eDiscovery 전문가의 Career Path

http://www.aceds.org/five-alternative-career-paths-for-e-discovery-professionals/

 

eDiscovery 에서 일하다가 어느쪽 분야로 진로를 선택할 수 있을까?

1. Information Governance Consultant

2. Sales Engineer/Solutions Architect

3. Corporate Cost Reduction Specialist, aka “e-Discovery Special/Of Counsel”

4. Relativity Consultant (또는 다른 솔루션)

 5. Independent Contractor/Consultant

 

 

The e-discovery industry is getting bigger and smaller at the same time. An increased interest in and availability of talent with 6 to 24 months of experience has led to an increase in the volume of hires made in 2014. However, for veterans in the space, job opportunities continue to diminish. Consolidation of vendors has made many leadership jobs redundant post-merger. Additionally, continued price compression — particularly with the growing adoption of managed service contracts based on annualized flat fees and set thresholds — has forced providers to hire less expensive talent to maintain maximum profitability. Also, project managers within major law firms are finding their careers hitting a concrete ceiling, as there is shrinking vertical mobility to get promoted or to move to another firm in a management role. So what does a seasoned e-discovery professional with 7 to 10 years of experience and a salary between $125,000 and $200,000 do next?

 

Here are five alternative career paths that are beginning to emerge:

 

 1. Information Governance Consultant

Information Governance (IG) has been a buzz word for years now, but hiring in this niche has been limited. Part of the reason for this lack of hiring is that corporate buy-in for IG services has been scarce (note last year’s 451 Research article claiming, “Our annual survey on information governance tells us many business leaders couldn’t care less about it, despite the hype and interest from lawyers and software vendors alike.”).

That is changing. As more software is developed to solve IG issues and more e-discovery providers are incorporating IG consulting into their service offering, the affordability and commitment to creating sound IG best practices and automation has increased. For e-discovery professionals who have a strong records management background combined with sound collection and preservation expertise there are opportunities to transition into IG consulting. Most of the jobs will be at providers, though some progressive firms are adding talent in IG, too. Additionally, e-discovery sales professionals who are eager to sell something less transactional and services further left in the EDRM can find new opportunities selling Information Governance.

 

2. Sales Engineer/Solutions Architect

Subject matter expertise and years of practical experience has made some professionals invaluable in closing business. For senior project managers and consultants who are asking themselves how to break through the concrete ceiling of a compensation hovering around $150,000 annually, sales engineering is likely the answer. Additionally, the pool of available high quality e-discovery sales reps is so low, providers are now hiring more solutions architects whose job is not to open doors for business, but rather to close them using their years of experience and expertise. Involvement in sales always translates to more money and greater value.

 

3. Corporate Cost Reduction Specialist, aka “e-Discovery Special/Of Counsel”

There is still a myth that the Fortune 1000 are now aggressively in-sourcing e-discovery talent. This is not the case. There are exceptions to this rule, particularly big banks, but for the most part, hiring in corporate America for e-discovery professionals remains in the legal department and not in IS/IT. Corporations are hiring lawyers who deeply understand the complex workflow and pricing schemata for outsourcing large volumes of processing, hosting, production and review. Corporations usually hire these “of counsel” professionals directly from firms or vendors they have previously (continually) outsourced to. Occasionally they will hire from the outside. This role is sometimes a contract role, as master service agreements and pricing negotiations are done every two to three years in-house at corporations.

 

4. Relativity Consultant

There is no denying that kCura’s Relativity is the most widely used review platform in the industry. When selecting a vendor to engage or to go to work for, the first delimiter is almost always, “Are you a Relativity provider or do you use proprietary technology?” This saturation of the tool has created a subset of professionals whose expertise revolves around the utilization of a single platform: Relativity.

Two years ago the supply was very thin for experts with deep Relativity expertise. Now, there are many more out there. Firms who have enterprise licenses of Relativity are willing to pay top dollar for skilled technicians who also can adeptly communicate with attorneys. Communication skills combined with hands-on technical prowess makes this role highly compensated; professionals who are “one or the other” will find their salaries still somewhat limited compared to peers who have both technical and soft skills. For example, a discovery review attorney or team lead with expertise on Relativity workflow but an inability to process, load, or run productions of data using Relativity would not qualify as “both.” Similarly, a highly technical Relativity specialist who does not work directly with attorneys or review teams would also not qualify as “both.” Finally, it is worth noting that an RCA (Relativity-certified administrator) certification is the most monetizable certification available in the industry right now. For professionals looking to get ahead financially and technically, pursuit of an RCA is a good start.

 

5. Independent Contractor/Consultant

More and more corporations and law firms are adopting scalable staffing models to mirror their scalable managed service models. As a result, the demand for contract project managers and seasoned technical analysts has increased exponentially in the last six months. For example, let’s say a large corporation gets into heavy litigation. Server space is added to handle data volumes. So why not add head count on a contract basis to support the moments of accelerated demand on in-house legal departments? It’s happening, and often. For the project manager who has spent the bulk of his or her career working for vendors and law firms and who is hungry to work for a corporation, a lifestyle of contracting is now a real option.

There most certainly will be other alternative career paths. These five paths are most likely to mature sooner than later, and demand for these types of skills is becoming palpable, though perhaps not abundant. Elite veteran talent willing to reinvent themselves will be able to increase their value and compensation. Those, however, who find themselves opting for the comfort of their existing roles might be surprised in several years when those roles become obsolete.