probably true of many case managers, but the important point is that few, if any, can demonstrate the knowledge, experience, commitment and consistent zeal for the use and application of all aspects of Needles than my boss Larry King. 

PS: No, we are not looking for a raise, just trying to be honest---Michelle and Sherri.

Personal Injury Law Practice Software

Nominee: Frank Strack
Nominators: Tamara Brininger & Staff
Firm: Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy Cleveland, OH

On behalf of myself and our entire firm, Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy, I would like to nominate Frank Strack as the Needles Manager of the Year.  Frank is the head of our Information Systems Department and is an extremely valuable asset to our firm.  He recommended that we incorporate Needles into our litigation support program five years ago and has been instrumental in training and development of our Needles system since that time.

Frank understands the details of our personal injury practice both from a litigation and administrative perspective.  Over the past five years, he has fine tuned the way our staff and attorneys utilize Needles to best fit their practice area.  Most  recently, he developed a "Summer of Needles" training program to reinforce the benefits of using Needles and to focus in on new Needles program developments.  Every two weeks, he met with the staff to focus in on a different case tab to make sure that our staff was utilizing Needles to its full capacity, including everything from reserving conference rooms through the calendar tab, to generating letters.  Frank has also trained our attorneys and administrative staff to utilize the reports tab to generate various reports that are very useful in many facets of our practice.

As managing partner, Frank has helped me to understand all the advantages of monitoring statistics for our various departments and cases.  He has consistently found new and innovative ways to make our firm operate more efficiently and productively in generating merge letters and forms utilizing the data in our Needles system.  He has also incorporated the use of an after hours call service that has the ability to transfer data directly into our Needles database for ease in tracking and returning after hours and weekend calls.  This development has allowed our current and perspective clients to reach us after the close of business. 

Frank's suburb knowledge and insight into the Needles software program makes him worthy of the title of Needles Manager of the Year.

Software to meet law practice needs

Nominee:  Barry Winnick
Nominator:  Deborah Signore
Firm:  Tyler Cooper and Alcorn LLC

For the past few years, I worked extensively with Attorney Barry M. Winnick of our firm, designing and coordinating Needles to meet some of our firm's specific practice needs, i.e. plaintiff personal injury and insurance defense cases.  To date, over 30 people in our firm have been trained by me and our program training coordinator, Teresa Santore. (We are also in the process of inputting defense medical malpractice cases into the system.)

I personally nominate Barry Winnick as our Needles Manager of the year.  He is our lead IT person and is more than proficient and knowledgeable in aiding and making Needles work for us!  I am a part of our firm's Needles Administration Group, which consists of a few secretaries and paralegals.  We meet on a regular basis to discuss issues, changes, additions and either solve issues or bring it to the attention of Attorney Winnick.  We make sure we are all uniformly utilizing the system, and are available to provide support to any staff member (attorneys, secretaries and paralegals) when needed.

I personally log onto Needles daily and refer to it constantly to update file notes, insurance information, medicals, pleadings, status, etc. and constantly refer to information on cases for easy reference and to keep attorneys updated when they require specific information.  Input is timely but well worth it for daily reference with the click of a button!  Due to the time it takes to input new matters, we have recently appointed a Needles coordinator for this task and to keep our provider/rolodex updated.  We all work together to make the best of this program and are encouraged by our Litigation Department Chairmen (Partners) to use the program and reap the benefits.