Timely communication is one of the constant challenges of war room and trial setup.  It used to be that a phone call or a quick run to fetch a document during a break was as good at it got.  Needless to say, electronic communications has changed process dramatically.  Access to information is now virtually instantaneous.  What do you need to know to harness that power for your war room?  Below are a few considerations drawn from the experiences of my trial support team.

War Room Setup
A war room is usually set up as an "office away from the office," a strategic center for document review, trial planning and general team use.  Most, if not all, of your war room equipment will be hard-wired in the traditional way.  This will include one or more servers, printers, faxes, scanners and other tools essential for electronic document management and communication.  However, you may also have wireless options.  Most laptops now come with wireless capability, and you can access any "public" system without special setup.   When deciding the location for your war room, remember to ask about the type of Internet access available and the charges associated with that access.

Internet Access
Whether you are wired or wireless, access to the Internet gets you only partway to your goal.  It is important to set up secure remote connectivity with you home office.  You will want to work with your networking team to determine how that can best be achieved in your environment.  We use VPN, and there are other products to consider such as Aventail, Citrix and Microsoft Terminal Server.  Secure remote connectivity will allow you to see your system as if you were operating from your home office, without creating risk.

Wireless Air Cards
You can avoid the constraints of the hotel landline or costly hotel wireless by using a wireless air card.  Air cards are available from many national carriers.  Usage requires an appropriate port in your laptop, software provided by the carrier and a few minutes of time to install the software with a wizard.  Once you've signed a contract with the carrier, you can be up and running quickly.  The benefits are substantial.  Air cards enable you to:

• Research or work from anywhere with coverage (airport, hotel, war room, courtroom, etc.)
• Use a familiar e-mail interface
• Coordinate efficiently with a home office or war room
• Retrieve or transfer documents instantly
• Operate on your own schedule

Costs
Cards can be purchased for $100 to $250.  Plans range in cost, depending primarily on the length of the contract.  Our firm has five cards to serve 375 attorneys.  These are checked out most of the time, but there is usually at least one card on hand to distribute.

Drawbacks and Challenges
Not all providers are equal.  Bandwidth and area coverage can be issues.  The number of customers using your national wireless carrier at any given moment can affect the speed of your connection.  Most wireless providers have coverage maps you can consult; however, just as with a cell phone, the card may not work within that coverage area under all circumstances.  Dense concrete walls or other signal obstructions can interfere with reception.  When you do your pretrial courtroom visit, use that opportunity to test your wireless card.

Some technologies can't go wireless.  Some technology does not perform well over wireless.  This is true whether you are working in the war room or courtroom.  Litigation support databases, case management software, transcript software and trial presentation software may run slowly over wireless communications.  These tools eat up bandwidth.  For example, it will take longer to open a TIFF over a wireless connection than at your office workstation.  Waiting for an image to open in a courtroom in front of a jury will give the impression of incompetence.

This bandwidth issue may be remedied in the future.  For now, restrict your expectations to e-mail, document retrieval or simple transfers.  You will want to have local copies of databases available.  Test any special needs ahead of time, and set the expectations with the rest of the legal team.

Cards require management.  From an administrative perspective, the card is yet another item to manage.  If you intend to use the card for firmwide support, you'll have to track the users.  This requires designating someone to manage the card checkout and return.  In our case, we have designated the primary purpose of the cards to be trial and litigation support.  We sometimes loan the card out for business purposes other than trial, although we do not allow people to take them on vacation.  You will want to determine how best to use your cards without jeopardizing your readiness for trial.

Wireless in the Courthouse
Most courtrooms are not yet equipped with wireless technology, but some are, and the number will increase.  It is up to the judge whether electronic devices are allowed in the courtroom.  Check with a representative of the court before trial.  Ask if these are permitted, and if the answer is yes, coordinate setup with the court's IT representative.  Note that BlackBerry devices and other handhelds may have to be checked at the door.  You'll want to be sure that if you're bringing in a wireless card, its purpose is understood.

Good To Go
In general, you'll find that the benefits of wireless access outweigh the drawbacks.  You'll appreciate the increased responsiveness it extends to your team.  But like most litigation technology, you'll want to think through the issues before embarking.

About our author . . .

Vic Peterson is Director of Practice Support at Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP.  He joined the firm in 2003, and he has significant experience in practice support management including in-house and vendor-hosted litigation support.  He has advocated the benefits of technology to attorneys and other firm users through presentations at practice division meetings and other appropriate venues, as well as established best practices for litigation support, trial presentations, electronic court filing and other nonlitigation practice area needs.  He can be reached at VPeterson@stinson.com.