Peer to Peer Magazine

best practices SIX STEPS TO MAKING NON-PRACTICING JDS MORE MARKETABLE 1. BECOME A MEMBER OF THE BAR. Being able to give legal counsel on e-discovery distinguishes you from your non-certified peers and makes you more marketable to in-house corporate legal departments. 2. LEAN LEFT! If your role as an attorney typically begins at the document review phase, seek opportunities to get exposure and experience working further left in the EDRM. 3. BOLSTER BUSINESS ACUMEN. The impact e-discovery has made on the cost of litigation is of great concern to all parties. Knowing the ins and outs of pricing options and trends is critical to managing e-discovery successfully. 4. TURN TECHNICAL. A focus on understanding the mechanics and nuances of predictive coding technology, technology-assisted review and early case assessment, and leveraging complex data analytics in managed review is the niche of greatest professional value. 5. EMBRACE PROJECT MANAGEMENT. There will be tremendous opportunity for lawyers to manage cases like projects in non-practicing roles within firms and vendors. These roles continue to be in high demand, are highly compensated and are highly visible — internally and externally. 6. STUDY SALES. The art of sales is a skill independent of the art of law and the art of technology. For lawyers looking to move into business development roles, giving this discipline equal study and weight will be critical to their long-term success. 22 Peer to Peer This trend of educating internally instead of hiring experienced outsiders is exemplified in statistical changes in ALM Events' LegalTech conference attendees. Corporations appear to have made significant investments in getting their employees educated on e-discovery, information governance and legal technology in the last five years. Henry Dicker at ALM reports, "Both our New York and West Coast events have added comprehensive educational content in order to accommodate the significant increase in attendees from corporate legal departments." Corporations also have less of a need to internalize talent because of their growing utilization and strategic partnerships with outside service providers. Since the economic collapse, e-discovery outsourcing — particularly to business process, legal process and managed service providers — has become increasingly cost-effective. That, coupled with the advent and acceptance of technology-assisted review, early case assessment, predictive coding and more enterprise software solutions, has driven corporations to outsource most of the labor component of their legal technology solutions and has created a desire to avoid a fixed asset model internally. The good news for attorneys is that when corporations hire externally, they tend to hire for the legal department far more than the IT department. Corporations have hired externally for "special counsel" and "of counsel" roles — attorneys who advise on the relationship management between outside counsel and vendor partners. Corporations usually seek practicing litigators who wish to make a move out of the law firm lifestyle and to guide the legal spending and vision for a major corporate institution. These are coveted and highly competitive roles. As big data continues to consume our culture, more corporate legal departments will look to bring these subjectmatter expert attorney roles in-house. E-Discovery Technology Sales Another alternative career path for a nonpracticing attorney is to sell legal technology services. This is not a new trend, but it is currently an explosive one. As the availability of partnertrack positions diminishes and the financially motivated attorney experiences a ceiling on earning potential as a staff employee, turning

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