Legal research and brief writing, long considered the work of the neophyte lawyer, or those who could not make it as trial lawyers, has emerged over recent years as an important sub-specialty. While some firms have created “appellate sections" that provide research and briefing support, smaller law firms and corporate legal departments cannot justify the creation of an entire practice group to handle research and briefing requests. These firms having increasingly come to rely upon specialized legal research and brief writing organizations to provide these services on a cost-effective project basis, with no long-term commitments or contracts required. Lawfinders Associates, Inc. is one of the largest and fastest growing legal research and brief writing firms in the country. The company's growth is largely at-tributab1e to the realization that these functions can and should be "outsourced" to increase both the quality of work and efficiency. Outsourcing is utilized by each client in a slightly different way depending on the nature of the work that is being done “in-house." Because all assignments are made on a project-by-project basis, the client is free to utilize Lawfinders as much or as little as it sees fit. The general categories of service are legal research reports, court-ready pleadings and memoranda, and signature-ready appellate briefs.

Legal Research Projects
Regardless of a firm's practice area, issues occasionally arise that require legal research. Outsourcing firms provide 1egal research services to a broad-based clientele with varying needs. The basic project involves one issue of law to be used in connection with a case or transaction. The project begins with a phone conversation between the client and Lawfinders in which the scope of the project is finalized. The company then assigns a staff research attorney to the project who is responsible for all of the research and preparation of the summary of the results. These basic projects start at about $500.00 and are delivered within seven to 10 days on average. The client receives copies of the relevant cases and authorities along with a letter memorandum summarizing the results. Many clients require that one or more issues be researched in every state or in multiple jurisdictions. For example, Lawfinders prepares multi-jurisdictional surveys of the law for both corporate legal departments and attorneys in private firms. Corporations can use these surveys to track developments in their industry or to incorporate into employee handbooks or company manuals. Law firms are often faced with cases of first impression for which persuasive authority from other jurisdictions is required. Outsourcing firms with a national scope make "outsourcing" these large research projects more cost effective than attempting to complete them in-house.

Trial Support
In addition to providing summaries of the law in letter format, outsourcing firms typically also prepare signature-ready memoranda and motions to be submitted to trial courts or in connection with a mediation or arbitration. Clients will typically fax or mail the relevant portions of the file to the firm for a preliminary review and fee quote. Upon agreeing on a fee and strategy, the firm will assign the work to a staff attorney who reviews the file, conducts the necessary legal research, and prepares a draft of the documents. The draft is then sent to the client for review and comment, just as an associate would submit a draft to a partner in a law firm. Draft documents can be sent by fax, e-mail, or on disk by overnight mail. The process enables the client to maintain complete control over the work product, and free its time for other tasks by delegating the legal research and drafting function to someone else.

Briefwriting and research firms often become a "back office" for firms litigating large and complex cases. The Clients enjoy knowing that regardless of what the adversary does, they will have the support they need to prepare the case properly. This "flex staff” concept is well suited to law because the work-load at a particular firm rarely stays constant. "Outsourcing" offers a unique staffing solution because it provides all of the necessary resources to handle a project, including the lawyers, the equipment, the expertise, and the facilities. Movingwork offsite can often eliminate a major distraction that can develop when many lawyers need to work together on a particular project. Following a trial, an outsourcing firm's appellate team is frequently called in to make or oppose post-trial motions that often precede an appeal. In light of the rules regarding preservation of issues on appeal, it is often imperative to have appellate assistance at this stage.

Appellate Briefs
Finding the time to conduct legal research or even to prepare memoranda for the trial court is difficult enough, but for many lawyers the concentrated commitment of weeks and sometimes months required to properly prepare an appellate brief is literally impossible. The complexity of this work and the commitment of resources required makes appellate work ideal for "outsourcing."

Free evaluations - Regardless of whether the client represents the appellant or the respondent, Lawfinders offers a free, no obligation evaluation of the case before a fee is quoted and any charges are incurred. This evaluation is aimed at determining the probability of success on appeal. During the evaluation, Lawfinders reviews the file, conducts preliminary research and discusses the case with the prospective client. Following the evaluation a decision is made regarding whether the case qualifies for acceptance under Lawfinders Guaranteed Appellate Brief Program. The firm monitors statistical success rates for appeals around the country and has developed internal requirements for acceptance of cases. The most important factors considered are: preservation of error, standard of review, existence of relevant authority upon which an appeal can be based, reputation and track record of the trial judge, and the political climate and composition of the appellate court Lawfinders will explain in detail why a particular case does or does not qualify for the guarantee.

Thereafter, the choice is left to the client regarding whether or not to proceed. (The overwhelming majority of the cases that Lawfinders is hired to prepare, however, are not accepted under the guarantee program. In such cases, after being fully aware of the risk and cost, the client decides whether to proceed. In these cases, Lawfinders guarantees complete satisfaction with the work, but does not guarantee the outcome in the appellate court.)

Pricing - After the decision is made to proceed with the appeal, Lawfinders prepares a written retainer agreement signed by the client that establishes the fixed fee to be charged for the preparation of the appellate brief. Lawfinders' fees for appellate briefs begin at $2,250 and can go as high as $100,000.00; the majority of the cases range between $5,000.00 and $10,000.00. The fee is always agreed to at the outset and is based upon a variety of factors. Perhaps the most important factor considered, in determining how to price an appeal, is the size of the record on appeal. Review and analysis of a long trial record can take several weeks in complex cases, while cases disposed of on pre-trial motions tend to have smaller more manageable records and can therefore be handled on appeal for a lower fee.
The number and complexityof the issues is critical to the appropriate fee determination. Some cases with relatively small records can involve numerous or complex issues. This is a critical factor taken into account in arriving at the fee to be charged. Of course, when quoting fees to prepare respondents' briefs, the issues to be addressed are typically already decided, in which case a detailed readingof the appellant's brief is required to arrive at the appropriate fee.

Team Work - Lawfinders takes a team approach to preparing all appellate briefs. Each new case is assigned to a staff attorney who has principal responsibility for analyzing the record, conducting legal research, and preparing an outline of the draft brief. At the outset, a meeting is held between the staff lawyer and the supervisor to review the file and discuss the areas of lawto be researched. Following conclusion of the legal research, the staff attorney prepares an outline of point headings and lists the cases and authorities to be discussed under each point and sub-point. The outline is thoroughly reviewed by the supervisor and discussed before it is finalized. The outline is then turned into the draft brief, which upon completion, is resubmitted to the supervisor for a final edit. At this stage, respondents' briefs will be compared point-by-point to the appellants brief to insure that all arguments have been adequately ad-dressed. When the editing process is completed, the brief goes out in draft form to the client. The client is given the opportunity to make any suggestions or revisions before the brief is finalized. After the client's changes are implemented, Lawfinders typically arranges the printing, filing and service upon the adversary.
Track Record --The average litigator may handle 15 to 30 appeals over a career. One of Lawfinders' staff attorneys may prepare that many briefs in 6 months. With that experience comes expertise, and with expertise comes results. The average success rate on a civil appeal is approximately 20% while an internal study conducted by Lawfinders, involving 48 cases, revealed that Lawfinders' success rate was roughly 294% better than the average: approximately 65% overall.

Multi-million dollar judgments on appeal - Because of Lawfinders' successful track record and years of concentrated appellate experience, many trial lawyers turn to the company to protect multi-million dollar judgments that are being appealed. Often in the case on a contingency, these firms are faced with a dilemma: the need to maximize the chances for success on appeal in order to get paid, and often a lack of available funds to bring the appropriate expertise on board. Lawfinders helps in both areas. First, the company will evaluate the file and review and analyze the appellant's brief. Assuming the case can be guaranteed, Lawfinders will arrange to have their fee financed, requiring no money out of pocket from the client. In this way, the client is able to obtain high quality assistance without depleting cash reserves or giving up a large contingency fee interest to an appellate lawyer. In these cases, Lawfinders' fixed fee is financed by an outside investor who takes a partial assignment of the judgment in exchange for providing the fund-ing. If the case is Unsuccessful on appeal, the client does not have to repay the money that was advanced. The investor is repaid only if the case is successful and only when the judgment is satisfied. Importantly, the interest that accrues on these large judgments more than covers the cost of Lawfinders' fee and the outside investor's return. This approach to financing cases was developed by Lawfinders and is not currently being used by any other firms.

Confidentiality and Conflicts of Interest - Lawfinders' preserves full client confidentiality and avoids all potential conflicts of interest. The company maintains detailed computer records of all projects and never works on both sides of a case or in anyway assists two adverse parties, All communications made to the company are maintained in the strictest confidence, with no waiver of the attorney-client privilege.

Conclusion
For law firms and corporate legal departments, "outsourcing" of non-core legal research and writing functions often makes good business sense. Lawfinders offers a variety of services suited to its individual client's needs. These services range from simple legal research projects to preparation of appellate briefs in multi-million dollar cases.. Regardless of the service, fees are always fixed and quoted at the outset. The company's innovative Guaranteed Appellate Brief Program features a money-back guarantee tied to the outcome of the case.

Robert J. Scott is President of Lawfinders Associates, Inc., a national appellate brief writing and legal research firm.