The concept is simple: if you’re new to e-discovery or if you’ve been working in the industry for years, you may not have the time to do the research to learn a specific topic(s) or perhaps the funding to attend a conference or training class. First we discuss your learning goals, then I draft a custom plan just for you that helps you meet your learning objectives. It’s that easy. You learn what you want, on your own time.

By the way plans can be developed for entire litigation support teams, too.

Project Management is the dynamic process that utilises the appropriate resources of the organisation in a controlled and structured manner, to achieve some clearly defined objectives identified as strategic needs. It is always conducted within a defined set of constraints. Learn more with this eBook, written in a question and answer style, containing 21 pieces of valuable advice for making your projects a complete success.

Is there a call for a standalone legal project manager position?

One could make a case that there are already project managers in place in e-discovery – and when there aren’t, there should be. That said, most of the e-discovery project managers I know are project managers in the Legal space rather than legal project managers.

In other words, they’re not managing legal cases (or matters or files) but rather managing one aspect of a case. That aspect is enormous, expensive, and complex, but it has a shape different from that the practice of Legal Project Management. E-discovery project management deals with a far greater level of certainties and knowable metrics than does capital-LPM Legal Project Management.

You can read the whole post and job description here

Do you agree or disagree with the author’s point of view?

An Animated View of Lawyers at a Rule 26f Conference « e-Discovery Team.

“I’m sorry, but the truth is, most attorneys today are like the clueless plaintiff’s counsel in this vignette. They do not talk about electronic discovery at all, even though the federal rules say they should. They avoid it. They fear it, primarily because they are untrained, and do not  know what to do. If opposing counsel brings it up, you are likely to get the kind of reaction you see in this video.” – eDiscovery Team

When I worked on a litigation support team in a law firm, I was still single. No husband. No kids. And sometimes, no life. I had a gym membership (see the video for why that’s not enough). I went to happy hour with colleagues. I went to trials in exotic locations (joke) for months at a time… just long enough to forget how to cook my own meals, wash my own clothes and sleep longer than 4 hours at a time. I told myself that I would take vacations every three months to maintain my sanity… as you know intense litigation can be quite overwhelming at times. I was very strict about my vacations (well, sort of… still looked at my blackberry if there was service). I would visit family around the country, go skiing, visit the Carribean and Mexico or take a cruise. But now as I look back, I wonder if one could really call that balanced. By the time I’d left the law firm environment for a new life in sales and consulting, I didn’t have much to show for it personally except for a shiny new condo in “hip” midtown Atlanta. You’ve probably guessed by now that I met my husband post law firm.

I’m no expert at work/life balance. So I’m asking you – what do you do? How are you doing it?

I recently watched the video below on the topic and would love your thoughts on how to address this as an e-discovery project manager.

Don’t miss the only 2-day paralegal education event in Atlanta! It is more important than ever to make sure your skills are current, versatile and relevant. PRM’s paralegal conference is an education event specifically designed to provide paralegals with real tools, resources and education specifically designed for the paralegal profession.
Join us as nationally recognized speaker, Martha Lanier, opens our event with an entertaining and energizing keynote address The Power of Choice: Turning Change into Opportunity. Martha Lanier is a recognized speaker known for her distinctive presentation style that is both entertaining and informative.

For the advanced level litigation paralegals, Erika Santiago, recognized litigation technology educator and e-discovery consultant, will present a class to litigation paralegals designed to help them develop industry recognized project management methodologies for best practices of documenting e-discovery processes. This session will provide tools and skills to even the most experienced litigation paralegals and a rare opportunity to learn e-discovery project management skills from an expert in the field of litigation support.

One of the break out sessions for transaction and finance paralegals will be presented by Bill Carberry, certified Adobe trainer, providing paralegals with Adobe tools to create Closing Binder PDF Portfolios, collaboration features of Acrobat.com, improved export from PDF to Microsoft Office files and what you need to know about compliance with emerging PDF/A standards.

For more detailed program information and other session summaries click here

Leave a comment with your questions and I’ll answer them at the conference.

If you’re looking for individual or group e-discovery project management training, let’s discuss your learning objectives. Send me an email: erika@learnaboutediscovery.com

“Examining the Project Lifecycle“

The stages of a project lifecycle-initiate, plan, execute, control, and close-are the basic stepping stones to understanding project management. In this podcast, you’ll hear Global Knowledge instructor and author Brian Egan, a specialist in project management and professional skills, walk you through the stages and explain their connection to PMI.

There is a PDF “handout” that accompanies this podcast.

There are lots of transferable skills including:

• Communication (“legaleze”)
• Understanding the scope and procedures of the discovery process
• Agility in working on multiple projects at the same time with tight deadlines

What did I miss? I’m sure there are more.

What are the “new” skills that today’s paralegal needs to acquire in order to achieve success as an EDPM?

Here are a few of my key recommendations:

• Technology - not just how to search and report from the discovery document database but rather an understanding of basic (to advanced) knowledge of IT infrastructure and systems (or simply, the difference between an e-mail server and a file server)
• Communication - “legaleze” isn’t enough… status reports, budget vs actual spend, change management
• Change management – how to manage the implications to the budget and the schedule if the scope changes in a way that holds project stakeholders accountable for those changes

Have you made this transition? What skills were you able to carry over from your days as a paralegal to your new career as an e-discovery project manager? Are you a recruiter? What skills do you recommend to your clients to look for in a qualified candidate? Are you a hiring manager? Does certification in e-discovery, litigation support and/or project management matter?

Next, we have to identify the projects that typically take place during the discovery phase. Thanks to the nice folks at the EDRM, we have a lovely chart to work with here. Consider each box on the chart a project and now we’re ready to begin our discussion.

What are the risks for every project? The folks at Project Smart list six common risks for any sort of project:

1. Unrealistic Customer Expectations and Developer Gold-Plating
2. Insufficient Customer Involvement
   
3. Poor Impact Analysis
4. Scope Creep
5. Defective Requirements
6. New Processes and Tools

How would we manage these risks within the context of electronic discovery? This is an ongoing discussion I’ve had with other ediscovery project managers so I would appreciate your feedback in the comments.

1. In order to manage unrealistic expectations, break your project into smaller goals and objectives. Ask your project sponsor (usually the attorney in charge or maybe the client) what they absolutely must have at a minimum and what are the nice-to-haves. Make sure you document all of this for the project team. The Project Smart author suggests 3-week “timeboxes” where you define goals in terms of what can realistically be accomplished in a 3-week period of time. You may not have 3-weeks, you may only have 3-days …. or you may have 3 months to work with… select a reasonable but short time period as a short term goal and get everyone to sign off on that course of action.  As for the “gold-plating” … I consider this to be similar to selecting software based on bells and whistles rather than making sure that the technology selected to complete the project will match our team’s workflow goals.

2. Agile project management is a collaborative approach to managing a project. While the EDRM chart seems like it passes the “baton” from project to project, if you look closely, the arrows double back on each other. So much so that you really can’t make a decision about how you will convert ESI for the document review without first knowing what production formats your attorneys agreed to or you’d like for them to agree to at the discovery conference. If you need to know what the big picture objectives are for each project within discovery, you need the attention of the key stakeholder or sponsor or customer who can make decisions about which path to take. In the business world, they call litigation support professionals or ediscovery project managers “business analysts.” Your role as an ediscovery project manager is to help the client/attorneys define concise and clear requirements and then document them for approval so that you can execute the plan. It is a huge risk when the attorneys over delegate to litigation support and choose not to understand the technology and best practices for implementing the technology. (I would also add that over delegating to your service providers is just as risky if attorneys take a hands-off approach.)

A real world example can be found here and here’s a key point of the article: “… counsel must be vigilant in conducting oversight of all processes crucial to ESI production and particularly any privilege screening processes.” In other words, don’t over delegate…

3. Litigation is often a moving target. So it might be a nice idea to think that ediscovery PMs will be brought into the discussions earlier enough to make an impact. It might also be a little unrealistic to think that the project scope and definition won’t change if the litigation strategy changes. I like the agile philosophy because in an agile world, change is not a bad word. Change happens. Prepare for it by analyzing alternative workflows and have a “change request” form handy to document that the change requested is authorized. (Send me an email for a sample “change request” form)

4. I have a funny picture that I show in class when I start talking about scope creep. It’s a scary monster creeping up behind an unassuming project manager. Litigation is known for scope creep. Electronic discovery can sometimes feel like the scope isn’t creeping at all… it’s running fast and furious right over you! This is probably the highest risk area of project management. When corporations don’t have a good idea of how much data they have, what starts out as a small project, suddenly turns into 500 gigabytes of data. Or your attorney tells you they have a few CDs they need you to process and when you swing by his office to pick them up, they’re actually DVDs. Scope creep shows up many ways in ediscovery projects. Manage the scope of your projects by revisiting number 1 in this post: short timed goals. If the case team adds to the processing project more data that’s been collected, no worries… it will likely not be completed by the deadline for the first set of data. Be sure to communicate this up front so that you can manage expectations. Adapt the project plan to the changes and be sure to plan ahead for the potential changes that might occur on your project.

5. Has this ever happened to you? You start down the path to completing what seems like a simple project, only to discover that you were missing a major detail for getting it done? Working in smaller “timeboxes” as suggested by Project Smart might work for you and your team. Asking follow up questions to define priority of custodians or search requests, reports, training etc. will also help. A clear communication plan is also necessary to avoid defective requirements on your ediscovery project. Who has the decision-making authority? How will you validate your project requirements? In the classes I teach on ediscovery project management, I suggest to students that they should always take 15 minutes to think of and then ask follow up questions. Communication is crucial to a successful project and taking notes on the palm of your hand in the break room is not a good way to define project scope or requirements.

6. New technology and updates to old technology is an every day occurrence in the world of ediscovery. How do you reduce the risks associated with using new technology? First, your technology should meet the needs of your project workflow. It should not hinder but be intuitive to the team. Periodically, ask the team to give you candid feedback (online surveys of 5 questions or less work well for this) about how the new application is working for this project. Workflow and process are essential management tools for any ediscovery project. You can have a successful project if your workflow is defined and youhave a way to capture metrics to tell the story of your success later. Remember, the tools are not as important as the process. You will reduce the risk in using new tools if you are able to demonstrate (especially to the court) that you have a documented methodology and workflow in place.

Do you think that agile project management practices will help to reduce risks your next ediscovery project?

How would you change the way you’re currently managing your ediscovery projects to take on a more collaborative and defined approach?

How do you deal with change on your ediscovery project? What works? What doesn’t work?