Client notes
What people said after the pack was in the room
These notes name the work we actually did. They are not ratings widgets. One of them records a draft that needed cutting.
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Matter tracking visualisation programme
We had the ageing in a spreadsheet that only two people understood. After the programme, the Monday meeting used the same eight pictures and stopped arguing about which column meant 'waiting on client'. I still think the first draft had two charts too many; we cut them and the pack got quieter, which was better.
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Resource utilisation review
The utilisation review did not tell us anything flattering about March, when two trials collided. It did show that the dip was a fortnight, not a culture. That was worth the fee.
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Partner briefing packs
I asked for an away-day pack that a partner could read on the c2c into Fenchurch Street. Captions were full sentences. No 'insights' banner. The printer complained about a margin; Desktop Craftline fixed it overnight.
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Monthly matter pictures
Monthly pictures arrive the Wednesday before our ops meeting. Once the export was a day late because of a year-end lock; they said so in the covering note instead of pretending the figures were current. I would like them faster in December, and they were honest that they cannot be.
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Docket and diary summaries
The docket summary for a six-week Crown Court stretch showed two of us double-booked on paper we had not noticed because the listings sat in different diaries. Slightly bruising. Useful.
A year of Wednesday packs
Matthew's team already produced a time export every month for finance. What they lacked was a version partners would look at. We froze eight views in September: live matters by status, ageing by last chargeable hour, hours against the department's own target, and panel files sitting with external firms. For eleven months the same views came back with a one-line note if a status code had been renamed. The December pack slipped because the export froze with year-end. Nobody pretended otherwise. The relationship held because the pictures stayed comparable month to month.
A docket fortnight that showed the clash on paper
Claire’s clerking team already knew the Crown Court fortnight was heavy. What they did not have was a single picture of who was attached when listings sat in two diaries. We froze a Monday, drew hearing density by week, and wrote the clash in sentences. The slightly bruising part was not the chart; it was seeing two names on the same Thursday in black type. The follow-up was a staffing conversation the clerks had wanted for a month. We were not in that conversation. The pack had done its job by then.