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Legal Services Bureau Communications Plan

  1. Each attorney will meet with chief legal counsel weekly for one hour; the MSP attorney may do this via conference call. During the meeting, the chief will stress the need for open discussion of issues and potential problems, and discuss each attorney's caseload.
  2. All bureau staff will meet once each week for a unit meeting. It is presently held on Tuesday at 1:30. During this meeting, the staff will be reminded of imminent deadlines and will have an opportunity to discuss and debate legal issues of concern to the group. Staff is expected to put items on the agenda at least one hour before the meeting.
  3. Chief legal counsel or her designee will meet every other week for 45 minutes with the department director. During this meeting, the chief will communicate any problems or concerns facing the legal unit.
  4. Chief legal counsel or her designee will attend the chief legal counsel meetings conducted by the attorney general and the governor's attorney and will report to the bureau any noteworthy problems or issues of concern addressed in the meeting.
  5. Chief legal counsel will assign each attorney a department division for which the attorney will take responsibility. For the division, each attorney will:
    1. Attend meetings of the division to communicate with members of the division;
    2. Update the division about changes in the law that effect the division;
    3. Meet with management of the division to communicate and address legal issues of concern;
    4. Keep the chief legal counsel apprised of any issues of concern or major legal projects within the attorney's assigned division.
  6. Chief legal counsel will communicate with all legal unit staff through response to the daily of items that have come into the unit from any source or produced by the unit. In the response the chief will comment on work produced by staff and will assign specific work and deadlines. Staff is expected to communicate through replies to the response if a staff member has information pertinent to an item in the scan.
  7. Chief legal counsel or her designee will attend the weekly roundtable discussion and update the group about litigation or major events of interest from the legal unit.
  8. The chief legal counsel will attend the management team meetings. The chief will update the team of current litigation for each division and some bureaus and will update the team about the state of currect legal issues.
  9. Chief legal counsel will assign an attorney to attend the quarterly meeting between the department and the state Board of Pardons andParole. The chief will usually assign the attorney who has responsibility for the board to attend this meeting, or may elect to attend herself. Whoever attends the meeting for the legal unit will report to the unit at the next weekly meeting about the items the group discussed.
  10. Legal unit paralegals, investigators, and administrative support will communicate with their supervisor on a consistent and regular basis. They will bring issues of importance to the attention of the unit during the weekly unit meeting.