Lawyers v. Clients: Kumbayah or Hasta la Vista?
Law firms are making nice with clients, as usual, but some clients are saying ¡hasta la vista! anyway. What's changed here?
We're now seeing a significant trend, just in the comings and goings of top litigation support managers and directors. Lit support top guns are spending more and more time out of the office. They're visiting clients, in clients' own offices. Because clients are becoming harder to please. Law firms are under ever-greater pressure to prove their capabilities in managing ever-more complex litigation and discovery matters -- which are ever-more technological. So firms are sending top lit support professionals into the field.
More importantly, lit support can smooth out the dialogue -- when there is any -- between lawyer and client. Back at the firm, lit support hears lawyers complain that the client just doesn’t get it: "We know what we're doing. Documents! Briefs! We've been doing it this way for a century!" In the field, clients tell lit support that the law firm just doesn't get it: "I'm on a budget here! Why can't they handle the discovery electronically? Why can't they coordinate with our IT system? What am I paying for?!"
The ability to speak a language that is understood by both lawyers and the clients they serve is increasingly unique to litigation support. So more and more lit support directors are pulling Kumbayah duty -- bridging the gap with expert hand-holding.
Meanwhile, back at the firm, there's a draft whistling through the vacancy created by frequently offsite senior lit support personnel. Staff toils away diligently as usual, but with no one at the helm -- no one to manage the care and feeding of their ever-increasing numbers. This trend is creating the need for a second tier of lit support management. At the same time it is driving up billables for litigation support directors -- up to the level of senior associates, and even into partner range.
The demand for qualified lit support professionals has never been greater. At The Cowen Group we expect the current explosion of new media information technology only to intensify that demand throughout 2006, heating up the "war for talent", and the pressure for fluent communication between lawyers and their clients.
We're now seeing a significant trend, just in the comings and goings of top litigation support managers and directors. Lit support top guns are spending more and more time out of the office. They're visiting clients, in clients' own offices. Because clients are becoming harder to please. Law firms are under ever-greater pressure to prove their capabilities in managing ever-more complex litigation and discovery matters -- which are ever-more technological. So firms are sending top lit support professionals into the field.
More importantly, lit support can smooth out the dialogue -- when there is any -- between lawyer and client. Back at the firm, lit support hears lawyers complain that the client just doesn’t get it: "We know what we're doing. Documents! Briefs! We've been doing it this way for a century!" In the field, clients tell lit support that the law firm just doesn't get it: "I'm on a budget here! Why can't they handle the discovery electronically? Why can't they coordinate with our IT system? What am I paying for?!"
The ability to speak a language that is understood by both lawyers and the clients they serve is increasingly unique to litigation support. So more and more lit support directors are pulling Kumbayah duty -- bridging the gap with expert hand-holding.
Meanwhile, back at the firm, there's a draft whistling through the vacancy created by frequently offsite senior lit support personnel. Staff toils away diligently as usual, but with no one at the helm -- no one to manage the care and feeding of their ever-increasing numbers. This trend is creating the need for a second tier of lit support management. At the same time it is driving up billables for litigation support directors -- up to the level of senior associates, and even into partner range.
The demand for qualified lit support professionals has never been greater. At The Cowen Group we expect the current explosion of new media information technology only to intensify that demand throughout 2006, heating up the "war for talent", and the pressure for fluent communication between lawyers and their clients.
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