Litigation Support - includes Industry Participants

5 hard drives containing 3TB of data due for a review to start in 2 weeks, develop and present a training class on collecting social media, QC and load 30GB of data by tomorrow, produce 136,345 files by the end of the day today…and the list goes on and on…

In the crazy world of Litigation Support, where do you find the time and energy for professional development?  It is so easy to slip in the day to day priorities and look up a year later to realize that you haven’t invested the time or energy into developing your team.  This lack of development can lead to issues with morale, turnover and issues with the quality or quantity of work product.  Professional development is critical in reenergizing individuals and developing the team as a whole.  I have found the only way I can get this done at a team level is to plan ahead and schedule a day.  Just seeing the value these sessions bring to the team inspires me and provides the energy needed to plan subsequent sessions. 

So what types of things can you do to develop your team?  Obviously there is the expertise required to do our jobs.  In our profession there is constant change and a need for continual learning.  Fortunately in a profession where there is so much to learn, there are numerous opportunities to educate your team.  In the e-discovery world, our service providers offer unlimited webinars, white papers and product demonstrations.  There are also numerous blogs and websites that keep us informed and up to date.  (Some of my favorites are Ralph Losey’s blog, Craig Ball’s articles and K&L Gates Case Law website.)  We also have a tremendous opportunity to learn from our ILTA peers.  And if that isn’t enough there are numerous certifications you can obtain including ACEDS, Lean Six Sigma and various software certifications.  I typically incorporate a few specific items in each person’s individual development plan.  One of my favorites is “Select a work related topic and research. Present findings to litigation technology team by 8/1/12.”  This drives the individual to gain knowledge in an area of interest but also requires they share this information with others (as a bonus it also requires them to work on their presentation skills).

In addition to developing expertise you also should consider developing competencies such as teamwork, customer service, judgment, professionalism, flexibility and accountability.  I find these areas sometimes offer the most reward from a management perspective.  I also think this type of development lends itself to having fun at work.  Below are a few things we have done in the past that have proven to be very rewarding:

Take the Myers Briggs test.  Schedule a meeting to share and discuss the profiles of each team member.  This can provide a great deal of insight to team members about each persons personal preferences and challenges.

1. Read a book together and discuss.  “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” is a quick read and provides for an interesting discussion.  Be sure to include the questions in the “Getting Naked” chapter.  My team has worked very closely together for several years and it was amazing how much we learned about each other.
2. Break your team into groups of 3-4 and provide an assignment.   In one session we had each team pick a core values out of a hat (i.e. integrity, honesty, perseverance, etc.).  They were each given a canvas and paint.  They created paintings depicting these values and we hung them in our work space.  In another session the teams were tasked with writing a poem about e-discovery.   It is very rewarding to see individuals develop relationships and really dive into these tasks.  The only limit to these team building exercises is your imagination!
3. Have your team put on a themed Expo for the law firm to educate them on a topic.  We have done this several times for e-Discovery.  The team comes up with the overall theme and each person chooses and develops one of the topics.  Our past themes have included:  The Techno Train, ESI (a play on CSI), and the Iron Chef where the team developed training around various food items. 

In summary, I have found that dedicating the time to develop your team with a nice blend of knowledge based learning and competencies can have a huge impact on performance. 

 I have included a list of recommended books we created for a professional development session at the 2011 ILTA conference.  In the event you decide to do number 2 above you may want to consider these great reads as well!