Continuing my series on “quick and dirty” process improvement initiatives that don’t cost anything to implement:
Initiative #2: Get a handle on your Forms
Continuing our last discussion on document assembly, few tasks are more important than to review and “certify” all client-facing and official form document formats. Most firms use a mish-mash of forms cobbled together over many years, developed by different attorneys across practices, acclimated from acquired practice groups, or added to the repertoire by previous “process engineering” initiatives. Today, however, these forms libraries are generally unwieldy, and rarely represent current firm policies or regulatory office requirements. Believe it or not, there are still a preponderance of firms that are using proprietary document formats for USPTO official filing forms. Get a handle on your forms!
It’s time to pull them all out, review them, and revise them all. Establish a current set of “approved” forms goes a long way to making work more efficient, and to mitigate risk. It’s about more than making the forms look good (although a uniform and attractive set of correspondence do go a long way to establishing brand identity) – use the opportunity to formalize and codify practice policy and procedure. You’ll ensure that not only the appropriate language is used, but also that the correspondence in fact occurs. These are all also strong functions of an effective risk mitigation strategy as well.
Full Name
Eyal Iffergan
Location
Sugar Land, TX
