An RMP can bring a greater degree of structure to the whole practice

By Thomas Berman, Principal, Berman & Associates

This is the second of a two-part letter.

The road to effective practice management in today’s law practice is parallel to the road of effective risk management. There are no elements involved in effective case selection, conflicts determination, calendaring of activities, supervision of other lawyers or even marketing the firm which do not contain as an integral part both efficiency and safety to the practice: theirs is a mutuality.

Firms should establish a risk management partner (RMP) position for a simple reason: to provide substantially more emphasis to the accomplishment of certain tasks (see box).

All of these factors are intrinsic to the qualitative elements of the practice and provide the frame from which the window is set. Many law firms fail to realise the value of the framework and consequently give it little focus.

The responsibilities of an RMP are not necessarily dissimilar in nature to those of a well-constructed managing partner role, but they have at their core the protection of the firm’s interests in certain discrete categories which are outside the primary focus of the managing partner and even the executive committee. In many firms, these responsibilities are handled in a way which might well be described as being in the ‘as time permits’ category.

Empirical evidence suggests that, in an effort to attend to these additional responsibilities, the managing partner has been spread too thin, resulting in a dilution of his effectiveness in attending to his more traditional responsibilities.

The RMP position dovetails very nicely into a well-managed firm’s decision making (management) structure. It also provides a much-welcomed degree of attendance to these issues in firms which may not be so well orchestrated.

In other words, in firms where decision-making is generally not as effective as it should be, the appointment of a RMP with a tailored position description brings a greater degree of structure to the whole practice. In either environment, the appointment of a partner point-person tasked with ensuring the accomplishment of these goals is very much a win-win proposition. 

Example RMP position description

This is a composite description which will always be altered by the operation of other elements of firm governance (such as the managing partner or general counsel) and their assigned duties and responsibilities. 

1. Point person for the development and operation of practice standards in the firm.

2. Overall charge of issues related to professional liability and risk management.

3. Overall charge of issues related to the firm’s conflicts of interest programme.

4. Involvement with the standards for new case accession into the firm.

5. Involvement with the firm’s docketing and calendaring operation as it affects risk management.

6. Oversight of the firm’s fee agreements and contractual relations with other law firms.

7. Overall charge of the firm’s ethical considerations.

Role of the risk management partner

Possible responsibilities of the risk management partner include the following.

• To provide the impetus for the development of practice standards and the application of professional responsibility standards within the firm at large. This includes advising on ethical considerations related to the firm (including relationships with the governing bar authority), licensing of attorneys and representing individual lawyers in complaints which may have been brought against them.

• To bring more focus to questions related to professional liability throughout the firm. This includes managing indemnity insurance matters – choosing the broker, assessing coverage needs, selecting the insurer and so on.

• To monitor contractual relations with other law firms with which there are ongoing relationships.

• To manage questions related to conflicts of interest, including developing a conflicts of interest determination programme.

• To help to develop standards for case evaluation and matter intake, and to work with the firm in developing best practices, to ensure that cases are accepted where there is expertise in the firm for handling the matter properly, the firm’s fee agreements are adequate for the protection of the entity, and the agreements are used each and every time.

tberman@bermanassociates.net