Our mission at Prout • LeVangie, LLP is to provide clients state-of-the-art legal advice, deliver services efficiently and cost effectively, act as a seamless extension of our clients' interests, and advocate those interests tenaciously and zealously. To meet this test we have assembled an exceptional professional staff. We require proactive continuing legal education and pro bono work in the community. We provide desktop access to every American law, rule and regulation and we demand excellence and client devotion in every matter we undertake.

         • OUR FIRM

"It's high time for the practice of civil trial law to stop ignoring today's business realities - and start embracing them."

 Prout • LeVangie maintains a focus on the practice of civil trial law - within the context of contemporary business. Our practice emphasizes trials, appeals and all aspects of alternative dispute resolution procedures - including mediation, arbitration, summary jury trials and similar approaches to non-traditional claim resolution.

 We also help our clients plan to prevent disputes through our active involvement in risk management - we offer client education presentations on subjects of contemporary interest and emerging liability.

Prout • LeVangie maintains an AV rating, the highest ranking available from the national law firm rating service Martindale Hubbell.

        • OUR FEES

"Forget about all the blue-nose, litigator gobbledygook. We're in business to deliver quality results. For less."

 For far too long the legal profession has held itself above the forces of a competitive marketplace. But this attitude simply does not fit today's business environment. Just as our clients must offer exceptional price/value in order to succeed - so must we.

 To that end, one of Prout • LeVangie's most compelling marketing tools is our billing statement. Every service detail is separately itemized - with the specific time entry clearly presented and calculated to .1 hour. You will find no charge ambiguities, no "block" billing, no minimum fee for service charges - and no cool reception to a fee statement inquiry.

Perhaps most important of all:

                You will not find stratospheric hourly rates.

                You will not find charges for new lawyer on-the-job training.

                You will not find charges for file review by assistants or conflict assignments.

Consistent with our commitment to accommodate the business realties of our clients, we will consider alternative billing/fee arrangements, including fixed fee for service proposals, mixed hourly/contingent fee proposals, straight contingent fee arrangements and other approaches to the cost-effective delivery of legal services.  We encourage creativity from both ourselves and our clients in creating the most effective and efficient fee arrangement.

        • OUR APPROACH

"It's not enough to think like the client's counsel, you must think like the client."

 We recognize that no lawyer can advocate a client's interest properly without knowledge and acceptance of the client's mission and objectives. Accordingly, we will not recommend positions on the left hand - without knowing what the right hand is doing.

 An effective attorney-client relationship is one where, as a team, the client avoids disputes that can and should be avoided, and work together on those that cannot be avoided.

 We view ourselves as seamless extensions of our clients in all aspects of our business and private lives. As such, we preserve confidences and proprietary information without exception - and we seek to assume our client's perspectives in every way possible.

 We have literally reengineered trial practice to eliminate file staffing hierarchies and bureaucracy. Instead, we organize our practice groups around each client matter - staffing it as necessary with those most experienced in the subject matter. Each staff member is directly accountable to the client for the services he or she performs - and is responsible for producing a quality outcome at the lowest cost.

We look before we leap in making discovery disclosures - particularly in multi-jurisdictional cases where consistent responses can be critical. We recognize that one seemingly isolated case can spawn future cases. With thorough "big picture" case assessment at the outset, we avoid later illogical or imprudent changes of position.

 We offer advice and services to all four corners of claim handling: claim avoidance strategies, claim damage control, claim negotiation and claim resolution.

 We work within deadlines, within budgets, within the rules. We do what is necessary, but only what is necessary. Our overarching objective is to exceed our client's expectation, not simply meet them.

       • OUR EXPERIENCE

"Our adversaries know that we're never afraid to go to trial."

 As trial lawyers, we believe that verdicts are often a reflection of the local culture. We also believe that successful negotiations can be profoundly impacted by the reputation of attorneys and their firm. We use this perspective in crafting our arguments and approaches to trial and negotiation advocacy. We think we know the people of California and Nevada and we know many of the lawyers practicing trial law in this area. We have grown up here, been educated here and work here. We know the region - and the region knows us.

 Litigation is now among the facts of life. However, it can be controlled. It can be managed. It can even be prevented. But the people and businesses involved in the process require specialized care. Achieving the best possible result in every case is not a function of luck. Instead, a successful resolution of a case requires experienced and qualified counsel. We have the experience and qualifications to tackle virtually all matters - from simple two party claims to massive industry-wide litigation.

 Appellate advocacy is a highly specialized practice area demanding written brevity, oral persuasiveness and compliance with strict deadlines. For this reason, our lawyers are trained to handle their cases through appeal so no aspect of the case presentation is lost along the way. Our lawyers have argued cases successfully in both the state and federal appellate courts. From case filing to appeal conclusion our firm and your case is well prepared.

         • OUR STAFF

"Of course we've collected our share of academic accolades. But the only honors that really matter are those that we've earned at the counsel table."

 We think our trial and appellate lawyers are exceptional. Our staff includes former law review editors, honors law school graduates and members of various scholastic honor societies. We have recruited judicial law clerks, honors graduates and lawyers with both big and small firm experience.

 Our lawyers routinely lecture at continuing legal education seminars and teach at the local law schools. We are active members of the Defense Research and Trial Lawyers Association and the California Defense Lawyers Association. We bring this depth of hiring, talent and experience to you and all of our clients.

         • OUR RESPONSIVENESS

"When an opportunity presents itself, you have to be ready to reach out and grab it. It's no time for the ill-prepared or faint of heart."

Detailed, timely reporting of file developments is critical to effective litigation management. Opportunities pass quickly and may be irretrievable.

 It takes forethought to anticipate and successfully exploit an adversary's weakness. At Prout • LeVangie we strive to provide our clients with the information necessary to make prompt and prudent tactical decisions.

 We develop our initial theory of the case at file inception, establish a plan of action to carry out our objectives and provide regular status reports and file summaries at important junctures in the life of the case.

Services not offered:

• Overstaffing files
• Reporting procrastination
• Vague, non-descript, block billing
• Pointless efforts
• Unnecessary depositions
• Unnecessary motion practice
• Attendance to meetings where little to nothing is to be accomplished
• Case evaluation surprises
• Courthouse steps settlement capitulation when the case could have been settled before pretrial expense was incurred
• Lawyers who are afraid to try cases (paper tigers)
• Routine file passing among lawyers adding file review expense and disruption in strategy focus

         • OUR SUPPORT

"Our commitment to technology doesn't mean we work less. It means we work intelligently."

 In addition to our trial and appellate lawyers, we employ highly experienced paralegals, who are trained to manage file organization, gather records and documents, assist with basic discovery procedures and do similar tasks, all at lower cost. We also employ law students from the local law schools to serve as law clerks and assist with legal research, writing and similar tasks.

 Our human talent is assisted by a new computer network providing desktop access to legal research, document management systems and on-screen deposition review.

 We also have established relationships with local and national forensic expert witnesses to enhance our position in cases requiring expert opinion testimony. We also employ seasoned investigators capable of gathering information necessary to presentation of the case. In short, we are a full service trial law firm.