Alexander Investigations

We are very proud to announce the promotion of Jennifer to our team of licensed investigators.

Jennifer has a long history with us. She has been working with us as unlicensed staff since before we incorporated, so she is one of the founding members of our team. Having worked in our office part-time she was already proficient in the kinds of cases we handle and the manner in which we work.

Weekly Newsletter, November 1, 2010

Most of the big name and very successful attorneys with whom I have worked over the years had one thing in common that the smaller firms have been lacking and that is a team approach. Although their public persona may well have been that of one attorney valiantly fighting for the rights of the client, in fact they had a staff of attorneys, paralegals, secretaries and investigators backing them up and making sure they had the most up to date research and information at their fingertips and that they could produce the most complicated, thoroughly researched and well prepared motions overnight. Anyone who understands the sheer volume of work required must instinctively know that the well known front man or front woman did not do this all by themselves and still get enough sleep to appear fresh and energetic in front of the News Cameras on their way into court.

While working with Attorney Thomas Mesereau on the People v Robert Blake murder case, Patti and I headed up a team of investigators that varied from three to as many as eight individuals at any time. The “war room” consisted of several attorneys headed up by Susan Yu, Thomas Mesereau’s co-counsel and future partner as well as several attorneys of varying specialties. This “war room” was frequently working feverishly 24 hours per day, pouring over the 70,000 or so pages of documents, researching the law, preparing court documents, and evaluating investigative reports and witness statements taken by LAPD as well as our Defense Team.

A few years earlier I had been hired by a celebrity in Los Angeles to travel to New York City and conduct an investigation working with their well known and highly successful New York attorney, Jimmy LaRosa. You might recognize that name as he has worked some very high profile cases including many organized crime cases. Mr. Larosa is another, bigger than life celebrity who’s public image is that of the brilliant lone wolf who seems unbeatable in court. I can tell you that this wolf’s den was pretty much an entire floor of a very prestigious office building in downtown Manhattan staffed by an army of brilliant young attorneys and extremely efficient staff.

So, what do these attorneys do with all this help without having them get in the way? It’s all in knowing the capabilities of each and every staff person and applying the best talent to the most appropriate issue. It’s in holding regular meetings with members of the staff or the entire staff, where you get updated on their progress and in which you allow your staff to talk. Let them talk about any aspect of the case they wish to discuss! Do not limit them to their own area of expertise, but encourage thoughts and ideas from everyone from the most senior partner, to the newest clerk. Don’t discourage or limit their involvement. The best part of your closing statement might come from a typist ! The best motion may come from something your investigator says in passing. Don’t let your preconceptions or someone’s lack of a bar card keep you from seriously considering what they have to offer. Once it’s all brought together and presented to the Trier of fact, it is YOUR name in the caption and on the minute order and you who is credited with the win. YOUR team’s win.

So what has this got to do with Sacramento’s criminal defense bar? How will this help a CCD Panel Attorney or a single attorney office who lacks the budget to hire all these people? Well, that’s what this article is about.

ALEXANDER INVESTIGATIONS is a California Corporation, licensed by the State of California. Our team consists of 4 individually licensed investigators with many years of experience who are ready to be YOUR TEAM. Instead of hiring just one of us, when you engage ALEXANDER INVESTIGATIONS, you hire the team. We have gone the extra step of making sure all of our investigators are individually licensed, not just one “qualified manager” and unlicensed staff as the Business and Professions Code allows and as many agencies operate. It is further assurance to our clientele that all who work on any case are fully qualified, experienced investigators. We built this corporation so we could provide a highly qualified team to be engaged as a single source. We believe this model will better serve the clients and the criminal justice system, by maximizing the access to skills and resources not generally available to the smaller law firm or to the indigent defendant.

All our investigators have been approved by CCD and the corporation has one vendor number under which all of our cases are billed. This gives us the ability to ‘team’ each case. In addition to the billable hours we expend on your case, we also invest unbilled time on each case in a number of ways. We have weekly case review meetings where we review the progress in each open case. In these meetings we brain-storm the approach we are taking and share ideas and opinions. These sessions frequently provide us with ideas that open new and better avenues that serve the case and client more effectively. We also encourage the attorneys with whom we work to conference with us as often as they wish. While a certain amount of conference time is expected to be billed to CCD, we will not decline the conference because of pre-authorization monitory limits. We simply do not allow the quality of our work to be diminished by budget. Also when we have the entire team engaged in a conference, the most we will ever bill CCD, will be for the primary investigator’s time, and then only when it fits within the pre-authorization budget.

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	Our Newest Investigator
	Our Newest Investigator

			M. Jennifer Berg PI 26905 We are very proud to announce the promotion of Jennifer to our team of licensed investigators. Jennifer has a long history with us. She has been working with us as unlicensed staff since before we incorporated, so she is one of the founding members of our team. Having worked in our office part-time she was already proficient in the kinds of cases we handle and the manner in which we work. Weekly Newsletter, November 1, 2010 Most of the big name and very successful attorneys with whom I have worked over the years had one thing in common that the smaller firms have been lacking and that is a team approach. Although their public persona may well have been that of one attorney valiantly fighting for the rights of the client, in fact they had a staff of attorneys, paralegals, secretaries and investigators backing them up and making sure they had the most up to date research and information at their fingertips and that they could produce the most complicated, thoroughly researched and well prepared motions overnight. Anyone who understands the sheer volume of work required must instinctively know that the well known front man or front woman did not do this all by themselves and still get enough sleep to appear fresh and energetic in front of the News Cameras on their way into court. While working with Attorney Thomas Mesereau on the People v Robert Blake murder case, Patti and I headed up a team of investigators that varied from three to as many as eight individuals at any time. The “war room” consisted of several attorneys headed up by Susan Yu, Thomas Mesereau’s co-counsel and future partner as well as several attorneys of varying specialties. This “war room” was frequently working feverishly 24 hours per day, pouring over the 70,000 or so pages of documents, researching the law, preparing court documents, and evaluating investigative reports and witness statements taken by LAPD as well as our Defense Team. A few years earlier I had been hired by a celebrity in Los Angeles to travel to New York City and conduct an investigation working with their well known and highly successful New York attorney, Jimmy LaRosa. You might recognize that name as he has worked some very high profile cases including many organized crime cases. Mr. Larosa is another, bigger than life celebrity who’s public image is that of the brilliant lone wolf who seems unbeatable in court. I can tell you that this wolf’s den was pretty much an entire floor of a very prestigious office building in downtown Manhattan staffed by an army of brilliant young attorneys and extremely efficient staff. So, what do these attorneys do with all this help without having them get in the way? It’s all in knowing the capabilities of each and every staff person and applying the best talent to the most appropriate issue. It’s in holding regular meetings with members of the staff or the entire staff, where you get updated on their progress and in which you allow your staff to talk. Let them talk about any aspect of the case they wish to discuss! Do not limit them to their own area of expertise, but encourage thoughts and ideas from everyone from the most senior partner, to the newest clerk. Don’t discourage or limit their involvement. The best part of your closing statement might come from a typist ! The best motion may come from something your investigator says in passing. Don’t let your preconceptions or someone’s lack of a bar card keep you from seriously considering what they have to offer. Once it’s all brought together and presented to the Trier of fact, it is YOUR name in the caption and on the minute order and you who is credited with the win. YOUR team’s win. So what has this got to do with Sacramento’s criminal defense bar? How will this help a CCD Panel Attorney or a single attorney office who lacks the budget to hire all these people? Well, that’s what this article is about. ALEXANDER INVESTIGATIONS is a California Corporation, licensed by the State of California. Our team consists of 4 individually licensed investigators with many years of experience who are ready to be YOUR TEAM. Instead of hiring just one of us, when you engage ALEXANDER INVESTIGATIONS, you hire the team. We have gone the extra step of making sure all of our investigators are individually licensed, not just one “qualified manager” and unlicensed staff as the Business and Professions Code allows and as many agencies operate. It is further assurance to our clientele that all who work on any case are fully qualified, experienced investigators. We built this corporation so we could provide a highly qualified team to be engaged as a single source. We believe this model will better serve the clients and the criminal justice system, by maximizing the access to skills and resources not generally available to the smaller law firm or to the indigent defendant. All our investigators have been approved by CCD and the corporation has one vendor number under which all of our cases are billed. This gives us the ability to ‘team’ each case. In addition to the billable hours we expend on your case, we also invest unbilled time on each case in a number of ways. We have weekly case review meetings where we review the progress in each open case. In these meetings we brain-storm the approach we are taking and share ideas and opinions. These sessions frequently provide us with ideas that open new and better avenues that serve the case and client more effectively. We also encourage the attorneys with whom we work to conference with us as often as they wish. While a certain amount of conference time is expected to be billed to CCD, we will not decline the conference because of pre-authorization monitory limits. We simply do not allow the quality of our work to be diminished by budget. Also when we have the entire team engaged in a conference, the most we will ever bill CCD, will be for the primary investigator’s time, and then only when it fits within the pre-authorization budget.



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		Last update: 10/28/2010