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

For the past year, The Cowen Group has been surveying the marketplace to determine staffing trends, in light of the tough times law firms, vendors and corporations have gone through.  We have just launched our Q3 survey and have some preliminary “tidbits” to share with you.  The good news for all, is that only a small fraction of our surveyed database plan on reducing staffing the upcoming quarter.  Next Wednesday we will have the comprehensive results of the survey to share with you, including data on work load, outsourcing, etc.

As I look forward, I realize that the data that we have is significant for all, but there are many other issues that concern our industry and we have the opportunity to examine those issues in depth.  I have partnered with Jeanette Slepian , former Sr. VP Sales and Marketing at Fios, to develop a comprehensive survey of our industry which will identify leading trends in not only staffing but spending on related litigation and e-discovery services.  What professional and IT-enabled services will law firms and corporations be investing in?  Will the trend of “vendor consolidation” gain further momentum in 2010?  These and numerous other critical issues will be analyzed in our first annual forecast. Stay tuned for more details.

P.S. Congratulations to Jared Coseglia, our Senior VP, for the first Episode of his Career Corner Podcast posted on ILTA… John Kapp (Shearman & Sterling), Jeannie Larrea-Manzano (Wachtell Lipton) and Brad Schaffel (WilmerHale) share their insight about the exciting evolution of their careers in the litigation support industry. Listen Here

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In my session at ILTA on the future of Litigation Support, I asked how many people were working longer and harder today compared to six months ago. 70% of the group raised their hands.

This show of hands, combined with recent data collected by The Cowen Group, indicates that the Litigation Support industry has hit the bottom of the recession (I can’t speak for the entire legal industry or the economy at large). Most litigation support professionals are working harder and longer for one of two reasons:

1)      Because staff cuts have forced them to do the job of two or more people; or

2)      Because their organization has experienced a net increase in work.

Working long and harder, month after month, is not sustainable. Eventually, litigation support and E-Discovery departments will need to add headcount and expand their ranks. Is this expansion happening yet?

We invite you to participate in our Q3 Staffing Trends Survey which will be distributed next week. In it, we ask the following three questions:

1)      Are you and your team working harder and longer compared to three months ago?

2)      Do you plan to add headcount, reduce headcount or keep staffing levels the same between now and the end of the year?

3)      What is your greatest challenge entering the 4^th quarter of 2009? Technology, Workflow/Process Improvement or People?

The Cowen Group’s Q2 Staffing Report found that nearly 1/3 of surveyed Litigation Support departments in the AmLaw 200 planned on adding staff before the end of 2009. I am looking forward to reporting the most recent data next week.

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New technologies and process have made, and are making great strides/improvements in reducing the volumes of data that must be reviewed by someone somewhere. Whether you’re in-house, onshore, farmshore or offshore – the quantity of documents to review is finally beginning to drop.

Unfortunately, the ability to fully utilize these new technologies & processes – Clearwell, EnCase, Recommind and others – is a different story. There simply are not enough people that have a deep and meaningful experience with these tools/technologies to satisfy the industry’s needs. The talent is scattered – some Corporate, some Vendor and a fair amount within Law Firms.

Why don’t we have more deep talent? The industry has simply grown too much too fast – there just hasn’t been time for the appropriate amount of talent to be trained and developed.

And to be truthful… I do not see much real training going on.

We’ve been here before. During the late 1990’s, when Microsoft and Cisco were taking over the world - corporations were installing new versions of software every 6-12 months and demanded employees with Microsoft and Cisco certifications. Understandably, when corporations (or anyone) spend millions/billions on new technologies and business process improvements, they want more than the local copy shop boys.

Back then most/many corporations paid for their employees to get those certifications. It was in their best interest and significantly cheaper than paying recruiter fees. Certification, $6,000 vs. recruiting fee, $25,000… it’s a no brainer. And many tech gurus paid for their own training because it represented a clear career path up.

Yet here we are 5 years into this E-Discovery explosion (2004 – 2009), in a reportedly $4B industry (growing/shrinking?) and there is no organized /recognized training.  If we do not address this issue/opportunity, we will return to the War for Talent we just witnessed from 2004 – 2008.

There is something terribly short sighted going on here.

 

What’s the solution? Ask me what I think vendors need to be doing in order to lead this industry.

 

I will be at ILTA from Sunday, August 23^rd to Thursday, August 27^th and am speaking with Joanne Lane , Ellen Polhamus and  Ruth Hauswirth on Tuesday at 1:30 PM on “The Future of Our Litigation Support Profession: What Lies Ahead?”

 

http://ilta.ebiz.uapps.net/personifyebusiness/EducationalProgram/SessionDetails/tabid/187/Default.aspx?productId=948

 

The answer is easier then you think.

 

David Cowen

Executive Search & Market Analysis

“We Know The Right People...  Right Now”

www.cowengroup.com

www.opportunityknocksblog.com

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I thought you might appreciate the below Seths Godins article on growing a customer base…

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/05/deeper-or-wider.html

If you want to grow the size of your customer base, you need to confront the buffet dilemma.

Any decent buffet has foods that please 85% of the population. Meats, cheeses, potatoes... the typical fare.

Once your business hits a natural plateau, it’s tempting to invest in getting more people to come. And what most buffets do is double down. Now, they have bacon, plus they have beans with bacon and turkey-wrapped bacon. Now, instead of one chocolate cake, they have three.

This is essentially useless. You haven’t done anything to grow your audience. The base might be a little more pleased, but not enough to bring in any new business. And the disenfranchised (the vegans, the weight watchers, the healthy eaters, the kosher crowd) remain unmoved and uninterested. And one person like this out of a party of six is enough to keep all six away.

So, there are two ways to go. Much deeper, or a bit wider…

Deeper would mean a bacon-focused buffet, a dozen bacon dishes, including chocolate-covered bacon. Deeper would mean a chocolate-obsessed dessert bar, ten cakes, fondue, everything.

Deeper gets you people willing to drive across town to visit you. It’s remarkable. It’s not like every other buffet but a little bit bigger. It’s insanely over the top. People will bully their friends in order to get them to come.

The other choice is wider. Instead of adding a handful of dishes that mildly please the people you already have, why not add brown rice and tofu and vegetarian chili? Now you’ve opened the doors to that last 15%.

This thinking isn’t available only to buffet owners. It works for summer camps. Resorts. Conference centers. Spiritual institutions [and E-Discovery firms]. It works for any business that seeks to attract customers that come in groups where people have different wants and needs.

 

.....Do you have the right talent in place to execute your growth strategy?

 

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I just wanted to write a quick thank you blog to Martha Mazzone, Patrick Oot, David Boyhan, Warren Solow and everyone who participated in our Breakfast Roundtable on Tuesday morning, April 21^st to our discuss Measuring and Evaluating In-House E-Discovery Legal Spend.

Our preliminary Critical Trends Survey on the subject came back with some interesting facts:

• 90% of Corporate E-Discovery managers are not able to track the details of their E-Discovery budget.
• Only 30% of Corporate E-Discovery managers are able to calculate their E-Discovery legal spend budget. For the rest, legal spend is simply a line on their cost sheet.
• While 58% of Corporate E-Discovery managers currently have E-Discovery hosting In-House, another 24% intend on doing so within the next year.
• While 33% of Corporate E-Discovery managers currently have E-Discovery processing In-House, another 31% intend on doing so within the next year.
• More Corporate E-Discovery managers have advanced degrees (65%) than do AmLaw200 E-Discovery managers (18%).

Our next Breakfast Roundtable will be held June 9^th, where we will discuss How to Compare and Contrast Early Case Assessment Tools and Offerings.

If you would like a copy of this report, or if you would like to join the June 9^th dialogue by taking our preliminary survey, email William@CowenGroup.com. 

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We’re instilled with the belief early on that we can accomplish anything as long as we work hard, work long, and work to deadline. However, in this more service-oriented work environment, understanding and incorporating the thought processes of those above you is just as important to the future of your career your own production.

If you are one of our clients or candidates you have heard this from us on an ongoing basis. Relationships are the fuel powering every day transactions. Developing alliances throughout your firm, not just your direct departmental contacts, will provide you the support you need to learn and master the political climate that you’ll navigate. But the most powerful and influential compatriot to have on your side is your boss. By understanding your boss’s point of view, as well as assimilating it into your style, you are signaling to them that you’re ready for advancement. What will come across is that you have the ability to think and strategize beyond your current position.

This is the process of Managing Up.   

Here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself to assist yourself into isolating what exactly is imperative to your boss:

• What details does your boss pay attention to first and foremost?
• What is expected from the people in positions you want to move into?
• What questions do they ask of their direct reports and why?
• What is their leadership style and how do they make decisions?
• By which methods do they prefer to be informed of status updates (email, phone, in-person, etc.)?
• How does your boss’ management style differ from yours? And what can you utilize in your own dealings?

The last query is the most critical. The real test to pass for the promotion you desire is if you are flexible and perceptive enough to adapt to your boss’ needs. What is important here is to remember that it is your job to develop a relationship with your boss, not the other way around, while demonstrating to them that you have the ability to function at a higher level...

…their level!  

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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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I highly recommend reading Monica Bay’s article, “Can You Adapt?,” in the June issue Law Technology News.  

I too am seeing more of this new breed of techno/e-discovery lawyer.

Many firms have them in place or are looking to hire or develop them and they are discussed at every conference I attend.

Many people see this growing role of staff attorneys and techno-lawyers in litigation support as a threat or source of irritation.

I don’t.

It’s not us versus them. It’s not a competition for visibility within the firm.

It’s evolution, not revolution.

Paralegal, IT or lawyer - there’s plenty of room for everyone.  

As the profession evolves and litigation support becomes more complex and sophisticated, the techno-lawyer can play a valuable role in practice support leadership. Lawyers understand lawyers.  They understand the internal and external clients being served, the specifics of the case and the strategies and goals to be accomplished.  They understand the WHY of what is needed.

Today’s litigation support departments are like chocolate chip cookies.  There are countless ways to make them, depending on what ingredients you have in the house.  How many chips, how much butter, a preference for crispy or chewy and, dare I say it, nuts?  Each batch is different.

Directors and Managers need to evaluate their needs and internal resources to create strong and diverse teams.  They must determine who has the skills as well as the passion, motivation and intellectual curiosity to step into litigation support roles.  A lawyer may be the perfect fit for your team, depending on:

·        The culture of your firm;

·        The nature of your clients;

·        The depth and complexity of the matter;

·        The maturity of the department;  and

·        The relationships with IT.

There are many ways to make a chocolate chip cookie.

I like mine chewy.

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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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What do Xerox, Pitney Bowes, Deloitte, and now HP all have in common? Each of these companies is making eDiscovery acquisitions at an alarming rate.

HP boosted its eDiscovery market share with the recent acquisition of Australia's Tower Software. HP said the addition of document and records management software will position the company to better compete in the fast-growing market for eDiscovery and compliance solutions.

Does this mean lower costs and better service to the market? Don’t bet on it. Several firms are already looking to shed their recent eDiscovery acquisitions.

Confusion and consolidation are on the horizon.

How will this impact your career? Stay tuned.

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There has been a growing debate amongst major law firms, vendors, and Fortune 500 companies on whether or not they should be grooming their IT professionals or paralegals into shiny new Litigation Support staff.

Both approaches have pros and cons. This week two guest writers will outline their thoughts and ideas on which is best. On Friday, I will share my thoughts given what I see on the market as a whole.

The IT Department - Litigation Support's latest recruiting ground.
By Mark Lieb

© 2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc.

Continue Reading...

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More and more corporate legal departments are taking control of their own e-discovery process, reflecting new concerns about spiraling costs and information control. And numerous other factors combine to make in-house data management and discovery a good alternative. Many of our corporate legal clients already have a wealth of technology talent in-house – plenty to handle most of the technical tasks required to become – and stay – defense-ready.

But the knowledge of how best to organize that talent belongs to a different job description. Litigation support leadership should not only have thorough understanding of current technology but also be able to coordinate in-house tech pros with a range of outside vendors. Effective litigation support leadership must also stay abreast of constantly evolving industry regulations, and be able to keep a clear channel of meaningful communication open between the in-house legal team and outside counsel. Effective lit support directors must have law firm experience.

Recent ediscovery debacles have heightened awareness of this pivotal position. But locating the right lit support professional for your particular environment can be a daunting undertaking. Many corporations remain exposed and vulnerable to unforeseen costs and liabilities, even with all systems "go" for in-house defense-readiness.

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But try driving a Porsche! There was a time when the only way you could buy a Porsche was four-on-the-floor. Not because they couldn't make an automatic. Of course not; the standard-only Porsche has been the unequivocally intentional marketing ploy that preserved the rarefied Porsche Driving Experience for the Driving Elite -- i.e., that proud demographic that can drive a fast standard transmission.

But times change, and with the times, the demands of the marketplace. By the end of the 80's, with a growing constituency of would-be Porsche drivers -- but for the stick shift -- Porsche found valuable new market share in producing the fully automatic 911 Carrera 2. Porsche found plenty of other ways to satisfy its traditional constituency's elitism. Meanwhile, there's now a Porsche on the market that anybody can drive.

The present moment in litigation support is a lot like the Porsche automatic. The legal technology that used to be the special province of IT is now out there, sharing your marketplace, for any old legal department to access freely. Most vendors even hawk their products with bundled how-to packages, which have potential to sideline old-fashioned info-techies.

But like the 1989 Porsche 911 Carrera 2, which allows anybody with a license to get behind the wheel, IT only gets nowhere fast, if the driver doesn't know where he's going. Because it's all about the driver -- the IT guy who knows the machine inside and out. It's all about the navigator -- the lawyer who knows where he needs to go, and how to get there. It's all about your people, working together, to get somewhere fast, in the powerful vehicle of new technology.

The IT staffing objective has, in fact, changed. Judges, lawyers and clients have all changed -- because technology has advanced, and with changing technology, the marketplace has changed. But what the litigation support market phenomenon allows us to see, better than ever before, is what we've always known: it's NOT about the technology. It's about the talent. It's about the people.

It's ALWAYS about the people.

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In 2006, firms with lit support commitments are beginning to address "process". Not because process is the new-new thing -- but precisely because it's not.

Fancy new legal tech products and services have been grabbing headlines recently, partly in answer to the EDD tsunami that has swamped some unsuspecting firms. And the effect has been temporarily daunting to the traditional practice of law. But in lawyer-client relationships, the process is the product. And the process has not changed.

We're already starting to see the novelty of cyber-tech bells and whistles give way to the appropriate function of technology -- i.e., in support of lawyers practicing law. Legal tech product is still only as good as the data input, the talent to execute, and the rich process of the lawyer-client relationship. Still, on a busy day, the urgency for new-new legal tech solutions can seem like a tsunami at the door, pinning partners to their favorite paper filing systems for dear life.

Listen up counsel. This wave is your friend. EDD is here to help -- but it has to be tamed. You need legal technology, and the talent to tame the legal tech product that lets you get on with the process.

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Heard this one? Guy goes up for Supreme Court Justice. Opposing political operatives pass disparaging e-memos. Major national political party gets wise a little late and smartly scrubs the discoverable data. Whew. Close one. But what's this? Oh No! BUSTED by the META data in the Word.doc.

It was bloggers who got the meta-goods. Think maybe there's a change a-comin'? It looks like US Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito, Jr. will do fine (no bets on the DNC). But the data snafu is not unique. Lots of lawyers are mondo-surprised by the foremost threat facing lawyers today -- metadata -- made more acute by ethical and professional requirements regarding client confidences.

The main peril is twofold: inadvertent disclosure of 1) attorney communications with adversarial third parties, and 2) clients' underlying communications and documents in the course of litigation. But they share a common source. METADATA. Metadata contained in documents provided during otherwise ordinary e-discovery can accidentally expose confidential information, and destroy the attorney-client relationship -- nevermind cases, careers, even the firm itself.

Metadata is "data about data". It's information about the formatting, the history, the tracking and management of any electronic document. Metadata can spill all the beans about how, when and by whom the data was collected, created, accessed, or modified. Metadata can be modified, inadvertently (which is aggravating) or intentionally (which can be criminal). Metadata is meant to be invisible in the final printed document. But it can be extracted when native files are converted to image files, like the universally preferred PDF files so routinely used for printing out. State Bar Opinion Lawyers must become aware of metadata and of how their software stores it, in order to properly safeguard their clients' confidences.

God forbid a lawyer should transmit a document by e-mail to someone other than the client, without realizing the recipient is able to view prior edits or comments that qualify as privileged attorney-client communication. Wherever such communications could jeopardize client confidences, the lawyer must exercise "reasonable care" to protect the client's information, because that responsibility still lies squarely with the lawyer.

That's one thing that has definitively NOT changed. ediscovery The explosion of electronic data discovery, or EDD, additional changes to federal rules of disclosure proposed for 2006, and inexorably evolving technology -- all combine to make data in general -- and metadata in particular -- some of the most perilous and costly aspects of litigation.

It has never been more crucial to find the right people to meet increasingly tech-savvy demands of litigation support .

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Harry Potter fans know that when Dumbledore was the Secret Keeper for the Order of the Phoenix, he wielded the immensely complex Fidelius Charm to magically hide the headquarters of the Order. That's just the kind of insight that will come in handy as law firms scramble to fill crucial litigation support roles. Bear with me here.

Technology's stealth-entry into every-day law firm routine has suddenly exploded in a rash of electronic discovery debacles that have finally grabbed the attention of the legal profession. EDD is fast replacing both the hand-delivered document and the beleaguered associate.

"If you intend to practice today, this needs to be something you know how to deal with," says Michele Lange, staff attorney, legal technologies for vendor Kroll Ontrack. "Sometimes the very best evidence, or the only evidence, is obtained electronically." And it has to be done right.

Unsympathetic judges are quick to punish bungled EDD, to the tune of billions in sanctions for the losing party. Experts agree the urgency for experienced litigation support professionals will increase exponentially throughout 2006. But EDD is already a growth industry, and pretty much anybody who ever scanned a white paper to PDF is hanging out a shingle.

So the big question law firm partners are finally facing: How do we find the lit support people who really know the secrets of EDD? "The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find--unless of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it..." Maybe it's time to get your own Map to Talent. Watch this space.

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Ok, you saw the light, you bit the bullet and digitized your redwells. Now what? A nicely thorough piece on Law.com takes a look at the EDD dilemma.

Law firms and corporate legal departments are accumulating massive archives of electronic data that has to be handled just right in order to avoid catastrophic complications -- and costs.

You may be inclined -- by corporate culture or temperament -- to keep it all in-house. But experts say beware. The range of potentially relevant software, hardware, file formats and protocols is enough to boggle the analogue mind. Moreover, each unique matter calls for its own unique combination of cyber-search technologies.

And judges have not been shy in ordering severe sanctions for e-discovery mistakes. In the e-discovery debacle of Coleman Parent Holdings, Inc. v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc, Morgan Stanley was fined millions of dollars for a "willful and a gross abuse of its discovery obligations."

So if you don't know your WI-FI from your WYSIWYG, outsourcing could save time, energy -- and tons of money -- though experts advise carefully establishing relationships with reliable vendors before taking on large cases—because the burden of electronic discovery still falls on you.

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