Managing Smarter Not Harder 

This panel considered and evaluated strategies for controlling the legal costs of IP disputes in today’s economy, from developing and managing cases according to realistic case budgets to using creative or alternative billing and budgeting techniques to employing automated tools for tracking legal expenses and assessing performance.

• Crafting a realistic case budget that is built upon each case’s specific strategy and client objectives, and then working within that budget as the case moves forward
• Outsourcing as a means of reducing costs, in all potential forms – third-party vendors, contract attorneys, sharing case responsibility with other parties and their counsel, etc.
• Using creative billing and budgeting techniques – hourly rate discounts, “not to exceed monthly budget” fee arrangements, etc.
• Choosing alternative fee/billing arrangements – contingency fee arrangements, blended rate agreements, “success kickers,” and other risk-sharing mechanisms
• Utilizing automated and “real-time” tools for tracking and approving legal expenses and assessing performance

Panelists:

• Alexander Arato, Vice President, Associate General Counsel, CA, Inc.
• Vanessa Cooper, Associate General Counsel, IP & Privacy, Kaplan, Inc.
• John Gutkoski, IP Litigation Practice
• David Kleinfeld, IP Litigation Practice
• Jo Osborn, VP & Assistant General Counsel, TreeHouse Foods, Inc.
• J. Bruce Schelkopf, Chief Counsel, Global IP, Cummins, Inc.