Canadian Lawyer

tech Support By Dera J. Nevin E-discovery jobs 101 So, you want to be in data? Here's a simplistic primer of roles in the e-discovery sector. I n the last 10 days of August, I met with three different people, each one about to start law school with one goal in mind: becoming an e-discovery lawyer. All have superb potential, having completed education in electrical engineering, computer science, and information sciences. I hope these students realize their dreams. We need them. There is a shortage of qualified e-discovery lawyers in Canada, and yet no fewer than four national law firms have sought or are seeking national discovery counsel. Normally, this would signal a mismatch between available talent and opportunity (and drive up salaries and prices) but that is not occurring. I attribute this to the immaturity of the market in this area, including talent development. Because talent remains both rare and under-developed, this remains a difficult market. In the United States, where the market for law firm e-discovery personnel is more mature, it is not uncommon to find lawyers in the following roles: national e-discovery counsel, e-discovery lawyer, document review lawyer, and e-discovery operations manager. The national e-discovery counsel is typically a partner role; in addition to rainmaking, such persons advise on Rule 26(f) conferences (meet and confer), defend production motions, advise on production strategy in multi-district litigation, respond to subpoenas and develop cost-shifting strategies, and manage e-discovery lawyers and/or document review lawyers. They can also develop formal e-discovery programs for their firm's lawyers, or their clients. www.CANADIAN E-discovery lawyers (typically associates) draft litigation hold notices, perform custodian interviews, prepare for and attend depositions, develop document review strategies (and assist in document review), and prepare privilege logs. (In Canada, this work is often done by senior clerks and paralegals, or litigation associates.) E-discovery lawyers may also assist national e-discovery counsel with some or all of their work. Document review lawyers, whether staff lawyers in law firms or personnel in legal process outsourcers, review documents for relevance and privilege and spot issues in documents. Although this role is too frequently devalued, a competent document review lawyer is an irreplaceable asset. Document review lawyers should be treated as more than benchwarmers. Properly utilized, a document review lawyer can recommend the optimal organization of a database, understand electronic document review tools and use them efficiently, develop a proper coding palette to ensure all documents are quality reviewed, can learn your case better than you can, and can usually search in document databases better than almost anyone else. A quality document reviewer will find your smoking gun, if it is in the documents. A good one will also save your clients lots of money. Finally, some lawyers become operations specialists, running e-discovery or litigation support centres in law firms. Sometimes, these people are administrators/managers. In other cases, the role also functions as national discovery counsel or e-discovery consultants. Where a law firm internalizes L a w ye r m a g . c o m November/December 2013 19

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