Litigation Support Manager Makes Partner?

Complex litigation cases have become so large and complicated that they require an extra set of teams, both legal and litigation support. We now see major to mid-sized law firms and corporations beginning to add head-count, with additional layers at leadership levels.

In litigation support we're seeing a trend toward augmenting the in-house arsenal of talent with supervisors, coordinators and managers -- thereby elevating the current Manager to Director -- which is worth $125k - $250k. The Cowen Group's ongoing informal salary survey suggests that litigation support directors are now being valued on par with nonequity partners -- and billed accordingly. Not to put too fine a point on it, IT leadership positions now have reached approximate parity with first, second and third year associates.

This is new. And it's happening now because no matter how critical the latest information technology may be, it will never get the job done all by itself. IT is the gateway to successful forensics and e-data management. But it is just the gateway -- through which your talented people pass. So litigation support hiring is more and more about people skills, and leadership that can spark collaborative process, in addition to the familiar technology component.

Make no mistake. It's your people who drive the process -- not legal technology. Litigation support people with deep knowledge and expertise in the use of technology, and litigation support leadership, experienced in the interpersonal process of lawyer-client relations. Together with technology, litigation support people can help accomplish your firm's revenue objective.

And that's what makes litigation support billable -- big time.