We used to joke around that it was it difficult to get fired from a litigation support job. Today’s legal market environment tells us it’s not a joke anymore. Law firms, government agencies and corporate legal departments have been making cuts for the last 18 months but according to The Cowen Group’s recent job survey, we are on the upswing again with “60 Percent of Legal Industry Expects to Hire eDiscovery Staff in Next Six Months.”  However, for those who have suffered through the downsizing and the changes that have occurred in the legal economy, it’s not easy to forget the anxiety and trauma. According to the article “Misery Loves Company: Team morale has taken a beating – but it’s not too late to prevent a mass mutiny,” found in the April 2010 PM Network magazine, the author outlines the warning signs that should have you concerned about your litigation support project management team:

• Tension or anxiety in the workplace
• Excessive gossip & rumors
• Isolationism & territorialism

It’s never too late to fix things… some causes will be within your control while others will not but you have to be vigilant in protecting the fabric of your team.  Here are some ways to improve morale and get your litigation support / e-discovery project management team focused on their work again:

• Communication – keep team members in the loop, pay attention to non-verbal feedback and create an “open door” policy … don’t leave room for team members to assume the worst
• Training to reduce skills gaps (if you don’t have a training budget here are some ideas)
• Honesty, Consistency and Respect

Our litigation support manager class addresses team building and mentoring for departmental success. The following excerpt from an article I found online highlights some of the concepts and ideas we discuss in our class (the entire article can be found here).

Invest both time and effort in your staff members. Human nature and office politics will always create problems; be there to listen and try to defuse the situation. Always strive to have all parties leave the conversation feeling they’ve gained something, even if it was just an ear to hear them out.

Ask questions and learn your staff members’ personal goals. It’s a little like asking, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” Help define their goals, if necessary, and work to align them with departmental and institutional goals. Then invest the time and effort to help your staff attain those goals. People work better when they are doing something they like.

Take the time to jointly define departmental goals. Our five-year self-study really helped us in this respect. We put forth the effort to identify our mission and goals and, even more importantly, our strengths and weaknesses. We then went to work on our weaknesses as a team, and we continue to do so.

Realize that not everyone will be happy with your department’s services. When the criticism comes, back up your staff in front of others. If there is a real problem, resolve it privately with your staff. Most problems arise from a lack of communication that has led to a misunderstanding or a bad working relationship.

Everyone has limits. Recognize those limits and work within them. This is tricky because there is a fine line between holding people back and letting them work within their limitations. Push a little and see how staff members handle their own limitations. Talk with them, find out how you can help, determine their attitudes. If the work still doesn’t get done, you’ve probably hit someone’s limit. A more difficult situation is when someone stretches beyond his or her capabilities and doesn’t recognize it. Trying to resolve that situation without disillusioning a hard worker can be a delicate matter.

Invest not only time and effort, but money. In our industry, training–including conference attendance and structured courses–is critical and well worth the time and money. Not only does training hone skills and teach tools your employees need to do their jobs, it improves morale and self-esteem. Paying for training shows people they are valued by the organization. Most universities include travel and training in the same budget line, and that is the line that is most vulnerable when budgets are cut. Still, it’s good practice to put as much money in your training budget as possible, even if you have to rob your supply budget to do it. Two years ago, I had a $5,000 budget for training and travel for 19 employees. Last year I increased it to $10,000 and this year I upped it to $20,000; we set a departmental goal to get everyone to at least one training session or conference this year.

What if my organization doesn’t have a training budget this year? Training does not have to be expensive. Maintain a library of resources like the ones found here.

As a manager, you have a tremendous impact on the enthusiasm or lack thereof of your team. This article quotes one of my favorite American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson who once wrote ”nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” The big kids eventually realized that if they were going to have fun, we all had to have fun so they took the time to “mentor” and “train” me to play Monopoly with them. When your litigation support & e-discovery project management team feel confident in their skills and abilities their enthusiasm for the work increases.  Their morale improves. Their productivity improves.

As a leader, have you created an environment that encourages your team to enhance their leadership skills? Do you regularly create opportunities to allow members of your team to take on leadership roles on projects?

Your success as a leader is closely tied to your ability to encourage and coach the people you lead to success. Over the years, I have observed that the most successful, empowered and productive litigation support managers are those who are able to delegate effectively and are not afraid of sharing information or building the skills of the team around them.

This video from Tech Republic highlights 5 ways you can lead your litigation support team to success.

1. Don’t provide all the answers

2. Align people with the stuff they are passionate about

3. Avoid throwing people under the bus

4. Build consensus by letting your team know WHY

5. Trust your people, and let them know it

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

- Jack Welch

Click here to view the embedded video.

How did you get started in litigation support? We’d love to hear your story.

• The Gartner Report continues to point to an expanding e-discovery market that is simultaneously contracting. That’s because the part of the market that is contracting is that which relies on the “legacy” technology while the expanding areas include geography, technology and value expectations management.
• Clearwell offers a “Top 10” list of predictions that includes addressing the skills gap for project management. Clearwell’s predictions are also available here as a slide show – suggested use: schedule a lunch & learn for your paralegals/ attorneys where you discuss industry trends. Start with this slideshow but create your own slides with key points from a few of these blogs & articles listed here.
• Trends for contract attorneys that may also prove to be trends for litigation support professionals as well from The Posse List. We’re paying special attention to the project management trend. What are our options for achieving quality in e-discovery?.
• Many bloggers see early case assessment, searching technology and project management in their crystal balls. We like Charles Skamser’s use of the word “legacy” to describe how we used to do things versus how things are going to be done in the immediate future. That is a huge point as we transition to a new decade that we should be aware of… there will still be firms who have invested heavily in what is now “legacy” technology who will have to determine whether or not the newer technology and methodologies for case management are “must haves.”
• Chris Dale from the UK offers his perspective on what’s coming in 2010 here. It’s interesting that he sees a narrowing of the idea of what is “relevant” in litigation towards attorneys cooperating on what “is really necessary for the facts to be found and justice to be done.”
• Pivotal Discovery posted their predictions via guest blogger, Doug Kaminski from Clearwell Systems. Again, project management, searching and cooperation are viewed with increasing importance in 2010. He additionally highlights the pricing model changes that are forthcoming to our industry. This is the value / ROI question that many corporate legal departments have when it comes to paying for e-discovery.  He also mentions “insourcing” which is something that we took note of here at LitWorks in 2009. Many of our students are doing a considerable volume of ESI processing themselves within the law firm environment with calculated thresholds to determine when to involve an outside vendor. This is a topic that is definitely open for lots of discussion. Feel free to leave your thoughts on this or any of the other predictions for 2010 below as a comment.
• Ari Kaplan’s summary of the last major e-discovery conference of 2009 not only reviews the highlights of this past year but gives us previews of what’s coming next. As others have suggested and as we teach here at LitWorks, it’s not about the technology… it’s about the process. Case teams will have to take control of their workflow and understand how the technology can be used to achieve their litigation strategy.
• Your firm’s IT director may be thinking along these lines.
• Some companies may be upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft Exchange. If so, then this article will help you with managing expectations for collection.
• Another list of 2010 predictions of interest to your IT director or even your firm’s clients can be found here.
• If reading all of the blogs collected here is not for you, then check out this podcast.

As more bloggers post their predictions for 2010, we’ll add them to the list. If you come across any, please post to our comments area below or join the discussion… what do you think the bloggers have missed? What do you see as the Top 5 topics that will important to your firm, corporation or government agency?