The coronavirus pandemic has increased uncertainty in nearly every part of life, including for legal professionals – as proceedings are delayed, appearances are conducted remotely and no one is sure when, or if, courtrooms will return to normal.

It’s in times of uncertainty that having an ace up your sleeve can be all the more important, particularly when a major case finally goes to trial or the unexpected happens at the least opportune moment.

Avalon Legal seeks to provide support to its clients, which include a multitude of Omaha area law firms and legal departments, through litigation support, printing and mailing, e-discovery and cybersecurity, and more services.

Sam DelSenno, managing partner of Avalon’s Omaha office, has years of experience helping solve problems for attorneys – so much so that he has likened his business to a fire station, where employees leap into action to come to the aid of their clients.

“We’ve had these clients for a long time,” DelSenno said.

DelSenno still operates out of a print shop in the Central Park Plaza Building, although the sign on the door and the suite in the building have changed in recent years.

Most recently, the business had been owned by Special Counsel, which purchased D4 in 2015. D4, in turn, had bought out Omaha Legal Services – originally Omaha Legal Copies – from DelSenno in 2013. Special Counsel decided last summer to exit the Omaha market, though, creating an opportunity for Avalon to step in.

DelSenno, who has stayed at the helm throughout the changes, was contacted by Avalon shortly after Special Counsel’s abrupt closure of the business. Avalon wanted to open an Omaha office, so DelSenno moved his operation under Avalon’s umbrella.

That allowed the company to continue offering the same services – plus a few more – while not leaving their clients in a lurch without support.

“Avalon saw an opportunity to continue to serve the clients in Omaha,” DelSenno said. “I felt like there was good synergy with Avalon. It just fit for Omaha.”

Although, he admitted, “it was kind of a crazy summer for me.”

Christopher R. Hedican, a partner at Baird Holm LLP, is one of those clients who has worked with DelSenno and his team for many years.

“The team has stayed the same though the employer has changed,” Hedican said. “However, Sam has remained incredibly responsive as always and added a group of technical experts at Avalon that match his customer focus.”

Avalon continues to offer all the paper services – printing, copying, scanning – that is typically wrapped around litigation, such as assembling binders of exhibits. Those orders often operate on extremely tight deadlines with the expectation of impeccable accuracy.

“It has got to be perfect,” DelSenno said. “We can’t miss a document.”

Avalon also offers electronic discovery and digital forensics services. The firm’s teams can go through digital mountains of emails, cellphone records, computer drives and other records to process data, clean it up, parse it out and prepare it for discovery.

That allows the legal professionals to focus on the information without dealing with the clerical tasks that might otherwise take up time, drain resources and invite the opportunity for mistakes. It can also help even the odds when a firm lacks the human resources to process everything themselves.

Since transitioning to Avalon, the company now has three new services for its clients:

• Accident reconstruction,

• Cybersecurity, and

• Managed office services.

Avalon’s national office has a department of former law enforcement specialists who know how to reconstruct accidents using the facts and science.

Clients receive a full report as well as a model that communicates what happened in the crash, DelSenno said. The firm can provide experts to testify, and the work can sometimes help speed up progress toward a settlement.

“It comes in handy with personal injury cases,” DelSenno said.

The firm also has a cybersecurity team that can respond to incidents such as a stolen credit card as well as provide vulnerability, penetration and similar tests. Avalon can even provide live monitoring of a firm’s or legal department’s information technology system, working with chief information officers or information technology directors while bringing a legal perspective to meet the requirements of attorneys.

“We have a very legal bent to it,” DelSenno said. “We’re looking at it not just from a compliance, but also from the legal side of things.”

For clients that don’t want to deal with some of the hassles of running a legal office – such as mailrooms, copy centers, conference rooms or reception – can outsource those tasks to Avalon.

“We’ll take that over and manage all of that,” DelSenno said. “We do that for law firms but also other companies as well.”

Employees will transition onto Avalon’s payroll, or Avalon will bring in its own staff if needed. It can also handle the remainder of the firm’s facility needs, allowing legal professionals to focus on their work and not also become experts in business operations.

The expanded services, on top of Avalon’s existing expertise on the “paper” side of the business, have allowed the company to be able to give solutions to a wide range of needs for clients.

“It’s been great,” DelSenno said. “I’ve personally really enjoyed it – to expand our offerings is cool, but to still stay true to what we do as far as our service.”

To learn more about the services available from Avalon, visit teamavalon.com or call DelSenno directly at 402-210-9990.