Introduction to Procedures

Useful tips on how to use our written procedures.

Our written procedures standardize the methods we employ for tasks and activities that should be accomplished in a specific way. The purpose of standardization is to create uniformity, to promote quality control and to avoid the chaos that can result when everyone tries to figure out their own separate solutions to certain problems or tasks. Standardization is valuable because it provides the Firm with the ability to accurately predict, monitor and control how tasks are completed, and reduces lost time and effort on the part of personnel who would otherwise grapple with an issue in search of a process or method to accomplish a task.

Layout and Navigation

The first step is to simply be aware that a Procedure exists for a certain activity, task or process. The fastest and best way to become familiar with the contents of this website is to spend time browsing through it, examining the various menu options that exist for Policy, Procedures and other parts of The training activity sets that are assigned to personnel are designed to raise that level of awareness within our team. Each part of this secure web site (such as Policy, Procedures, Practice Tools and the Library) have menus of their own that make the structure of the section clear and easy to survey and navigate.

Some of the Firm’s Procedures are short and succinct; others are more lengthy and contain explanations of the theory of a Procedure. Some contain subsections with separate checklists and sub-procedures. We have made it very easy to navigate within lengthy Procedures using table of contents links which take you to specific sections and checklists.

Note: there is a search button at the top of each web page, which allows you to search the entire site content for specific words and phrases.

Also, we employ colored text boxes in our Policies and Procedures to call out particular kinds of information, as follows:

Checklist Box

  • Lists of important or necessary items in no specific order

Examples of billing entries for SharePoint Document Review & Analysis:

  1. When adding event and document dates (LSS work only):

    “Work on chronology of events based upon review of _____________ [description] documents received by firm.”

  2. When adding other metadata, such as issues, comments and keywords:

    “Review and analysis of records from _________ [source of records] relating to ____________ [subject matter].”

Key Information Box: This type of box is intended to call attention to information of vital importance. Reading this information alone is not a substitute for reading an entire procedure or policy, but knowing this type of information is essential.
WARNING! Alerts you to avoid certain harmful or dangerous mistakes.
Good Example Box: Contains examples of good practices found in dialogue, discussions, letters, pleadings and briefs. In some instances, may be worth cutting and pasting into actual working documents as template material, subject to further editing.
Bad Example Box: Contains examples of undesirable practices of the kind the Firm has encountered in the past or which help to illustrate what to avoid.