Legal Commentary

Lately, there's been a lot of buzz and angst about the departures of senior folks in important firms and organizations, particularly among IT and e-discovery. But industry analysts suggest that the future may actually be bright for our legal technology community.

The Cowen Group recently predicted that 215 new e-discovery jobs will be created over the next six months, including project managers, regional managers, and EDD attorneys. Billable hours are up at 35% of corporations, 61% of law firms, and 51% of vendors, says TCG in its "Q1 Critical Trends report" -- and 35% of corporations, 60% of law firms, and 65% of vendors plan to add staff in the next three months. TCG received responses from 78 law firms, 47 corporations, and 35 vendors.

The company does recruiting, events, and business intelligence. It is currently highlighting "hot job" positions for a Los Angeles-based EDD coordinator ($155K), a Northeast region in-house EDD manager ($150K- $175K), and a national litigation practice support manager ($225K-$250K).

Michael Potters, CEO and managing director of New Jersey's The Glenmont Group, says jobs for IT and EDD staff are exploding "through the roof," all across the country.

Reasons: 1) bounce back from arbitrary cuts made in the throes of the recession panic, where firms were matching "ratios" of attorneys to support staff; 2) a forecasted explosion in litigation, caused by a) the Wall Street meltdown, b) compliance issues (financial and health), and c) the recent Toyota and BP nightmares.

I still think we are going to see some interesting shifts, however, as firms rethink and reconstruct their IT and EDD models. Keep an eye out as some firms adopt more "repeatable processes" mind-sets, while others look toward creating IT portfolios that are aligned directly with business goals (check out Doug Caddell and Jo Haraf).