The LitWorks Certified Litigation Support Professional Training is a four-day course offering industry best practices learned through hands-on experience, networking with peers, and reviewing leading software tools. The course is designed for professionals with one to five years of litigation technology support experience or for litigation paralegals, document review attorneys and legal IT professionals.
This course is being offered:
• February 21-24, 2012 (Atlanta)
• May 8-11, 2012 (Washington, D.C.)

The LitWorks Certified Litigation Support Project Manager Training is a three-day course that focuses on sharpening litigation support project management skills and techniques. Attendees receive practical resources and tools, including checklists and templates that can be immediately applied to daily work as a litigation support project manager.
This course is being offered:
• January 17-19, 2012 (Atlanta)
• March 27-29, 2012 (Washington, D.C.)
• June 19-21, 2012 (Chicago)

LitWorks is among the industry’s premier providers of formal training courses specifically developed for litigation support professionals. To register for these or any upcoming LitWorks training courses, visit www.LitWorks.net.

About LitWorks™
LitWorks™, a DTI company, is a leading provider of comprehensive training programs for litigation support professionals in AmLaw 200 law firms and Fortune 500 corporate legal departments. For more than five years, LitWorks™ has been dedicated to developing and sharing best practices in the litigation support industry through a variety of consulting and training services.

About DTI
Document Technologies, Inc. (DTI) is the nation’s largest independent provider of facilities management and discovery solutions, servicing clients in 27 markets across the U.S. DTI delivers end-to-end electronic discovery solutions, including pre-litigation readiness consulting, forensics, data acquisition, processing, and an array of hosting platforms to meet a variety of litigation support needs. DTI clients include both top law firms and Fortune 500 corporations nationwide. For more information, visit www.DTIglobal.com.

Contact
Thomas E. Bonk
Vice President of Professional Services
Document Technologies, Inc.
Ph: 312-739-9999
Email: tbonk@dtiglobal.com

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.

Training Class:

• Before the Class
  • Review the course outline with your team and write down any major questions you would like to have answered by the instructor
  • Network with the other students in the class during breaks to learn more about how other organizations manage their cases and which tools they use and why
• After the Class
  • Review your training materials and the questions you had the instructor answer to create at least one 10- minute presentation for your team per day of class (so if the class was 3 days, that’s 3 presentations)
  • Be sure you stay in touch with your classmates and instructor as they will prove an excellent resource when questions arise in your work and you need answers from a trusted source
  • If you are attending one of our LitWorks classes, you’ll get a “Resource CD” full of great information you can copy to a shared drive and index like you would e-discovery so that it’s search-able.

Trade Show or Conference:

• Before the Conference
  • Identify the workshops and seminars that would be most beneficial to your team and plan your schedule around them
  • Identify the service providers and software vendors whose technology or service you are already using so that you can stop by and introduce yourself/ say “hello”
  • Identify the service providers and software vendors who have a product or service you would like to learn more about and schedule an appointment to meet with them when you’re not at a workshop or seminar
  • Prepare a list of questions for all of your vendor meetings that you would like to get answered
  • Take good notes during the workshops & seminars that you attend
  • Talk to / Network with other attendees after each seminar to get additional feedback on the topic
  • Introduce yourself to the speaker(s) and ask if it would be okay to send them an email with any follow up questions on today’s topic
  • Set up a Google Alert for the conference so that you will find any and all blog posts & press releases about the conference
• After the Conference
  • Download the conference materials, slide show and handout PDFs from the official conference site
  • Review the official conference blog & tweets to augment your notes
  • Review the sites & blogs collected / sent to you by Google about the conference
  • Summarize the topics that were important to your team and prepare at least 3  10-minute presentations w/n 45 days of the event
    • What new trends are out there?/ What’s the industry buzz?
    • What new features are available for the tools your organization uses? / What new tools/ technology is available?
    • Specific to your key research topics, summarize what you learned in the seminars & workshops

In today’s economy, everyone on your team may not be able to attend every conference or training session but hopefully, these tips will help you to maximize your investment and encourage the sharing of information.

Here’s a more detailed overview of our LitWorks Certified Litigation Support Professional training class… let us know if you have questions. The next class is scheduled for April 20 – 23, 2010. Register here.

Attendees will learn:

• Litigation Management Concepts
• Discovery Project Management Methodology
• How to Assist Case Teams with Responding to Electronic Discovery Requests

Workshops Include:

• The Corporate Perspective – Litigation Readiness Planning & Execution: Every corporations’ business model is different so asking questions about how your firm’s clients manage ESI is increasingly important. We will discuss what information LSPs should know in order to make the best recommendations for how data will be managed in litigation later in the discovery process
• Cool Tools & Technology Overview: Our training program is vendor & technology agnostic, however we will discuss and provide attendees with information regarding the role technology plays in litigation, the types of litigation technology available and discuss what is bleeding edge vs. tried & true technology.
• Introduction To Electronic Discovery Best Practices & Concepts: Our advanced attendees will appreciate the “train the trainer” delivery of this topic while our less experienced attendees will gain a strong foundation of what makes e-discovery so special… in the end, it’s all just discovery.
• Managing & Responding To Discovery Requests: LSPs often participate on case teams in a consultative role, this workshop teaches how to address technology questions at every stage of the discovery workflow
• Litigation (EDD) Case & Project Management: Attendees will learn how to apply project management methodologies and traditional litigation support case management techniques
• Managing Internal & External Resources: Attendees will learn how to assess their internal organization resources and identify, manage and build relationships with both internal & external resources.
• Defining The Role & Responsibilities Of Litigation Support Professionals: This discussion addresses the varied structures of litigation support departments and the role LSPs play in law firms, government agencies and corporate legal departments
• Overview of Traditional Litigation Support Techniques & Strategies: Paper still exists in discovery and it would be almost negligent not to train today’s litigation support professionals on what to do with it in managing discovery. We address how many of the best practices developed over the last 25 years in paper discovery can still be applied to litigation projects today.
• Database Design Methodology: LitWorks is software agnostic and we believe that the tools are not as important as the process. In this workshop, we define the process and goals of the database to learn how to make the best technology application decisions for our case teams
• Strategies For Managing Transcripts: Attendees will learn about the various ways transcripts are used in litigation and trial, how to manage them and make them available to case teams for searching and reporting
• The Lifecycle Of A Matter: Many of our attendees come from an IT background so we make sure we start class on the first day with an overview of what happens in litigation, the objectives of the case teams and how technology can be applied to every phase in the litigation lifecycle.
• Effective Billing, Cost Containment & Cost Recovery Best Practices: Discussed in greater detail in our manager & director level class, we provide an overview of goals, objectives and best practices that are working in the industry today

to develop your project management skills for electronic discovery

Who should attend? Litigation Support Professionals, Litigation Paralegals

Participants will learn:

• How to plan & manage e‐discovery projects
• Cost containment & budgeting techniques
• To develop a check list for scoping & change management

When? Tuesday, March 23, 2010 – 8:30am – 3:30pm

Where? Document Technologies, Inc. – Chicago

105 West Adams Street, Suite 1200
Chicago, IL 60603
312.739.9999 phone | 312.739.0899 fax | chicago@dtiglobal.com

Tuition? $350 per attendee

For more information or to register for this event, please send an email to esantiago@litworks.net or contact us here.

Workshop Schedule

• 8:30 am – 9:00 am – Networking Breakfast
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Electronic Discovery Project Management Seminar
• 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – Networking Lunch
• 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Electronic Discovery Project Management Exercises
• 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Review / Q & A

You don’t have to register for a Twitter account to read someone’s micro-blog site. You can simply point your browser to www.twitter.com/LitWorks_DTI and you can view all of our tweets (for example). However, it is a lot easier to “follow” someone if you actually have a Twitter account yourself. While it’s strongly encouraged as a two-way street, I really don’t see the harm in following and never actually saying anything yourself.

Using Twitter as an educational resource is simple.

1. Determine who’s tweets you will follow. I recommend that you start with folks listed on Tweet Discovery.com. Look for people who post links to interesting articles, blog posts and white papers that are relevant to your role as a Litigation Support Professional. Also, note who they follow… are they following people from outside of our industry? For example, we follow other trainers and project managers whether they are litigation support / e-discovery specific or not. If their tweets add value to our learning & research objectives, then we follow them.
2. Create a List & Get Organized. It is very difficult to keep up with hundreds of tweets every day. Creating a Twitter List will allow you to organize your Twitter feed into categories. You can also follow someone else’s list.
3. Define Your Personal Brand on Twitter. If you plan to re-tweet or post your own tweets (sharing information is strongly encouraged), be sure that you’ve selected a Twitter identity that is consistent with your personal brand. Remember, your current and future employers might read your posts… This topic recently came up on The Posse List blog here.

LitWorks™ is among the industry’s premier providers of formal training courses specifically developed for litigation support professionals. Our team of experts research and develop industry best practices, and share those with attendees of courses targeted to specific roles and responsibilities. Whether you are new to the litigation support industry or working to advance in your career, LitWorks offers courses that will strengthen your knowledge of basic litigation principals, sharpen your understanding of the latest technology, and arm you with practical strategies to employ in daily activities.

For more than five years AmLaw 200 law firms and Fortune 500 corporate legal departments have leveraged LitWorks’ training expertise for the benefit of their litigation support staff and ultimately of their entire organization.

LitWorks’ comprehensive training programs include:

• Certified Litigation Support Professional Training – A one-week course designed for staff with one to five years of litigation support experience. The course teaches industry best practices through hands-on experience, review of software tools, and networking with other litigation support specialists. Students gain the skills needed to effectively review a case, assess its needs and make comprehensive recommendations on how best to manage that case from start to finish.

• Certified Litigation Support Manager Training – A three-day course that includes a mix of business skills, litigation support, e-discovery and technology. This class is offered to litigation support supervisors, managers and directors who want to build or grow their departments to compete in today’s litigation environment.

• Certified Litigation Support Project Manager Training – A three-day course offered to litigation support professionals with three or more years of industry experience that is focused on improving project management skills. Attendees receive checklists, templates and real-world resources to manage their litigation support projects more effectively in today’s fast-paced, high-risk litigation environment.

LitWorks also offers custom, Web-based team training programs for both large and small litigation support departments that is designed to focus on the topical areas most important to each class. Discussions are centered on their unique needs, which is possible when all students are already working together and approaching the course with the same frame of reference. Teams are able to apply principles and best practices taught in the class to the workflow already being used in their department. And because the course is Web-based, flexibility in scheduling is available and attendees experience less out-of-office time compared to traveling to a traditional training course.

• 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?