The functionality of your war room is reliant upon many factors. To reduce stress, time loss and inefficiency, Piganelli provides these essential elements for setting up your war room, from designating a project manager, to acquiring IT support, to working with outside consultants.

One of the more critical elements in successfully executing a trial with the use of technology is the functionality of the war room. Trying cases is a very intense, time-consuming and exhausting project. The planning and preparation that come with getting ready for trial requires a “round the clock” schedule. The challenges get a little more hands-on when the trial team decides to use technology to organize, retrieve and present case evidence. Most trial teams don’t think about a war room setup or the technology needed early enough in the trial logistics planning. Neglecting these important elements can add unnecessary stress and make for an unorganized and uncomfortable trial experience.

Simply stated, the war room is the place where a trial team functions when not in court. I have always liked the term “war room” because it truly defines the atmosphere. Most who have been in an intensely contested trial know just what I mean. You are at war on behalf of your client, and the war room is your strategy headquarters. More specifically, it defines a place where a trial team works and prepares for trial on a day-to-day basis.

The Need for a Mobile War Room

First question: Is the trial local or will you be traveling a long distance from your office? Any time you go to trial, you need a war room, whether formal or informal. War rooms can range from a conference room at the office, reserved for the duration of the trial, to a fully functional remote office set up in a hotel conference center or a short-term office space rental if your trial is out of town. It’s important to have a space to work in when you are not in court.

If your trial is in your hometown and your office is within a reasonable distance of the courthouse, a majority of the planning is significantly reduced. You will have your basic needs met, with a few additions for the incorporation of trial presentation technology.

The bigger challenge is setting up a virtual war room with full functionality away from your office. A general rule of thumb is to have all the comforts of home in your temporary location. Accomplishing this makes the working environment of the war room more fluid and efficient, but it requires much more planning.

Home Office War Room

Being “home” while in trial provides the base camp environment for the trial team, with some additions, such as after-hours Information Technology support, litigation support and clerical support.

Many times, lawyers or administrators don’t remember to schedule IT or litigation support assistance for after-court hours until it’s too late. Someone needs to be designated to support the trial team’s IT needs for things such as e-mail being down or last-minute printing problems. This can be especially critical when opposing counsel is e-mailing you their witness list for the next day or you need to print something for the court. A simple plan to have someone available or on call will save you many headaches. Your IT staff even can set up remote access from their homes — that way the IT expert doesn’t have to physically be in the office to assist you and can work on any problems immediately.

Off-Site War Room

Planning an off-site war room in another city can be more complicated than working from home. To start, you should assemble a logistics team. Think of your logistics team as a temporary committee whose task is to organize and set up the war room. Project management is critical during this process. The lead trial attorney must communicate what he or she needs, wants and expects to the logistics team long before trial to avoid miscommunications.

Also, there must be a designated project manager to work with outside service providers. The project manager should be the liaison in all areas and the main point of contact. Often, in smaller cases, a paralegal or legal assistant takes on this responsibility. In larger cases, a firm administrator, litigation support manager or associate attorney is assigned as liaison. This person must address these issues:

living accommodations for the trial team, witnesses and consultants; war room space setup; transportation to and from the airport; meals and accommodations for a place for the trial team to eat; snacks and beverages for the war room and courtroom; determining what technology is needed, what the team already has and what needs to be purchased or rented; hiring and managing outside consultants; and daily transportation to and from trial. All of these tasks require a team member to plan and orchestrate them. This individual must have good communication and organizational skills, know the case and know the trial team. This person also must be versatile.

Finally, IT support is critical when setting up a war room. The IT, litigation support or outside consultant should take care of the technology setup, communications, electrical needs and interfacing with the local vendors for all technology issues. Six months prior to trial, the IT manager or a consultant should begin checking into temporary office space, along with investigating the communications services available.

IT will need to research items such as Internet service, phone communication, remote connectivity with the home office via Citrix, a virtual private network, wide area network and so forth. All of this planning will make it easier for the trial team to function in a remote environment during the long hours and stress the team will experience during trial. Part of this planning includes contacting the telephone company, Internet service provider and data communications companies that service the local area. Network needs should be identified and IT support staff should develop a plan for addressing them. Have the potential ISP or communications company set up temporary service and get a firm commitment on when the company will install and activate the service. Make sure they have the services up and running and tested at least one week before the trial team moves to the temporary location. This might require one or more trips to the site to arrange for these services.

Office Space

Securing office space for a war room can be very challenging. Most landlords of temporary office space want some kind of lease. With cases settling at various times, you should negotiate a lease whereby a lease cancellation fee for a fraction of the entire amount will be paid.

Ideally, it’s better to have the war room office close to the courthouse and the hotel or living accommodations you plan to use during the trial. This will make it easier for the trial team to work late, get to their rooms, have meals and get to court without encountering transportation problems.

Best case scenario: Some hotels have convention space or business center offices that are part of the hotel property. They usually are equipped with enough power, existing Internet services, on-site technical support and office furniture for full functionality. If possible, get space that has separate offices. This way, lawyers can prepare witnesses in private rooms, trial team members can work in their own space and phone conversations can be conducted in private.

Frequent case scenario: Most trial teams use hotel rooms for war rooms. Generally, hotel rooms are not equipped for setting up an office. When this is your only reasonable option, work with the hotel’s staff to bring in additional power, phone lines and high-speed Internet connections. This must be accomplished early in the planning phase. If you are required to rent furniture, make sure you acquire good, comfortable office chairs for working long hours. Having the war room close to the team’s hotel rooms ensures the team doesn’t have to travel far after a long day in court and a long night in the war room. However, everyone working in one room without separate work areas can make the trial team feel a little crazy and uncomfortable.

If you must use hotel rooms as temporary office space, here are some suggestions: Try to book multiple rooms with adjoining doors to have separate rooms to work in. Also, try to book personal rooms on the same floor but not too close to the war rooms. This will give the trial team some separation from work during off hours.

Basic Technology for the War Room

On-site computer and network

You will need a temporary network for the trial team while at the off-site location during the trial. In a perfect world, you would have a temporary network set up in your war room that simulates your home office work environment. Get your IT team involved very early in this process.

Your setup should include an on-site server with all case data available at the trial location. The trial team, no matter how small, will need to share files and have access to all case-related material to work on collaboratively. All the reasons you have a network back home are the same reasons you should have one at your temporary site. Most IT professionals can set up an inexpensive, simple network that is client-server or peer-to-peer based.

Ideally, all support staff, including those who don’t go to court every day, should have their own PCs. Your IT manager should be able to assist with the “replication” of a workstation so the user feels at home.

One of the biggest mistakes firms make is to rely on their existing remote connectivity setup to access information at the firm while on-site or in the war room. Don’t rely on an Internet connection to access case data from your firm’s server back home.

You don’t want a down Internet line to stop you from printing out exhibits you plan to take to court the next day. You need to be self-sufficient and independent. Copy all data from your firm network to have it with you at the trial site.

The same rules apply in the war room as they do in your office. You need security to prevent any virus catastrophes from happening. Virus protection software and Internet firewall technology are a non-negotiable element of the setup.

High-speed printing

You will need at least one laser color printer with the ability to print at high speeds for printing hard copies of your demonstratives for the court and your opponents. Make sure you have extra toner cartridges and the drivers on CD for anyone involved in the trial to be able to hook up their laptops to the printer.

Copier

Make sure you have your own copier in your war room. Never rely on the hotel’s copy equipment or services. If you rent a copier, make sure it can print on paper of all sizes and can three-hole punch for binders. Make sure you establish a service agreement for the duration of the trial.

Scanners

Most firms I work with have good in-house technology but usually outsource scanning. They typically don’t own a good scanner for in-house needs. Assuming you are using a computerized method to present exhibits in court, inevitably last-minute documents need to be scanned into the trial database for use in court. Your opponents will hand you last-minute documents they plan to use during their direct exam that they claim “just came

into their possession.” What type of scanners should you use? That depends. If you suspect your opponent will bombard you with a large amount of documents throughout the duration of the trial, then you will need a high-speed scanner. No one wants to sit in a war room scanning boxes of documents with a slow scanner that scans six pages per minute.

If you don’t already own an adequate scanner and dedicated PC, you should rent them from a company that provides hardware integration for the war room. Most likely, a fast black and white scanner will work best. It’s very rare that you will need to scan a large amount of color documents or photographs during trial after hours. You should not need a duplex scanner in a war room because most litigation documents are produced and copied only on one side.

Laptops

Not enough can be said about a good, reliable, powerful laptop to work with in the war room and to take to court. It’s by far the best way to work during trial when you are taking technology to and from the courthouse every day. Make sure your IT department loads all needed software onto your laptop.

Digital evidence processing

Depending on the type and size of the case you are trying, you might need some digital evidence processing equipment. I already have mentioned the ideal type of scanner. Other processing equipment includes a digital video compression board that allows you to process video tape to digital files. You also will need conversion software to convert DVD movie type files to regular digital video.

Data transfer and removable media

Depending on the quantity of electronic data, it might not all fit on the laptop being used for the computerized presentation. It’s critical to have all case evidence at your fingertips. This can be accomplished by using equipment pieces such as an external hard drive with universal serial bus or FireWire connectivity. These external hard drives can hold hundreds of gigabites of data and usually are plug-and-play. They also easily allow you to transfer large amounts of data from the war room to the courtroom.

You must be able to easily produce a CD or DVD with a CD or DVD burner to transfer sets of information to the courtroom or for backup. Unlike hard drives that can fail if they are dropped or damaged, CDs and DVDs are a reliable and durable way to transfer data. You can’t transfer the same large amounts of data at one time, but it’s the most reliable mode of storage or transferability.

One of the greatest inventions for data storage is the jump drive. These little USB devices, which now hold up to 2GB of data, can plug into any PC or laptop and easily copy files. This is a must when at a trial site. It’s easy to use, and when in a bind, it’s an easy way to get data from one machine to another.

Setting Up a Witness Preparation Room

I recommend having a witness preparation room where attorneys and consultants can meet with witnesses in private to prepare them for testifying. Try to set up similar technology in the witness prep room that you have in the courtroom (i.e., a large screen, projector, laptop, flat-panel monitor, etc). This will assist the lawyers and witnesses in adjusting to the technology they will use in the courtroom.

Plan B — Just In Case

Typically, the war room at trial isn’t a place in which you want things to go wrong. But as we all know, Murphy’s Law always is evident during trials. The trick is to be prepared.

First, have an on-site backup system for all data and technology in the event you have a total crash. I usually carry a backup hard drive to my room. I keep the trial data (e.g., exhibits, video, graphics, etc.) stored in three separate places. Also, it’s not a bad idea to have spare equipment available in case of hardware failure. Finding a reputable rental company in the city you are in can be valuable. Let them know you are in town and might need their services. You might pay more for the quick call, but knowing you have access to them is worth it. It’s also a good idea to locate the nearest computer supply store for a last-minute purchase or in case something goes wrong.

Working With Outside Consultants

Many trial teams choose to work with an outside consultant during trial. It might be a jury consultant, a technical expert consultant or a computerized trial presentation consultant. These consultants need to have the same connectivity as the trial team. Here are just a few questions you should ask the outside consultants before they arrive: What technologies are they bringing and why? Do they need Internet access? Do they need to connect to their home or work office via VPN or Citrix?

Outside consultants might not need unrestricted access to the firm’s networked files, but make sure they have access to the case data they need to do their jobs. Your trial presentation consultants also might be able to serve as backup IT assistants. If they are familiar with your technology setup, they might be able to assist with the after hours support because they typically have some additional technology proficiencies and already are on-site.

The dynamic and fast-paced elements of a trial, especially when incorporated with computerized presentation, mean that setting up a war room early is a critical component of the entire project management. Having a thorough plan, starting early and keeping lines of communication open during the planning and setup phase will save you the burden of crisis management.