Behind the Numbers is one of those areas where the practitioners who actually do the work are usually too busy to write about it, and the ones who write about it tend to do less of it. This piece tries to split the difference.
This piece is for mediators who already have the basics and are deciding whether to make Behind the Numbers a focus area.
Mediation involving Behind the Numbers often benefits from explicit education for both parties on the substantive issues before negotiation begins. A mediator who spends 20 minutes walking both parties through the basics of Behind the Numbers levels the information asymmetry that often blocks productive discussion. This is education, not advocacy — and it’s a core mediator skill.
How Behind the Numbers engagements begin
The right intake length for a Behind the Numbers matter is usually 60 to 90 minutes, conducted in person or by video. Shorter intakes miss the depth required for the engagement to be properly scoped; longer intakes overwhelm the client. Many practitioners follow up the intake conversation with a written summary the client confirms before the engagement letter is sent.
Document the intake. Either contemporaneous notes you keep in the file or a follow-up summary email to the client. Behind the Numbers engagements involve enough small decisions across long timelines that working from memory six months in produces errors. For deeper reference, see ABA Family Law Section resources.
The analytical work itself
Analytical work during the middle phase often produces interim findings that affect the engagement scope. A finding the client didn’t anticipate may open new questions; a finding consistent with expectations may close lines of inquiry. The engagement letter should anticipate these scope adjustments and provide a path for handling them without requiring full re-papering.
The middle phase of a Behind the Numbers engagement is mostly about data gathering, analysis, and coordination. The data gathering involves requesting documents from the client and (often) from third parties through subpoenas or formal requests. The analysis involves working through what the documents reveal. The coordination involves keeping the attorney and other co-professionals informed.
Producing the work product
Walk the client through the deliverable before they take it to the attorney or court. The presentation matters; the same report explained well lands differently than the same report dropped over email without context. The walk-through is also where the client’s last questions surface; addressing them in real time prevents follow-up cycles weeks later.
The deliverable for a Behind the Numbers engagement is the work product everyone will reference for years afterward. It needs to be defensible (your analysis can withstand scrutiny), readable (the client and any non-specialist can understand it), and complete (it addresses what the engagement was scoped to address). The deliverable usually takes 20-40% of the engagement hours; underestimating this consistently produces matters that run over time.
When the standard doesn’t apply
Pro bono or reduced-fee Behind the Numbers engagements present a specific risk: the temptation to deliver less rigorous work than the practitioner would for a paying client. Pro bono cases that go wrong because of insufficient analytical rigor damage practitioner reputation more than paying cases that go wrong, because the quality gap is visible.
Matters with unsophisticated clients require more explanation, slower pacing, and more deliverable walk-through time than matters with sophisticated clients. Practitioners who run the same engagement structure regardless of client sophistication produce uneven outcomes; calibrating to the client is part of professional judgment.
If you’re considering Behind the Numbers as a focus area and you want one concrete commitment to make: pick the upcoming family-law conference closest to you and commit to attending every year for the next five years.
How VennBoard fits in
VennBoard helps mediators build the operational backbone Behind the Numbers engagements require — engagement letters that handle the scoping conversation in writing, case files that stay organized across long matters, communication tools that keep the broader case team coordinated, and the infrastructure that lets the practitioner focus on the analytical work rather than the administrative drag.
Learn more about how VennBoard fits into a mediator practice focused on Behind the Numbers at VennBoard.com.