HR for Litigation firms: what to set up first

A junior advocate in a litigation firm reaches the district court at ten, discovers that her matter was moved to another court hall the previous evening, and learns of it from the opposite side. The senior clerk had seen the revised cause list on his phone and assumed someone else would tell her. The hearing is adjourned at her cost and the client's irritation.

Litigation work is run by the court's calendar, not the firm's. Hearings, adjournments, orders and listings produce a pace that no HR template fits. This post sets out what to set up first in a firm of this kind, drawing on the page for litigation firms and the broader law firms hub.

A diary is not a notebook on a clerk's desk. It is a shared calendar, updated every evening from the cause lists and every morning from the court websites and registries, showing for each matter: the court, hall and bench, the item number, the advocate appearing and the second person. One named coordinator owns it. A second clerk can read and update it.

• Evening check: tomorrow's listings against the diary, with changes sent to the advocates.
• Morning check: any revised list or notice of the sitting.
• Weekly check: matters with no next date, orders awaiting a certified copy, limitation windows.
• Monthly check: files with no movement for sixty days.

Juniors in many chambers start on a modest stipend and learn by standing behind a senior. The learning varies with the senior's time. The stipend does not change until the junior asks. Many leave before they are useful. A plain plan solves much of this.

1. 1

   Define three stages

   Observer, assistant and appearing junior. State what the junior does in each: carrying files and noting orders, drafting simple applications and replies, appearing in short matters.

2. 2

   Tie stipend steps to stages

   State the stipend at each stage and the typical time. Review every six months with the senior.

3. 3

   Name a mentor

   A senior junior or associate who answers questions and reviews drafts, besides the main advocate.

4. 4

   Rotate across courts and matters

   Civil, criminal, commercial and tribunal exposure on a loose schedule, so the junior's knowledge widens.

5. 5

   Close the learning loop

   Once a month, ask the junior what she learnt, what she drafted and what she would like to try.

Hours follow the court. A rule saying nine to six will be broken daily. What can be fixed is the notice of changes, the compensating time and the fair sharing of last-minute assignments. A rota of who is on call for next-day changes, with a free morning after a late call, works better than ad hoc requests. The page on attendance and leave in litigation firms goes into detail.

DATE / NAME     : ______  ROLE: advocate / junior / clerk
COURT / MATTER  : ______  TASK: appearance / drafting / filing / registry / client
TIME            : from ____ to ____  TRAVEL: ____
ORDERS          : date given, next date, action needed
FOR TOMORROW    : listings, files to pull, people to inform
FLAGS           : anything late, anything at risk

Clerks hold the knowledge of the courts: which counter closes early, which section officer is helpful, which order has been uploaded. Write it down. A one-page note per court, updated by the clerk, and a second clerk who shadows once a month, protects the firm if the senior clerk is absent. Also see role design for litigation firms and learning and development for junior training.

A formal appraisal scheme, a software package and a grade system with many levels can wait until the diary, back-up, learning plan and leave rotation hold. Once they do, review pay and progression with the senior team. If you want a conversation about where to start, use the requirements form.

Clerks carry papers, queue at counters and know which court officer to ask for a certified copy. Their pay is often modest, their hours unpredictable and their name is rarely on any document. A grade structure with a stated path from runner to clerk to senior clerk, a conveyance allowance paid on a fixed date and a yearly conversation about their work shows the firm values them. Written duties and a second person protect both sides if a date is ever missed.

Finally, hold a short monthly meeting where the advocates, juniors and clerks look together at the diary, the files that stalled and the week ahead. It costs half an hour and keeps small slips from becoming large ones.

Small chambers with one senior and two juniors can run all of this from one shared spreadsheet: a tab for the diary, a tab for hours, a tab for the stipend path and a tab for the duties of the clerk. The tool matters less than the person who opens it each morning and the partner who asks about it each Friday.

Put the court's own words on the sheets. Cause list, item number, supplementary list, mention, adjournment, certified copy, paper book, caveat, registry objection. Clerks and juniors work in this language, so the diary and the duty pages should too. It also makes the pages easy to hand to a new joiner on day one.

Keep a one-page note per paper in the clerk's folder and the junior's.