Heidi Bradley Shares Best Practices for Working with Local Counsel

For much of my career, I regularly hired local counsel to work with me on national cases. And this is where I confess that I was not great at working with local counsel. Sure, I'd ask them for general intel about our assigned judge at the start of the case. I'd check with them to make sure our briefs were formatted correctly, and I was always glad to have their help with local filings. But other than that, I'm afraid to say I didn't spend much time thinking about how I could best utilize local counsel to serve our shared client. 

Then I moved from Los Angeles back home to Seattle, and I found myself more often on the "local" side of the local counsel relationship. I certainly got a taste of my own medicine. I have now had my share of cases where I wasn't much more than a mail-stop for national counsel. But I've also had the absolute pleasure of working in a local counsel capacity with superb national counsel who recognize the value that the right local counsel can bring to a case. And I've found that—even as local counsel—I can contribute in ways that are much more meaningful than just formatting and filing briefs.

Think of local counsel as an extension of your case team: In the very best local counsel relationships I've seen, national and local counsel function more like co-counsel, and the firms figure out together who is best positioned to take on particular tasks in a case. This might mean having local counsel handle certain in-person depositions when it doesn't make sense for national counsel to travel in. Or it could mean asking local counsel to research more nuanced issues of state law. It might also mean looping local counsel in on document review or other labor-intensive tasks. In many cases, hourly rates for even top-notch local counsel can be meaningfully lower than rates for national counsel. Bringing on local counsel to help with time-intensive tasks can result in real cost-savings for the client. It can also allow the team to flex up and down more nimbly depending on case needs.

Imagine being able to pitch to a client that, rather than local counsel just being an added expense and another law firm to pay, they can actually improve efficiency and contribute meaningfully to a successful outcome in your case. Of course, this kind of teamwork is only possible if you've picked the right local counsel at the outset and have kept them involved and informed throughout the litigation so they're ready to jump in when it makes sense for them to do so. Here are some best practices I've seen that allow local counsel to contribute most helpfully to the success of your case.

Pick the right local counsel: Local counsel should be very familiar with the court where the case is pending and ideally with your assigned judge. (But note: as with many other state courts, judicial assignments in King County Superior Court here in Washington rotate annually and a judge may or may not keep your case upon rotation, so familiarity with your originally-assigned judge might be less critical in those cases). You'll also want someone who is familiar with your area of law. So, for example, if you need local counsel in the Western District of Washington or King County Superior Court for a complex commercial case—antitrust, securities, trade secret, contract dispute, class action, and the like—​I'm your woman. But if you need someone for a product liability or employment discrimination case, I know a lot of terrific lawyers in the area I'd be happy to refer you to instead. ​For cases in especially far-flung places, it can sometimes be tricky to find sophisticated local counsel who is familiar with the judge or the venue and is versed in your area of law. But it's worth making the effort, because a great local counsel can be a real difference-maker if you're thoughtful in how you use them. (Tip: Go beyond the cursory email to your firm asking if anyone knows a lawyer in a particular jurisdiction. LinkedIn is a terrific tool for figuring out who in your network practices or knows someone else who practices in a given jurisdiction. You can also use some of the more reputable attorney rankings (Chambers, etc.) to find well-resepcted lawyers with the practice-area experience you're looking for). 

Keep the conversation going: Good local counsel can not only give you general background on the forum and the judge at the outset of the case (something you should ALWAYS ask for) but can continue to provide insight throughout the litigation. They can make the kinds of contributions that help maintain credibility with the judge or craft arguments that resonate most meaningfully with him or her. Talk to your local counsel as you think through how to best frame up early motion practice, for example. Is your assigned judge someone who is very familiar with this area of law, or will this be unfamiliar territory for them? If they're less familiar or less comfortable, more background on the legal standard and basic legal landscape may be in order in the briefing. Does your judge take a more formalistic view of the legal elements of a claim on motions to dismiss, or do they have a more pragmatic approach? Either way, you'll want to know. ​In another example, where there's a question about how firmly to hold the line on a discovery dispute, local counsel can provide critical insights that help guide your negotiations with opposing counsel. How important is it in your forum and for your assigned judge that there has been a genuine give and take in the meet and confer process? And once you reach an impasse, are there any special procedures that judges prefer to see used for raising discovery disputes in this court? (Spoiler: the answer in the Western District of Washington is yes, but the procedure can be painful in practice, so talk to your local counsel!) Local counsel can also give valuable insights on your jury pool, and may also be familiar with opposing counsel or other players in the case. 

Send them your briefs before it's time for filing: Wherever possible, send early drafts of briefs well before filing. This helps for a couple of reasons. First, substantively, local counsel can provide feedback on the arguments or approach in the brief. They can read the brief with fresh eyes and tell you if it might be helpful to include more (or less) explanation for your assigned judge, or suggest an argument that might resonate with the local court. In practice, as local counsel I very rarely line edit a draft brief sent by national counsel. I leave most style decisions and the like to national counsel. More often, I'll notice an argument that I think might resonate particularly with our judge and encourage national counsel to highlight that argument, for example. And it never hurts to have another set of eyes to catch typos or other issues. The second reason is more practical—if local counsel is doing the filing, it can be helpful for them to know the scale of the filing in advance. Is it a simple motion and supporting declaration, or will this filing include a dozen declarations and hundreds of exhibits? I guarantee filing days will be much easier and less stressful for everyone if local counsel has been able to advise in advance about the peculiarities of local formatting and other filing rules. (And you'll want all the time you can get with our 4:30 filing deadline here in King County Superior.)

Include them in (some) team updates: It perhaps goes without saying that the more information local counsel has on your case, the more valuable insights they can provide. So I strongly recommend including your local counsel in the joint defense group if it's that type of case, and putting them on any email distribution lists you have for the case. And while local counsel doesn't necessarily need to participate in every team meeting, including them in some meetings can be an easy way to make sure they're up to speed on the case, and you might be surprised at how often they can add valuable local color on the topic of the day. Some national counsel can be wary about getting local counsel too involved at this level for fear of running up fees by two law firms working on the same case in tandem. But I have found in practice that including local counsel on correspondence and in meetings rarely has the effect of significantly increasing fees and can actually improve efficiency when local counsel's input is needed because they're already up to speed on the issues. As local counsel, I never charge clients for time I spend simply monitoring email traffic regarding a case, but it's always helpful to be in the loop so I can offer advice as I see issues where a local perspective could be useful. 

Whether you’re on the local or national counsel side of things, I’d love to hear your war stories. What works for you? Any other best practices for making the most of your local counsel situations?