Posted on November 13, 2008 by David Cowen

Crack Open That Piggy Bank and Invest In Yourself

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. 

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted on March 23, 2006 by David Cowen

Anybody Can Buy a Porsche

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.
Tags: , , , ,