Tools of Choice

Marc Lauritsen

January 2015

This Session

The World of Choice(Choosing Tools and Other Things)

Audience Participation:Reflect on a Recent Decision

Discuss

Choice ManagementTools for Choosing

Law-related Choices

Clients and Self-helpers

• Ways to deal with legal problems

• Lawyer/firm selection

• Business decisions

– Entity type

– Hiring/firing

– Employee/contractor

– Compliance, risk management

• Negotiation and settlement

Professionals

• What position to take, what advice to give

• Case triage

• Litigation– Where to file

– What witnesses to call

– What arguments to make

• Business– What software or hardware

– What vendors/consultants

– Who to hire

Lawyering Tasks

• Client counseling

• Document drafting

• Contract negotiation

• Project management

• Dispute resolution

• Litigation strategy

• Advocacy

• Adjudication

Legal Services Contexts

• Which types of cases to accept

• Which particular clients to help, with what forms of assistance

• Case strategy – what claims to make where; what arguments/evidence to emphasize

• Contract/settlement negotiation – which package of terms lets you ‘get to yes’

• Which office technology to adopt

A Recent Decision

Shhh ….

What makes a good decision?

• Consideration of all relevant options

• Consideration of all relevant factors

• Consideration of all relevant interests and perspectives

• Open, mindful, respectful process

• Appropriate focus and weighing

• . . .

What makes a bad decision?

• Missed options

• Missed factors

• Missed interests and perspectives

• Closed, unmindful, non-respectful process

• Inappropriate focus and weighing

• . . .

Problems we encounter

• People have difficulty making good

choices.

– Hard to compare options, balance

considerations.

– Many procrastinate or are tormented.

– Some make snap decisions without enough

data and deliberation.

– Misinformation, miscommunication.

• Hard to help others make good choices.

– Data overload. Time famine.

– Reinvention and repetition.

Decisional Traps

• Availability

• Confirmation bias

• Inattentional blindness

• Overconfidence

• Conjunction fallacy

• Statistical errors

• Loss aversion

• Endowment effect

• Sunk cost

• Social proof

• Subliminal influences

• Targeted ads

Case management

Change management

Knowledge management

Project management

Choice management

Twelve Mantras

• Wake Up

• Embrace the Complexity

• Separate the Separable

• Be Humble

• Plan the Work

• Work the Plan

• Consider Multiple Perspectives

• Tap the Team

• Enlist the Contenders

• Tool Up

• Focus

• Stay Open

How can technology help?

Tools & Methods

• Gathering info– Vendor literature

– Demos

– Consultants

– Calls to peers

– Web research

– List serves (LStech)

– References

– LSNTAP

– . . .

• Deciding & justifying– Checklists

– Pros & Cons

– Word tables

– Whiteboards

– Spreadsheets

– . . .

14

Hi folks, I am looking into a new case management system for the Law Center. I'd like to do some initial research into our options and pricing as we are budgeting for 2013. If any of you really love or hate the systems you're using, I'd appreciate a quick note with the name of the program and anything you can tell me about what you particularly like or dislike about it. You can email me at … . Thanks for your help! Apologies to those who receive this request over multiple lists.

We are considering using Vidyo as an office web conferencing solution over Polycom. Has anyone in the community used Vidyo as a solution?If so what is your feedback/ pros and cons.

Hi there- we are looking at switching to AppRiver’s Secure Tide or Mimecast for anti- spam after a disastrous Postini/Google switch. Anyone using either one? And like them or not!

Has anyone … ?

16

Aspen Workflow LawBase Practice Manager(RealLegal)

Practice Master Time Matters

The product

Essential features

Tickler

Conflict checking

Remote access

Reporting

Other product factors

Document mgt

Timekeeping

Custom intake screens

Integration with DA

Relevance to graduates’ practices

Security options

Vendor stability

User community

Other law schools?

Pre-built modules?

Cost (product & any newly required software)

The services

Customization

Training

Cost

Other notes

18

Databases?Document assembly?Guided interviews?

Expert systems?

What about

Databases are great for

• Gathering, storing, and retrieving information

• Searching and finding information

• Not just numbers and texts, but images, sounds, video, …

• Statistics, reports

Document assembly is great for

• Creating customized documents and forms

• Intelligent questionnaires and checklists

• Information gathering

• Individualized guidance

A2J guided interviews are great for

• Gathering information needed for document assembly, case intake, or other purposes

• Audio, video, images

• Making online resources more accessible

• Individualized guidance

Expert systems are great for

• Rule-based reasoning(backward and forward chaining)

• Non-procedural (‘declarative’) knowledge

• Explanation

• Individualized guidance

But

None of these are particularly good for helping people make choices

Going beyonddatabases,

document assembly,guided interviews,

andexpert systems

Supporting choicerequires

Choices involvecompeting values and perspectives

They’re not algorithmic

You can’t look up or compute the answer

Example: Triage

Factors in play

• Recipient needs, interests, & circumstances– Nature of ‘stake’ and likelihood of success– Capacity for self-help

• Provider resources, interests, & circumstances– Availability– Priorities / Preferences

• System/Society interests– Fairness– Overall impact on just outcomes– System improvement

Challenges

• Demand greatly exceeds resources

• Complex recipient circumstances

• Changing provider circumstances (resource availability, priorities)

• Competing views about which kinds of problems deserve which kinds of assistance

RepresentationOnline Doc Assembly

HOWEVER …

Most decisions involve many “hands”:

• more than two options, and • more than a couple considerations, • of varying degrees of importance, • with people disagreeing both about the relative importance of considerations and how the options ‘do’ on them.

What would an ideal choice management system look like?

persistent

transparent

simple

complete

granular

easyfun

beautiful

accessible

collaborative

inclusiveself-learning

autonomy enhancingdynamically reconfigurable

universal

What do choosers want to know?• What do I need to know and do to make a good choice?

• What are my options? (Have I missed any good ones?)

• What factors should I pay attention to? (Have I missed any important ones?)

• Which factors are most important?

• How do the options compare on the important factors? (features and ratings)

• How significant are the differences? (scores)

• How does everything stack up? (What’s the balance of tradeoffs?)

• Where can I get more information? Who can help me? (Find more options, factors, ratings, opinions, reviews …)

Factor

Factor

Factor

PerspectivePerspective

Perspective

Option Option Option

Rating Rating Rating

Rating Rating Rating

Rating Rating Rating

A choicebox

Features

Interface

Ease of learning

Jane

John

CombinedAce Acme Apex

7 8 9

Best Good Better

6 7 5

Choosing a case management

system

37

Totals 1 3 2

US Legal Services Corporation

Opinions

Ideas

Experiences

??

Note: This data is illustrative. See Greacen report for final ratings.

Going Deeper• A Decision Space for Legal Service Delivery

• Dancing in the Cloud

• Which – a simple HotDocs-based example of choiceboxing

on LawHelp Interactive [Best viewed in Chrome or IE]

• Preparing Law Students for Choice Jobs(Presentation at 2014 CALI conference)

• 'Boxing' Choices for Better Dispute Resolution, Int'l Journal of Online Dispute Resolution (1) 1, 70-92 (2014)

• LSC Tech Summit case study

• Triage and Expert Systems in Legal Aid

In Conclusion

• A lot of our choices are not well made

• We can do better

• Good choices begin with mindfulness

– Not just about what you’re choosing, but also about how you’re choosing

• Choices are projects that need management

• Technology can help

• We need new tools

What if ?

When you faced a decision, you could

– Easily create a custom choice support environment

– Share it online with colleagues and other participants

– Draw on pre-existing and evolving info and insights

– Filter and sort through your options as you learn

– Have your rationale automatically documented

– Leave a legacy for others facing a similar choice