State of the Industry: E-Discovery and Cybersecurity

Right now, the cybersecurity space is still a relatively blue ocean. Meanwhile, e-discovery is a blue (or orange) Relativity ocean. Cybersecurity is still in its Wild, Wild West phase, begging for pioneers, new software, price standardization and more form to give it greater function. Talent in the e-discovery community is ripe to transition into more cyber-focused, and thus more lucrative and long-term, positions over the next decade. As outlined in a prior article, those seeking to transition their career can find a number of overlaps between the two disciplines by comparing the Cybersecurity Reference Model (CSRM) and the e-Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). The greatest overlap from a job perspective is in the Respond (CSRM) or Collection (EDRM) section.

Talent in the forensic investigation segment of the EDRM or the incident responders in the CSRM will cross over quickly with added training. This is also where e-discovery litigators who are now cybersecurity and data governance attorneys providing counsel on how to prepare for and respond to a breach are moving their practices. For e-discovery vendors looking to get a quick piece of the cyber business, this is an easy area to make the initial transition toward cyber-relevancy for your clients.

Outside of forensic investigation and practicing data protection legal work, the career transition from one discipline to another is not a short and easy path. It first requires determined intellectual curiosity, significant additional education and certification, an understanding of advanced developing technology proficiencies and, above all, career patience. If this pathway excites and interests you, it would be wise to begin making the sacrifices necessary to transition now. For many, this will feel like a step back to take several steps forward in responsibility, knowledge and compensation as skill sets and earning potential are recalibrated.

However, the next chapter in e-discovery's tale does not exclusively move toward cybersecurity. There are a number of other trends developing that offer companies and individuals different opportunities to pivot for yet another reinvention.

ESI 2020: Cloud & Contracting

Electronic discovery is currently in a state of consolidation, and the number of vendors in the space is literally contracting (pun intended). This will continue for another few years, but as legal technology software providers such as kCura, Everlaw, Disco, Logikcull and Zapproved move the industry to the cloud to provide more scalable options for corporations and law firms, so too will human resources shift e-discovery talent to contract staffing as skill saturation outweighs full-time job availability.

By 2020, the e-discovery job market will have reversed its paradigm from the Wild, Wild West days when demand far exceeded supply to widespread availability of talent with diminishing full-time demands and voluminous part-time opportunities. As more and more vendors combine or fail to meaningfully grow organically, there will be fewer traditional full-time positions available. Consolidating companies and consulting firms are watching the bottom line closely as they grow, laying off duplicative talent post-acquisition. Smaller ESI companies are careful to augment their staff with full-time hires if they are looking to be acquired in the next few years (many of them are and will be) and have been running leaner and leaner on staff to maintain profitability as pricing continues to commoditize.

Furthermore, e-discovery is now experiencing a tool consolidation. Relativity dominates the industry, and as a result, a saturation of skilled professionals with corresponding certifications has developed. As more clients and vendors adopt Relativity, more talent learns Relativity. But the adoption rates over the last few years and need for talent with these skills on a full-time basis are already being stifled by consolidation and could be radically disrupted by kCura's shift to the RelativityOne cloud offering.

The contract staffing revolution is occurring hand-in-hand with e-discovery's shift toward the cloud. This is no coincidence. Electronic discovery has been — and always will be — an event-driven business. While unpredictable cost and talent demands have been countered by the aggressive adoption of managed services, the move to cloud-based solutions instead opens up the possibility for financial flexibility through event-driven resource utilization.

Cloud adoption is a strong argument for cost savings, intelligent data governance and an ad hoc ability to create workspaces quickly in your platform of choice. The same argument can be made for contract staffing — clients immediately save cost on: YOY salaries; payroll taxes/processing expenses; workers comp insurance; health insurance and benefits; HR/administrative responsibility, oversight and compliance; unemployment; and bonuses and severance. An underperforming contractor can be replaced — and quickly with the growing pool of similarly skilled professionals in the space. Termination is something not so easily achieved with full-time hires, especially in corporations and law firms, despite most employment covenants being “at will.”

Additionally, as more data migrates to the cloud, many of these contractors will themselves be “in the cloud” — i.e., working remotely from home and logging in to perform traditional tasks associated with processing, hosting, project management and production support for litigation. TRU has seen a 20.5% increase in virtual hires in e-discovery since 2012, a trend that is up from only a 5.8% increase the year before.

The bulk of these remote hires are also contractors. TRU has tracked a 44% increase in the number of contract e-discovery jobs available since 2012, down slightly from 2015, which showed a 47.8%, increase in opportunities on contract from three years prior. ESI service providers and law firms will continue to take advantage of growing volumes of immediately available talent and will get discounted hourly rates if they can institutionalize the ability to hire remotely. Keep in mind, labor statisticians believe that “40[%] of America's workforce will be freelancers by 2020,” so legal technology should be no exception to the undeniable trend already happening within its community and the world at large.

Cyber 2020: Depression

When looking at the cybersecurity industry from a jobs perspective, there is no question that demand currently far exceeds supply with regard to talent. Cybersecurity careers are currently highly lucrative with rapid acceleration in compensation year-over-year for professionals with tenure in the space or technical skills on the world's most advanced and utilized systems and infrastructure.

With such an imbalance between supply and demand in talent, what event or events will cause a dramatic shift in the current landscape of cybersecurity pricing, talent availability, software dominance, cloud adoption and more? Just as happened in the e-discovery industry in 2008 during and after the global economic collapse, the cybersecurity industry will likely experience a similar cataclysmic event in the next decade that will forever change the landscape of both society and the industry, specifically with regard to career viability, profitability and maneuverability in information protection.

There are a number of possible doomsday scenarios for cybersecurity including weaponization and war, domestic infrastructure meltdowns, a global financial crisis, “silver bullet” software adoption, a cyberinsurance scandal or game-changing federal legislation. Each hypothetical event could trigger a series of shifts in how business gets done and profit is made in cybersecurity throughout the world. What will ultimately lead the cybersecurity industry toward a depression of its very own remains to be seen, but any of the above scenarios could radically change the economics of the space for buyers, sellers and salaries.

Conclusion

To put this article into perspective, let's revisit the main takeaways from the 2015 New York LegalTech Keynote address. These points offer a potent reflection on how acutely cybersecurity has become the focal point for legal technology professionals who have been working to solve the problems surrounding e-discovery for decades. The following are my three primary takeaways from that keynote, which featured corporate stakeholders from major social media brands.

First, technology companies must be willing to get together at the moment of breach and share information. Transparency is a cornerstone for larger companies in communicating with their users. User trust is of paramount importance to companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

This sounds like e-discovery circa 2007 and the battle for understanding and implementing the new federal rules that were the catalyst for the period of stabilization and standardization.

Second, less than 5% of that 2015 LTNY Keynote audience performed cybersecurity breach fire drills or prevention planning at that time.

This sounds like e-discovery and the battle for buy-in on smart information governance habits from five years ago during the “New Tools, Rules & Schools” era.

Third, putting the right people in place is a key component of addressing issues of security. The right people may range from product liability attorneys to outside counsel to in-house security experts and more.

Flash-forward two years and there are still not enough of the “right people” to fill all the demand for information security professionals in the United States. Can e-discovery professionals become cybersecurity professionals and evolve into the “right people” before a wave of college graduates and federal employees saturate the job market? I believe that with training, vision and patience the answer is yes.

When it comes to jobs, the history of e-discovery mirrors the present of cybersecurity. Specifically, e-discovery, as a microcosm, is a predictor of future patterns in the cyber job marketplace. Cybersecurity is destined for its own periods of standardization and stability (coming very soon!), depression, new tools and rules, massive maturation eventually and consolidation. It's e-discovery's history, cybersecurity's future, and there are billions of dollars to be made in the next decade for professionals, companies and capitalists vested in uniting these industries.

*****
Jared Coseglia is the founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners. A member of the Board of Editors of Cybersecurity Law & Strategy, he has over 13 years of experience representing talent in e-discovery, litigation support, cybersecurity and broadly throughout legal and technology staffing. He can be reached at [email protected].

Parts one and two of this article delved deeply into the complex overlap and equally stark differences between the current state of both e-discovery and cybersecurity with the hypothesis that the history of e-discovery is a predictor of the future of the cybersecurity when it comes to the job market. Part two concluded by putting the history of ESI into chapters: 2000-2004, The Wild, Wild West; 2004-2008, Standardization and Stabilization; 2008, Depression; 2009-2011, New Tools, Rules & Schools; 2011-2013, Massive Maturation; and finally 2013-2016, Consolidation.

If the history of e-discovery is the future of cybersecurity, then what should one expect for the future of e-discovery? How long will the current period of consolidation continue? What will be the next chapter in e-discovery's never-ending reinvention? How closely will the next 10 years of cybersecurity job trends mirror e-discovery's past?

Future State Analysis

Right now, the cybersecurity space is still a relatively blue ocean. Meanwhile, e-discovery is a blue (or orange) Relativity ocean. Cybersecurity is still in its Wild, Wild West phase, begging for pioneers, new software, price standardization and more form to give it greater function. Talent in the e-discovery community is ripe to transition into more cyber-focused, and thus more lucrative and long-term, positions over the next decade. As outlined in a prior article, those seeking to transition their career can find a number of overlaps between the two disciplines by comparing the Cybersecurity Reference Model (CSRM) and the e-Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). The greatest overlap from a job perspective is in the Respond (CSRM) or Collection (EDRM) section.

Talent in the forensic investigation segment of the EDRM or the incident responders in the CSRM will cross over quickly with added training. This is also where e-discovery litigators who are now cybersecurity and data governance attorneys providing counsel on how to prepare for and respond to a breach are moving their practices. For e-discovery vendors looking to get a quick piece of the cyber business, this is an easy area to make the initial transition toward cyber-relevancy for your clients.

Outside of forensic investigation and practicing data protection legal work, the career transition from one discipline to another is not a short and easy path. It first requires determined intellectual curiosity, significant additional education and certification, an understanding of advanced developing technology proficiencies and, above all, career patience. If this pathway excites and interests you, it would be wise to begin making the sacrifices necessary to transition now. For many, this will feel like a step back to take several steps forward in responsibility, knowledge and compensation as skill sets and earning potential are recalibrated.

However, the next chapter in e-discovery's tale does not exclusively move toward cybersecurity. There are a number of other trends developing that offer companies and individuals different opportunities to pivot for yet another reinvention.

ESI 2020: Cloud & Contracting

Electronic discovery is currently in a state of consolidation, and the number of vendors in the space is literally contracting (pun intended). This will continue for another few years, but as legal technology software providers such as kCura, Everlaw, Disco, Logikcull and Zapproved move the industry to the cloud to provide more scalable options for corporations and law firms, so too will human resources shift e-discovery talent to contract staffing as skill saturation outweighs full-time job availability.

By 2020, the e-discovery job market will have reversed its paradigm from the Wild, Wild West days when demand far exceeded supply to widespread availability of talent with diminishing full-time demands and voluminous part-time opportunities. As more and more vendors combine or fail to meaningfully grow organically, there will be fewer traditional full-time positions available. Consolidating companies and consulting firms are watching the bottom line closely as they grow, laying off duplicative talent post-acquisition. Smaller ESI companies are careful to augment their staff with full-time hires if they are looking to be acquired in the next few years (many of them are and will be) and have been running leaner and leaner on staff to maintain profitability as pricing continues to commoditize.

Furthermore, e-discovery is now experiencing a tool consolidation. Relativity dominates the industry, and as a result, a saturation of skilled professionals with corresponding certifications has developed. As more clients and vendors adopt Relativity, more talent learns Relativity. But the adoption rates over the last few years and need for talent with these skills on a full-time basis are already being stifled by consolidation and could be radically disrupted by kCura's shift to the RelativityOne cloud offering.

The contract staffing revolution is occurring hand-in-hand with e-discovery's shift toward the cloud. This is no coincidence. Electronic discovery has been — and always will be — an event-driven business. While unpredictable cost and talent demands have been countered by the aggressive adoption of managed services, the move to cloud-based solutions instead opens up the possibility for financial flexibility through event-driven resource utilization.

Cloud adoption is a strong argument for cost savings, intelligent data governance and an ad hoc ability to create workspaces quickly in your platform of choice. The same argument can be made for contract staffing — clients immediately save cost on: YOY salaries; payroll taxes/processing expenses; workers comp insurance; health insurance and benefits; HR/administrative responsibility, oversight and compliance; unemployment; and bonuses and severance. An underperforming contractor can be replaced — and quickly with the growing pool of similarly skilled professionals in the space. Termination is something not so easily achieved with full-time hires, especially in corporations and law firms, despite most employment covenants being “at will.”

Additionally, as more data migrates to the cloud, many of these contractors will themselves be “in the cloud” — i.e., working remotely from home and logging in to perform traditional tasks associated with processing, hosting, project management and production support for litigation. TRU has seen a 20.5% increase in virtual hires in e-discovery since 2012, a trend that is up from only a 5.8% increase the year before.

The bulk of these remote hires are also contractors. TRU has tracked a 44% increase in the number of contract e-discovery jobs available since 2012, down slightly from 2015, which showed a 47.8%, increase in opportunities on contract from three years prior. ESI service providers and law firms will continue to take advantage of growing volumes of immediately available talent and will get discounted hourly rates if they can institutionalize the ability to hire remotely. Keep in mind, labor statisticians believe that “40[%] of America's workforce will be freelancers by 2020,” so legal technology should be no exception to the undeniable trend already happening within its community and the world at large.

Cyber 2020: Depression

When looking at the cybersecurity industry from a jobs perspective, there is no question that demand currently far exceeds supply with regard to talent. Cybersecurity careers are currently highly lucrative with rapid acceleration in compensation year-over-year for professionals with tenure in the space or technical skills on the world's most advanced and utilized systems and infrastructure.

With such an imbalance between supply and demand in talent, what event or events will cause a dramatic shift in the current landscape of cybersecurity pricing, talent availability, software dominance, cloud adoption and more? Just as happened in the e-discovery industry in 2008 during and after the global economic collapse, the cybersecurity industry will likely experience a similar cataclysmic event in the next decade that will forever change the landscape of both society and the industry, specifically with regard to career viability, profitability and maneuverability in information protection.

There are a number of possible doomsday scenarios for cybersecurity including weaponization and war, domestic infrastructure meltdowns, a global financial crisis, “silver bullet” software adoption, a cyberinsurance scandal or game-changing federal legislation. Each hypothetical event could trigger a series of shifts in how business gets done and profit is made in cybersecurity throughout the world. What will ultimately lead the cybersecurity industry toward a depression of its very own remains to be seen, but any of the above scenarios could radically change the economics of the space for buyers, sellers and salaries.

Conclusion

To put this article into perspective, let's revisit the main takeaways from the 2015 New York LegalTech Keynote address. These points offer a potent reflection on how acutely cybersecurity has become the focal point for legal technology professionals who have been working to solve the problems surrounding e-discovery for decades. The following are my three primary takeaways from that keynote, which featured corporate stakeholders from major social media brands.

First, technology companies must be willing to get together at the moment of breach and share information. Transparency is a cornerstone for larger companies in communicating with their users. User trust is of paramount importance to companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

This sounds like e-discovery circa 2007 and the battle for understanding and implementing the new federal rules that were the catalyst for the period of stabilization and standardization.

Second, less than 5% of that 2015 LTNY Keynote audience performed cybersecurity breach fire drills or prevention planning at that time.

This sounds like e-discovery and the battle for buy-in on smart information governance habits from five years ago during the “New Tools, Rules & Schools” era.

Third, putting the right people in place is a key component of addressing issues of security. The right people may range from product liability attorneys to outside counsel to in-house security experts and more.

Flash-forward two years and there are still not enough of the “right people” to fill all the demand for information security professionals in the United States. Can e-discovery professionals become cybersecurity professionals and evolve into the “right people” before a wave of college graduates and federal employees saturate the job market? I believe that with training, vision and patience the answer is yes.

When it comes to jobs, the history of e-discovery mirrors the present of cybersecurity. Specifically, e-discovery, as a microcosm, is a predictor of future patterns in the cyber job marketplace. Cybersecurity is destined for its own periods of standardization and stability (coming very soon!), depression, new tools and rules, massive maturation eventually and consolidation. It's e-discovery's history, cybersecurity's future, and there are billions of dollars to be made in the next decade for professionals, companies and capitalists vested in uniting these industries.

*****
Jared Coseglia is the founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners. A member of the Board of Editors of Cybersecurity Law & Strategy, he has over 13 years of experience representing talent in e-discovery, litigation support, cybersecurity and broadly throughout legal and technology staffing. He can be reached at [email protected].