Practical Pathways for the Next Generation of e-Discovery Professionals

Due to this compartmentalized approach, vendors hire analysts to process data, hosting specialists to import the load files into the database, consultants to help with workflow and review strategies, and project managers to keep the client happy by providing reports and making sure everything is delivered on time and under budget.

By contrast, most law firms have considerably fewer people in their e-discovery or litigation support department. Firms either don't have the volume of cases to warrant a large department or they've chosen some variation of an outsourced model, obviating the need for a large staff. Often only one or two people are responsible for supporting multiple offices to handle high-level tasks such as interviewing a client's IT director in order to develop a data map, assisting attorneys in preparing for a 26(f) conference, determining what fields of metadata are important to a case, managing litigation holds and preservation notices, and setting up the review for their attorneys. In their hiring decisions, firms typically look for people who are well-rounded, having both technical experience and familiarity with the entire discovery process. By understanding both the legal implications and the technical specifications, the ideal law firm e-discovery professional can help navigate a case proactively.

Both of these paths ' the specialized vendor trajectory and the broader law firm trajectory ' lead to a variety of career opportunities. However, professional background, educational experience, and other factors help determine the best path for an e-discovery professional making choices about his or her career.

Paralegals

Paralegals have a straightforward inroad to the e-discovery field because they already understand the discovery process, have insight into the organization of law firms, and know how to work effectively with attorneys. Paralegals tend to make great project managers, and many already have experience working in a review database.

For those with the technical aptitude, database administration and functions, such as running productions, are easily grasped, allowing the employee with a paralegal background to complete traditionally time-intensive tasks like generating privilege logs or assembling deposition witness kits much quicker than one without that background. Exposure to, or certification in, key litigation database programs like Relativity or Concordance can greatly increase a candidate's value to a firm.

While familiarity with a processing tool that works in conjunction with a database program isn't mandatory, that knowledge is helpful in understanding and consulting on all the different options available when considering choices such as de-duplication strategies or auto-date macros in Word or Excel.

Programmers

For programmers and developers, now is the perfect time to start the journey into the e-discovery field on the service provider side, which is ripe for creative people who can help turn ideas into reality. While some companies prefer to work with off-the-shelf software and develop their own plug-ins and scripts, other companies are building and constantly revising their own proprietary all-in-one platforms to handle processing, early case assessment and review. These platforms often give them much more control over both cost and the ability to customize a program in order to address their clients' needs ' clients who are often constrained by the prohibitive licensing costs of dominant market players. Highly sought-after knowledge of SQL, Oracle, VB, C++ or DT Search (but especially SQL) can provide a candidate a way to get their foot in the door from outside the industry.

New Grads

For new college graduates, the world of e-discovery is wide open. Those who are more extroverted and are macro-level thinkers tend to do well with project management and client interaction, while those who are introverted and prefer to be left alone to focus on their work are a nice fit for a data analyst role. However, it's the technical introverts who are currently in higher demand and lower supply, as there is a major shortage of available e-discovery processing talent across the United States in virtually every major market.

These positions require thoughtful creativity to overcome the wide array of file types utilized by different programs and operating systems, and a processing analyst's career path will vary depending on whether he or she entered the industry at a law firm or at a service provider. Larger firms tend to utilize the analyst role, training them to become senior analysts.

On the vendor side, because analysts make up a large percentage of the entry positions, there is quite a bit of mobility and growth progression from junior entry-level positions up to team leaders and processing managers. For an analyst, each case presents a new challenge, ranging from encrypted files to foreign language documents and everything in between; having a background in computer science isn't necessary, but it is quite helpful, and getting certified in a program like LAW, NUIX or eCapture will help pave the way.

Topics to Know

Information governance on the left side of the EDRM and managed review on the right side are two hot topics for attorneys enticed by the allure of e-discovery. At the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference this year in Las Vegas, five sessions were dedicated to information governance and six dealt with predictive coding or Technology Assisted Review (TAR). Project managers, developers and analysts could benefit from knowing the intricate details and nuances of these topics, but document review attorneys who are looking to move into more consultative-type roles gain much more from learning how to provide defensible legal advice regarding seed sets, workflows and sampling to determine number of iterations and QC processes ensuring a statistically satisfactory confidence level.

While a survey by 451 Research in March of last year stated many corporations “may not be placing a high priority” on information governance just yet, and others might be quick to say it is somewhat of a boondoggle because it's such a broad, hard-to-define concept, these types of positions are beginning to pop up with more frequency and will provide a viable avenue for attorneys who have decided to take an alternative path to traditional law practice. See, “E-Discovery and E-Disclosure 2013: The Ongoing Journey to Proactive Information Governance.”

Conclusion

There are dozens of other roles in e-discovery, including forensics, sales, analytics, trial presentation and knowledge management. New types of positions are constantly opening up to address new problems with new technology. The industry is getting wider. While the initial career paths of seasoned e-discovery professionals provide clues for those looking to break in, those paths will shift and the current leaders will have the opportunity to forge ahead into uncharted territory, allowing others who come behind them to blaze their own professional trails through the industry.

Bowe Kurowski is the West Coast Manager of Recruiting for TRU Staffing Partners. Previously, Kurowski worked at firms such as Proskauer Rose LLP, Paul Hastings Janofsky Walker, Weston Benshoof LLP, White & Case LLP, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors for Cal State LA's Legal Continuing Education Program.

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The e-discovery industry has come a long way in a short period of time. Fifteen years ago, the career path of an aspiring legal technology professional was quite uncertain. However, over time, clearer career trajectories have begun to emerge based on the career choices of pioneer ' and now veteran ' e-discovery professionals. Analyzing the divergent hiring strategies of service providers and law firms helps reveal those career trajectories.

As more and more work is outsourced to service providers, their demand for new talent continues to increase. Service providers tend to hire employees for very specific tasks, allowing them to create efficiencies and improve their bottom line through division of labor. For example, having one forensics-focused expert on a team of five deal with only ' and all ' the forensic problems not only removes the need for everyone else to learn forensics, but it also allows the other team members to focus solely on solving problems in their own niche.

Vendors vs. Law Firms

Due to this compartmentalized approach, vendors hire analysts to process data, hosting specialists to import the load files into the database, consultants to help with workflow and review strategies, and project managers to keep the client happy by providing reports and making sure everything is delivered on time and under budget.

By contrast, most law firms have considerably fewer people in their e-discovery or litigation support department. Firms either don't have the volume of cases to warrant a large department or they've chosen some variation of an outsourced model, obviating the need for a large staff. Often only one or two people are responsible for supporting multiple offices to handle high-level tasks such as interviewing a client's IT director in order to develop a data map, assisting attorneys in preparing for a 26(f) conference, determining what fields of metadata are important to a case, managing litigation holds and preservation notices, and setting up the review for their attorneys. In their hiring decisions, firms typically look for people who are well-rounded, having both technical experience and familiarity with the entire discovery process. By understanding both the legal implications and the technical specifications, the ideal law firm e-discovery professional can help navigate a case proactively.

Both of these paths ' the specialized vendor trajectory and the broader law firm trajectory ' lead to a variety of career opportunities. However, professional background, educational experience, and other factors help determine the best path for an e-discovery professional making choices about his or her career.

Paralegals

Paralegals have a straightforward inroad to the e-discovery field because they already understand the discovery process, have insight into the organization of law firms, and know how to work effectively with attorneys. Paralegals tend to make great project managers, and many already have experience working in a review database.

For those with the technical aptitude, database administration and functions, such as running productions, are easily grasped, allowing the employee with a paralegal background to complete traditionally time-intensive tasks like generating privilege logs or assembling deposition witness kits much quicker than one without that background. Exposure to, or certification in, key litigation database programs like Relativity or Concordance can greatly increase a candidate's value to a firm.

While familiarity with a processing tool that works in conjunction with a database program isn't mandatory, that knowledge is helpful in understanding and consulting on all the different options available when considering choices such as de-duplication strategies or auto-date macros in Word or Excel.

Programmers

For programmers and developers, now is the perfect time to start the journey into the e-discovery field on the service provider side, which is ripe for creative people who can help turn ideas into reality. While some companies prefer to work with off-the-shelf software and develop their own plug-ins and scripts, other companies are building and constantly revising their own proprietary all-in-one platforms to handle processing, early case assessment and review. These platforms often give them much more control over both cost and the ability to customize a program in order to address their clients' needs ' clients who are often constrained by the prohibitive licensing costs of dominant market players. Highly sought-after knowledge of SQL, Oracle, VB, C++ or DT Search (but especially SQL) can provide a candidate a way to get their foot in the door from outside the industry.

New Grads

For new college graduates, the world of e-discovery is wide open. Those who are more extroverted and are macro-level thinkers tend to do well with project management and client interaction, while those who are introverted and prefer to be left alone to focus on their work are a nice fit for a data analyst role. However, it's the technical introverts who are currently in higher demand and lower supply, as there is a major shortage of available e-discovery processing talent across the United States in virtually every major market.

These positions require thoughtful creativity to overcome the wide array of file types utilized by different programs and operating systems, and a processing analyst's career path will vary depending on whether he or she entered the industry at a law firm or at a service provider. Larger firms tend to utilize the analyst role, training them to become senior analysts.

On the vendor side, because analysts make up a large percentage of the entry positions, there is quite a bit of mobility and growth progression from junior entry-level positions up to team leaders and processing managers. For an analyst, each case presents a new challenge, ranging from encrypted files to foreign language documents and everything in between; having a background in computer science isn't necessary, but it is quite helpful, and getting certified in a program like LAW, NUIX or eCapture will help pave the way.

Topics to Know

Information governance on the left side of the EDRM and managed review on the right side are two hot topics for attorneys enticed by the allure of e-discovery. At the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference this year in Las Vegas, five sessions were dedicated to information governance and six dealt with predictive coding or Technology Assisted Review (TAR). Project managers, developers and analysts could benefit from knowing the intricate details and nuances of these topics, but document review attorneys who are looking to move into more consultative-type roles gain much more from learning how to provide defensible legal advice regarding seed sets, workflows and sampling to determine number of iterations and QC processes ensuring a statistically satisfactory confidence level.

While a survey by 451 Research in March of last year stated many corporations “may not be placing a high priority” on information governance just yet, and others might be quick to say it is somewhat of a boondoggle because it's such a broad, hard-to-define concept, these types of positions are beginning to pop up with more frequency and will provide a viable avenue for attorneys who have decided to take an alternative path to traditional law practice. See, “E-Discovery and E-Disclosure 2013: The Ongoing Journey to Proactive Information Governance.”

Conclusion

There are dozens of other roles in e-discovery, including forensics, sales, analytics, trial presentation and knowledge management. New types of positions are constantly opening up to address new problems with new technology. The industry is getting wider. While the initial career paths of seasoned e-discovery professionals provide clues for those looking to break in, those paths will shift and the current leaders will have the opportunity to forge ahead into uncharted territory, allowing others who come behind them to blaze their own professional trails through the industry.

Bowe Kurowski is the West Coast Manager of Recruiting for TRU Staffing Partners. Previously, Kurowski worked at firms such as Proskauer Rose LLP, Paul Hastings Janofsky Walker, Weston Benshoof LLP, White & Case LLP, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors for Cal State LA's Legal Continuing Education Program.

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