Litigation Support Staffing : The Cowen Group : Ediscovery Recruiters, Candidate Search, Practice Support, Position Placement

You know that old saying “95 percent of life is just showing up”?  Well, I couldn’t disagree more.

When you’re talking about your career, just showing up is not good enough.  You’ve got to be prepared, do your homework and be proactive.

This mandate applies to industry events and conferences as well.  Just showing up is not enough.  You must take active steps to make your conference experience meaningful and productive.

Here are a few tips for making the most of every conference you attend.

1. Develop clear goals.  Never attend a conference without clear goals as to what you want to accomplish, who you want to meet and what you want to learn.  This will help you maximize your time and get the most out of every event.
2. Do your homework before you arrive.  Review the conference agenda and speaker list.  Chose five speakers that you want to meet and research each speaker’s background to determine any common backgrounds or interests you may have.  Based on your research, prepare a short list of talking points or questions to ask. By doing your homework on who you want to meet, you can obtain meaningful and relevant information that will be helpful to you.
3. Greet and thank the speakers.   I’m always amazed at how few people greet the speaker or thank him (or her) after the session.  Talking to the speakers is a great opportunity to exchange ideas with thought leaders in the industry and forge new relationships. Most speakers are thrilled to talk to the audience after their presentation. 
4. Introduce yourself to at least 5 other people daily. I make it my business to meet no less than five people a day at every conference. As you soon as you realize that everyone is as self-conscious as you are, this process becomes easier. Conferences present an excellent opportunity to exchange information and ideas.
5. Take advantage of mealtime.  When you sit down to breakfast, lunch and dinner, introduce yourself to everyone at the table.  Make sure you get one or two business cards per meal.  I’m not talking about networking for networking’s sake or collecting business cards to market a service.  That is so 1980’s.  I’m talking about building relationships with the people around you and taking advantage of the opportunity to engage one-on-one with leaders in the industry. 
6. Listen more than you speak.  This is a concept that my father instilled in me when I was seven and has served me well at conferences.  Listening more than you speak allows you to ask intelligent questions, be genuinely interested and learn from the speaker.

Leverage each conference and industry event so that you are getting more than just a quick education on the latest tips, tricks and tools of the trade. Use these as platforms to drive your personal and professional development to a new level. I guarantee that once you start reframing these events as career advancement opportunities, you will not regret it.

I’ll be attending the Georgetown E-Discovery Institute Conference on November 19-21.  Feel free to stop me and introduce yourself. 

 

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With growing job opportunities and salaries ranging from $75,000 to $150,000+, the exploding litigation support field is attractive to many paralegals and IT professionals (for more information on litigation support salaries see The Cowen Group Litigation Support Salary Survey).  I receive, on average, three to five calls a week from professionals who would like to get into this space but don’t know where to begin.

When the litigation support field began to grow, it seemed logical that AmLaw 200 firms would aggressively train their paralegals, para-technical and IT staff for much needed litigation support positions coast-to-coast.

That is just not happening.

Law firms and vendors are too busy to train.  They want seasoned talent who can hit the ground running.  They want knowledgeable professionals who are already up to speed on best practices and technology.

So how can a paralegal or IT professional break into this space? By reading prolifically.

By getting educated. By investing time and money to learn this business.

Below are six steps you can take today to position yourself for a lucrative career in the litigation support industry.

1.      Remain Current on Industry News.  Set your Google news reader for e-discovery and litigation support and read for 10 to 15 minutes every day.

2.      Read Prolifically.  Review litigation support websites, blogs and webinars.  A great place to begin is Litigation Support Today and Legal Technology News.

3.      View Webinars.  Sign up for webinars such as those offered by The Association of Litigation Support Professionals (ALSP)  and those your learn of through your Google news reader.

4.      Attend Industry Conferences.  The litigation support/e-discovery industry offers many conferences throughout the year including LegalTech in February; the ABA Tech Show in March; Litigation Support Today’s Leadership Conference in May; and ILTA in August.  These conferences are usually one to five days in length and cost between $500 and $3,000. Yes, you may have to pay your own way but it is certainly worth the investment. (Stay tuned for next week’s blog on how to get the most out of every conference).

5.      Attend Networking Events.  Attend industry events offered by organizations such as ALSP and Women in eDiscovery to forge new contacts and learn more about opportunities in this space.

6.      Join Online Social Networking Sites.  Join LinkedIn and other web-based social networking groups.  Participate in the discussion groups or just listen and watch the dialogue.

Breaking into litigation support is not easy.  You will need to invest both time and money in educating yourself for this career. The good news is, you don’t need three years of law school to break into this space.  Follow the steps above and start working towards your future today. 

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This year’s biggest merger has been between K&L Gates with Kennedy Covington. And now the current buzz surrounds a possible merger between Winston & Strawn and Heller Ehrman. 

The numbers don’t lie. So far there have been 26 new law firm mergers and acquisitions reported in the past three months.   Not to mention the 18 we saw in the first quarter of the year. Compared to last years 27 at this point – 2008 looks to add to that total. 

What does this mean to you and your career? Does this pace of merger activity reduce career opportunities? How does this affect you and your role in an organization?

If history is any indication of what will happen, there should be a consolidation and reduction in staff. 

But this is eDiscovery/Lit Support. The war for talent continues to be fierce…. And I do not see a reduction forthcoming.

There are over 250 open positions for eDiscovery professionals in Corporate, Vendor, and AmLaw 200 Law Firms. 

It’s a buyers market. 

I would hate to be selling a house in this market. But if you have talent and experience in eDiscovery – it’s your kind of market.

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With only 5 full months of 2008 on the books, the list of casualties from the slowing economy is growing.  The Department of Labor released statistics Friday revealing that the legal sector lost 1,100 jobs in the month of May.  These figures, when added to the 1,900 losses from April, indicate a volatile job market.

Despite this sharp reduction in workforce, I continue to see solid growth and demand in e-discovery and litigation support across the AmLaw 200. 

 The Cowen Group conducted a quick poll on Monday of litigation support/e-discovery hiring trends among 20 global law firms.  Our poll revealed the following:

•            65% are aggressively hiring litigation support staff.
•            20% are on plan and will continue to staff.
•            15% are cautious and/or scaling back.

These results are precisely what I saw last year at this time. Indicating healthy hiring activity in the litigation support space despite the sluggish economy.

Although several clients acknowledged a decline in business and case loads, they were quick to point out that the increase in size, scope and complexity of cases were keeping their headcounts high.

Several of the firms polled responded that they were adding services and staff to their litigation support practices this year. 

There’s nothing like the DOJ, SEC, FBI and a sub-prime meltdown to give one a sense of job security. 

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Bear Stearns, falling dollar, collapsing housing market and a presidential election year.

No doubt about it, this is a tough year to be making career decisions.

Last year, there was little or no risk when making a move for more money, new opportunity or expanded sales territory. This year, not so much.

Despite a significant shortage of talent in the eDiscovery-litigation support space, law firms and vendors are growing increasingly selective when interviewing candidates. Companies are looking for prospective employees with solid backgrounds of two plus years. Job hoppers need not apply.

Marquee companies such as LexisNexis, FTI and Thomson West want to invest in people that will be with them for the long haul.

If you have jumped employers in less than two years, you have used-up your "Get out of jail free" card for now.

I don't recommend that anyone risk a career jump for money alone. This year especially, I support a more conservative career path. If you have made one or two jumps in the last two to four years, stay put if possible.

If you absolutely must make a move, be sure it is with a tier one organization.

This is not Vegas folks. This is your career

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The first impression you make with your next potential employer is your resume. How you look on paper is a direct reflection of how you will be perceived by the client in person, so – it is essential to craft a resume that accurately reflects your skills and experience However, the style, flow, and visual clarity also reflects upon you!

Here are some helpful hints from the trenches of resume submission and creation:

MYTH: The Resume has to be one page. I have never had a client say to me,"This resume is too long. I don’t want to see this person." Clients need to know as much about you on paper, so that at the interview, they can get into the details of who you are, what you do, and other indescribable qualities that can’t be communicated on paper.

THE “DEADLY” OBJECTIVE: All resume templates begin with an “objective.” A badly written or generic objective can close more doors for you than a well written one will open. Most people breeze past the objective anyway and go right to “current employer” or “skill set” section. Nine out of ten objectives say something like: “To further my career in a company that can provide opportunities for growth, advancement, and education.” Well, isn’t that what everyone wants? If you are going to have an objective, really have an objective. Otherwise, I say skip it. If you are working with a good recruiter, the objective should be made clear through communication.
ALWAYS THE SAME: Make sure the resume you bring with you to the interview is the same one your recruiter sent to the client. Discrepancies from one resume to another can reflect poorly on your continuity. You want the recruiter, candidate, and potential employer to all “be on the same page” – literally.

DATES OF EMPLOYMENT: Be specific! To the month (if possible, which it should be). Often people will just list years (not months) and this can be very misleading to potential employers if you only spent a few months somewhere. You are not fooling anyone by hiding the months on the initial resume. This specificity will also expedite a background check process if an offer is made.

FORMATTING DRAMA: Do not use complicated MS Word tabling for the formatting of your resume. It makes it difficult for recruiters to reformat it with their letterhead to send to their clients. Also, complicated formatting choices sometimes look sloppy when viewed on a computer and MOST potential employers will see the resume for the first time on a screen BEFORE they print it out.
MYTH: Paragraphs look good on paper. No. People like lists. People don’t like to read paragraphs. Lists are easier on the eyes and makes information easier to ingest.
THE BLIND MAN’S RESUME LITMUS TEST: Hold your resume at arms’ length. What do you see? You want certain things to pop out: previous employers, job titles, employment dates, certifications, and key technical information that are essential to the requirements of the position or industry you’re applying for: Concordance, Ipro, Summation, ediscovery, and so on.

Your resume is an extension of you. Your style, format, font, and grammar/spelling choices will indicate to a prospective employer the quality of the work you will do for them and your ability to articulate what you do.

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The number of people employed in Litigation Support has grown 400% in the past year, and the demand for talent continues to accelerate, both in number and in professional quality. So you can’t sit back and complain that no one is training you. You must be an active participant in the development of your department -- and your career.

Where once titles and salaries were handed to people simply because they could understand the evolving technologies, now seismic shifts in the needs of major firms have raised requirements. Premium new hires now must understand technology methodology too. The tectonic movement to fill higher level positions is producing demand for staffers that have a firm grasp of the process-- the "What, How & Why" behind E-discovery and Litigation Support.

This is where you can separate yourself from the throngs of new analysts, specialists, and project managers flooding the Litigation Support space. Understand the process, and you'll be sitting in the driver's seat of your career, with the keys to your success in hand.

Here, for example, is an article on how to limit the scope of discovery. This is the kind of outside information that you can pass on to the attorneys above you, even though initially they may resist you. If you are able to draw connections between that article and the attorneys' cases at hand -- ie, between what you can offer in Litigation Support, and its specific benefit to their cases -- you will prove yourself to be "mission-critical" to the success of those cases, to client billing and, ultimately, to the firm.

So be proactive about the process. Develop and nurture lines of communication among all departments that rely on Litigation Support.

When gray areas arise, ask questions. Keep up on industry developments outside of your office. Develop your own knowledge base and your professional credibility, and take a leadership role. Get in the driver's seat. Because the "What, How & Why" are the Keys to your Success!

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Between top tier lawyers and critical litigation support technology, the cognitive disconnect is narrowing, slowly but surely. That's partly because, says one insider, "it's getting to the point where the failure to use litigation support is arguably malpractice." But where resistance to technology persists, the problems are the same as they ever were.

In a now-famous "Monicalogue", LTN editor-in-chief and The Common Scold blogmaster Monica Bay nails the Fear Factor that inhibits decision-makers at every level, from solo practioners to the most elite firms. Fear of costs, lost billable hours, obsolescent investments; fear of outsourcing variables, loss of content control, lack of training -- and just plain fear of new-fangled goo-gaws.

But here's what I've discovered, over years of cultivating and launching real-world careers in litigation support: In the real world, time and time again process trumps product. In lawyer-client relationships, the process is the product. And the process has not changed.

No matter how critical the latest information technology may be, it will never get the job done all by itself. Technology is just the gateway through which talented people pass, toward successful forensics and e-data management. The inescapable fact is that effectively integrated legal technology can improve productivity, accuracy, client service and profits, and is already a best practice imperative. But without the lawyer-client process, any legal technology is just another product. And -- here's the good news -- process is what lawyers do best.

So if you're a litigation support professional, your job will rely increasingly upon your ability to use bleeding edge legal tech products to facilitate old-fashioned interpersonal process. Your toolbag will have to include a full set of tried-and-true people skills, and the leadership initiative to manage in all directions, and spark collaborative process, toward effective application of mission-critical technology products.

And if you're a tech-shy litigator, the only thing you have to fear is... well... the Fear Factor itself!

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Not a day goes by that I'm not asked by a mid-sized law firm or major corporation about salaries in the litigation support space. The questions go something like this: 

• How many hours per month should my litigation support team be billing? 
• How many hours per month are billable, in this position? 
• Should this position be 'exempt' or 'nonexempt' ? 
• If I have to bring in new talent at higher salaries, how can I retain my existing staff? 
• Has any firm broken the $300,000 salary ceiling? 
• Paralegal vs IT – what's your opinion?

My answer is always the same:

Take a look at the Cowen Job Bank. Real job offerings. Real salaries. Regionally reliable. Take a look at what companies are actually paying for directors, coordinators, managers, analysts and specialists. From Boston to New York and D. C., to Chicago, San Francisco and LA, the best way to see what people are paying is to take a look at the Cowen Job Bank. There's your Salary Survey.

A more formalized salary survey is nearly impossible to nail down, because salaries are increasing 10% - 20% every three months. And why is that? Because, for the moment, demand exceeds supply. But there is a solution. . . .

For more information on how to maintain your litigation support talent and optimize costs – both in-house and outsourced, email me, david@cowengroup.com. I'll be happy to send you our most recent white paper on the subject.

Meanwhile. . . Happy Hunting!

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If you're a shy person terminally uncomfortable with confrontation, or if you're an employee eager to sidestep some funky history, a letter of resignation is a no-brainer.

Your letter of resignation, with your live signature, constitutes a formal contract, which when accepted, constitutes a binding agreement. By putting your departure in writing, you’re showing not only your employer but yourself that you really mean it.

Beyond the letter, you’ll still need a strategy if you want to actually get out the door. You're likely to be offered as many incentives to stay as you have reasons to leave.
A Formula for Action:

1. Announce your intention to resign (and remember the modifier: "Please accept this letter as . . .")

2. Praise your company as you depart (your tenure has left you enriched . . . not to mention, launched)

3. Announce your departure date (make it firm, but again, the modifier: acknowledge the process for your replacement hire -- two weeks is the standard)

4. Express gratitude (and remember, this need not be insincere)

5. Sign it and deliver it (NB: interoffice mail would, in most cases, be considered not appropriate).

Your level of expertise, your professional maturity, and everything that you know makes you attractive to a more promising position -- all these qualities make it hard to let you go. A verbal resignation is likely to be received with a handshake.... and a wink.

But even with the letter, there will always be an ultimate face-to-face. Here staying steadfast is really crucial because this will be your employer's last opportunity to persuade you to stay. They will take advantage. There will not be a stop they won't pull. Remind yourself the reasons you started looking for other opportunities. Rehearse the conversation ahead of time and don't be surprised by offers of salary and responsibility increases.

Try to keep the conversation as pleasant as possible. It won't be easy; leaving a long-term position is similar to leaving a long-term relationship. But don’t burn the bridges as you depart. When you become as successful as you know you can be, your paths will cross again. There's no easy way to remove yourself from the place and the people where you have spent a significant amount of time. However, if you can keep it simple, keep it friendly, and keep your eye on what is best for everyone involved you might find that the dread was worse than the bite.

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As you may recall, about 6 months ago a man named Michael Watson was employed as in-house counsel by New York Life Insurance Company. Prior to that, he had worked for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Hunton & Williams.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the cafeteria. Williams was completely unlicensed to practice law in the state of New York. How did this go unnoticed for 13 years?

Human Resources at 22 of the Amlaw 100 firms are no longer asking “How this happened?” Instead they’re making sure it doesn’t happen again by implementing new policies and procedures to protect the assets of their firm.

So if you’re interviewing for a position at a top law firm or Fortune 500 company, don’t be surprised or insulted if not only are you asked to fill out an application and bring your resume, but also to provide your college transcripts and provide documentation for any further certifications that you’ve earned.

My advice: Go ahead and fill out the application but transcripts and documentation work like references. You’re not required to supply them until you know you’re interested in the position.

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Nolan Ryan never played second base. It was never really an issue because he dug his head deep into his 96 mph 2 seam fastball. He was one of the best pitching talents in MLB history. But what put him in the Hall of Fame was that he never stopped working on getting better at those things he did not excel at.

In the rapidly expanding and growing litigation support and eDiscovery space, it seems like everyone has a 96mph fastball. Most talent are getting promotions-- more money, more responsibility, and more opportunity.

However, you still need to do your homework to increase your marketability and become an All Star. The learning curve keeps arching upwards and the only way to travel along with it is by reading, doing, taking classes, and mentoring those beneath you.

By identifying and developing the areas in which you’re already proficient, you can take the necessary next steps to hasten your upward movement—whether it be at your current company or one more suited towards your talents. It’s a subtle logic chain of success.

You have talent in a certain area. You enjoy doing tasks that you do well with minimum effort. You enjoy doing this activity that you do well so you do it with more fervor than others. You improve due to increased practice. That's why it’s more efficient to become great at something you are already pretty good at and therefore, you have a passion for—your head start on the competition is already pretty sizable.

What are you doing to get better? What are you doing to get in the Hall of Fame? The Hall of Fame of Lit Support is title, salary, respect, and autonomy.

These issues do not need to be confronted solely in the bubble of self-analysis. Ask your friends, colleagues, and boss what you’re doing well and where you need improvement. Open up a net of inquiry and you may be surprised by what you pull up to deck.

It takes courage and self confidence to ask your boss “What do I need to improve on?”

Hopefully you have a 96 mph fastball to back you up.

If not, see my post on how to get a raise and a promotion without holding a gun to your boss' head.

Good luck.

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Seth Godin wrote a great piece recently for Monster.com about the wisdom behind changing companies every few years or so. 7+ years is too long and I call that career suicide in 90% of the cases I see.

In his article, “When Is It Time to Go?”, Godin makes the obvious point:

"Doug needs to leave for a very simple reason. He's been branded. Everyone at the company has an expectation of who Doug is and what he can do. Working your way up from the mailroom sounds sexy, but in fact, it's entirely unlikely. Doug has hit a plateau. He's not going to be challenged, pushed or promoted to president. Doug, regardless of what he could actually accomplish, has stopped evolving -- at least in the eyes of the people who matter."

This is very common with admin staff and paralegals, but is equally true in regards to Litigation Support talent. I call it, "Up or Out".

Godin’s advice to his friend, and I agree-- Get out ASAP!

Find a new challenging opportunity. Statically, tactically, and politically you need to continue to grow and advance. A new job means new opportunities, a new set of challenges, and a new salary scale.

The litigation support market is evolving at a furious rate. After all the years you’ve put into your career, you owe it to yourself to keep pace.

Good Luck!

*Note that I advocate a move after 5 – 7 years, not 1-3.

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Complex litigation cases have become so large and complicated that they require an extra set of teams, both legal and litigation support. We now see major to mid-sized law firms and corporations beginning to add head-count, with additional layers at leadership levels.

In litigation support we're seeing a trend toward augmenting the in-house arsenal of talent with supervisors, coordinators and managers -- thereby elevating the current Manager to Director -- which is worth $125k - $250k.

The Cowen Group's ongoing informal salary survey suggests that litigation support directors are now being valued on par with nonequity partners -- and billed accordingly. Not to put too fine a point on it, IT leadership positions now have reached approximate parity with first, second and third year associates.

This is new. And it's happening now because no matter how critical the latest information technology may be, it will never get the job done all by itself. IT is the gateway to successful forensics and e-data management. But it is just the gateway -- through which your talented people pass. So litigation support hiring is more and more about people skills, and leadership that can spark collaborative process, in addition to the familiar technology component.

Make no mistake. It's your people who drive the process -- not legal technology. Litigation support people with deep knowledge and expertise in the use of technology, and litigation support leadership, experienced in the interpersonal process of lawyer-client relations. Together with technology, litigation support people can help accomplish your firm's revenue objective.

And that's what makes litigation support billable -- big time.

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So, why are Litigation Support salaries so far out of whack? Well...

First year associates' salaries are moving up to $145,000. And spikes in associates' salaries are driving numerous other key salaries. Because this trend is not about inflation. It is about supply and demand. In other words, we get what we pay for.

Last year 79 AmLaw 100 firms embarked upon the NYC adventure -- taking a page from the Latham & Watkins playbook. KPMG, Navigant and Ernst &Young busied themselves tallying figures and projecting projections. But old-fashioned accounting will never get Navigant out front in EDD. Because electronic data discovery is nothing like accounting. What's more, clients are beginning to understand that. Clients (i.e., the Fortune 500 -- aka America’s serial litigants) are not getting what they need. They're tired of big bills, missed deadlines, and poor results. And they're making themselves heard, demanding competent litigation support from their law firm relationships -- or they are going shopping.

See my blog: The Fortune 500 Go Shopping

Salaries are rising because demand for elite litigation support is raging, from top firms and clients alike. The supply pool is growing, and will continue to grow to meet demand throughout 2006, as deadlines near for the implementing of new federal regulations in the industry. But truly exceptional talent is still a premium.

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First year salaries at top firms across the board are now up to $145,000, writes Anthony Lin, in an article posted at Law.com. Salaries spiked after last week's lead by Sullivan & Cromwell, and not just at New York firms, as expected. Manhattan firms Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Cahill, Gordon & Reindel; were joined by the New York offices of Washington, D.C.'s Covington & Burling and Miami's Greenberg Traurig, suggesting that most non-New York firms will follow suit.

Consultants Towers Perrin, Mercer, et al, calculate 3% as the right amount for any salary increase pegged to inflation. But these salaries represent a whopping 10% jump. So what accounts for the disconnect between HR projections and the game on the ground? And why now?

Towers Perrin, Mercer, and their like, produce impressive surveys of salaries in static space. Space that does not move and change. But the world of litigation support and electronic data discovery is dynamic space, volatile and intensely demanding. Salaries move as fast as a New York minute. So the traditonal numbers make old news in the War for Talent.

The War for Talent is pushing up salaries and raising the stakes on proactive, real-world solutions. In this climate it's more important than ever for firms to be able to attract – and retain – the right people, right now.

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Steven C. Bennett of Jones Day in New York is speaking truth to power in his recent National Law Journal article posted at Law.com about "Teaching Tech Skills to Lawyers". Lawyers can no longer avoid committing both resources and attention to the specific purpose of becoming "tech savvy". For even among a new generation of lawyers who have been technology end-users all their lives, the range of typical technological understanding is pretty much exhausted by email, cell phones, ipods, and online shopping.

 And why not? "Essentially," writes Bennett, "what law students learn about technology during law school they learn on their own." And veteran lawyers have precious little to choose from in the way of technology skills training sponsored by bar associations, law firms and CLE providers.

There's a reason why interviews with policy makers are staged before a bank of West and Shepards systems, and why law students in 2006 pass DVD's of 1974's Oscar-winnning The Paper Chase from hand to hand. In traditional law firms, and in most law schools, the paper document is still stubbornly regarded as coin of the realm. But its time is already passed.

Relentlessly ongoing technological developments have the potential to increase lawyer productivity significantly. LexisNexis, for example, has just launched its new Toolbar for Attorneys. IT folks and lowly non-legals welcome this customization of a common browser peripheral. And it's just one of hundreds of litigation support technologies that will automate and facilitate the 21st century practise of law. But many senior partners will be flummoxed. That must change, says Bennett, or once venerable firms will find themselves at unrecoverable competitive disadvantage.

Both the corporate community and the courts are out ahead of the legal profession at large on this issue. Law firms are finding -- sometimes the hard way -- that courts and regulatory agencies already expect law firms to be able to file and retrieve information electronically. And electronic communication inside and outside of the firm runs smack into crucial privacy implications of modern data management. So clients increasingly demand diverse technological services and compatibilities from their law firms to maintain compliance.

Lawyers must finally accept the essential value of networking and sharing, even embracing soft-sided principles of knowledge management, in order to remain viable in the current market. Electronic data rooms and shared editing of deal documents must be coordinated to online discovery document repositories. Massive volumes of case information must be captured and sorted, and many a tech-savvy legal assistant or litigation support manager has watched a case crash and burn, only because a senior lawyer mismanaged meta-data and/or discovery documents.

Make no mistake: technology will still be handled by IT and litigation support, but it is no longer acceptable for partners not to understand -- and endorse -- what they are up to -- however much retooling that may require.

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Law firms are making nice with clients, as usual, but some clients are saying ¡hasta la vista! anyway. What's changed here?

We're now seeing a significant trend, just in the comings and goings of top litigation support managers and directors. Lit support top guns are spending more and more time out of the office. They're visiting clients, in clients' own offices. Because clients are becoming harder to please. Law firms are under ever-greater pressure to prove their capabilities in managing ever-more complex litigation and discovery matters -- which are ever-more technological. So firms are sending top lit support professionals into the field.

More importantly, lit support can smooth out the dialogue -- when there is any -- between lawyer and client. Back at the firm, lit support hears lawyers complain that the client just doesn’t get it: "We know what we're doing. Documents! Briefs! We've been doing it this way for a century!" In the field, clients tell lit support that the law firm just doesn't get it: "I'm on a budget here! Why can't they handle the discovery electronically? Why can't they coordinate with our IT system? What am I paying for?!"

The ability to speak a language that is understood by both lawyers and the clients they serve is increasingly unique to litigation support. So more and more lit support directors are pulling Kumbayah duty -- bridging the gap with expert hand-holding.

Meanwhile, back at the firm, there's a draft whistling through the vacancy created by frequently offsite senior lit support personnel. Staff toils away diligently as usual, but with no one at the helm -- no one to manage the care and feeding of their ever-increasing numbers. This trend is creating the need for a second tier of lit support management. At the same time it is driving up billables for litigation support directors -- up to the level of senior associates, and even into partner range.

The demand for qualified lit support professionals has never been greater. At The Cowen Group we expect the current explosion of new media information technology only to intensify that demand throughout 2006, heating up the "war for talent", and the pressure for fluent communication between lawyers and their clients.

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More than an e-mail, not quite a website, blogs have taken their rightful place in the online universe. New tools have made blogging both more professional and truly user-friendly. Any one can blog, and millions do. Law.com reports 19.6 million blogs on the Internet, with 70,000 more showing up each day, according to blog-tracker Technorati.

That's a lot of eyeballs.

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton launched its first blog in March (AntitrustLawBlog.com). It was quickly followed by five more, each addressing a particular legal specialty. Blogs work--to build reputation, niche specialties, and client confidence. And they work fast. Sheppard Mullin's monthly newsletter used to reach about 3,000 readers.

AntitrustLawBlog.com gets that many hits per day. Moreover, new spamming laws and better spam blocking software prohibits distributing a monthly newsletter via an e-mail blast. Staying in touch via blog URL keeps tech snafus away from the firm's contact database, so priority client email can continue without the hassle and embarrassment of "blacklisting". Because blogs get preferential treatment on Web search engines, they are even more efficient than a formal website, says Tom Baldwin, Sheppard Mullin's chief knowledge officer.

And blogging software automatically tracks and feeds back efficacy stats, so you always know how you're doing with your target markets. Many blogs have already become powerful professional forums--multi-linked, archived, and searchable--even in technologically conservative professions like law. In blogs, legal practitioners are freely sharing reliable intellectual capital online, for which billable clients are willing to trade a small fortune. Just keep in mind a few basic rules of blogging.

Keep it simple. Keep it short. Link to news. Encourage interaction. Implement tech tools to let your readers efficiently find every bit of what you have to offer. For fun--and profit.

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The "War for Talent" in the litigation support arena continues to intensify. Despite the daily headlines of sanctions, E-Discovery debacles and worse, my clients complain that they are not able to convince key decision makers with their firms how critical salary adjustments are to both attract as well as RETAIN key talent.

Litigation Support is not the internal Kinko's. Knowledge is expensive; technical skills are less so. Yet the right combination is priceless because it can save your clients millions of dollars, not to mention public embarrassment and the wrath of Wall Street.

A $1 drop in share price on bad news can easily cost a company $500M in market cap in less than 1 hour. (Can you say KPMG, Morgan Stanley, TYCO, Disney?)

The attached Harvard Business Review article on "Professional Intellect" will help you make the case for paying key knowledge workers market value.

Ahh politics and the confines of Human Resources... Perhaps a copy of Sung Tzu's: The Art of War??

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The number of attorneys working in foreign offices of law firms grew by a hearty 23%, marking a big improvement over last year.

The nation's largest 250 law firms had 12,942 attorneys working in their foreign offices, compared with 10,493 last year. The resurgence in foreign office expansion marks a return to double-digit growth in those locations-- where numbers grew by only 3% last year. Much of the increase was attributable to mergers between U.S. firms and foreign firms. In 2005, Piper Rudnick Gray Cary combined with 1,350-attorney DLA in London. Also this year, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart merged with London firm Nicholson Graham, which had 135 lawyers.

Megamergers aside, most of the growth this year occurred in London, Brussels, Paris and Germany. For example, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton expanded its London office to 75 attorneys from 60, and its Frankfurt, Germany, office to 60 attorneys from 43 last year. Chadbourne & Parke upped the number of attorneys in almost all of its foreign offices, including adding 10 to its London location and four to its Warsaw, Poland, office.

Some of the other firms showing significant gains to their European offices in 2005 included Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Debevoise & Plimpton; Dechert; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

If you have a solid background in Litigation Support in either an Analyst, Specialist or Project Manger capacity and have a desire to spend 12-24 months working in Europe then please contact me for current career opportunities.

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No matter what your current rung on the ladder of success, there's a whole lot of managing going on, in both directions. Early on in our careers we get the message that everything worth doing gets done by working hard, working long, and working to deadline. But the contemporary work environment is more service-oriented than ever before, and more than ever before, how you get ahead will depend upon how you get along. That is, the future of your career will depend less on what you produce, and more on understanding and assimilating the thought processes of those above you in the company hierarchy.

Relationships are the fuel that drives everyday transactions. The alliances you develop throughout your firm -- not just with your immediate superiors -- will support you and empower you, as you navigate the political shoals of any successful career. But your most powerful and influential ally will always be your boss. By understanding your boss’ style and point of view, and integrating them with your own, you signal to him or her that you’re ready to advance. You'll come across as one who has not only the awareness to understand and share your boss' objectives but also the ability to strategize beyond your current position.

This is the process of Managing Up. And it works.

Here are some questions you can ask, to assess your boss' priorities, and prepare you to move up:

• What details does your boss pay attention to first and foremost?
• What is expected of people in the positions you'd like to move into?
• What questions do they ask of their direct reports, and why do they ask them?
• What are their leadership styles? How do they make decisions?
• By which methods do they prefer to communicate (email, phone, in-person, etc.)?
• How does your boss' management style differ from yours? And what elements of his or her style can you incorporate into your own?
  

The real test of your readiness to advance will be your ability to manage up -- to perceive your boss' needs and adapt to them. Remember, it is your job to develop a relationship with your boss -- not the other way around. Because when you manage up, it'll be your boss taking notice, as you demonstrate your ability to function at a higher level. The boss level.

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