Mass torts litigation management has two distinct and interrelated parts: (1) the actual trial workup and litigation of the cases as individual product liability actions; and (2) the coordination and organization of the thousands of cases comprising the litigation. This article is about the latter aspect of mass torts litigation management and how the skill and effectiveness with which the litigation is managed will have a defining effect on the result of the litigation aspect of the case and the likelihood of achieving the client’s goals. To that end, the application of project management — an interdisciplinary subset of operations management incorporating human resources, risk management and leadership principles — may be useful in the mass torts litigation setting, where the coordination and organization of a mass torts litigation may be viewed as an interdisciplinary project with multiple distinct but intertwined functions.
When applying project management principles to a mass torts litigation, a project manager is chosen by senior attorneys to head the project team. The project manager should have significant stature within the law firm or corporation, possess the confidence and support of senior attorneys, and be focused on obtaining results. This person will need to rely heavily on both people skills and a math aptitude, so an individual with either a natural or developed ability to work with different types of people and problems will likely have the skills consistent with the situations faced by a project manager. It is also important that this person understand litigation and the decisions faced by both upper-level management and the trial attorneys so as to be able to forecast the needs of upper-level management, the trial attorneys, and, of course, the client. As such, an attorney who is also schooled and/or skilled in the management sciences may be the right fit for this position. The project manager should be a facilitator managing people who approach their varying disciplines analytically.
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