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ILTA’s litigation and practice support steering committee is really excited about our line-up of speakers for our peer group sessions at conference this year. Since May is ILTA’s spotlight month for litigation and practice support, I will be blogging about the speakers we have lined up for the conference in Las Vegas.

Today we turn the spotlight on one of our panelists on the session titled “Technology and Better Project Management.”  Duane Lites is a veteran in the industry and will share his thoughts on this session with the following description.

Keeping up with the ever-changing technology around collecting, processing and reviewing data poses a huge challenge to many case teams. The technology is clearly part of the process, but the question remains: Is the process driven by the technology or by principles of project management? Those working to form a litigation support department or those struggling to set up a project plan will get answers here, as we focus on the process of using technology in different ways to develop a straightforward project plan that the case team can use and rely on from case to case.

So Duane…

Q.  When and how did you begin your career in Litigation and Practice Support?

A.  I started my career in Litigation Support as a computer programmer working for a Litigation Support vendor in Dallas, Texas in 1987 working at that time the largest online Asbestos case being tried in California.  Several of us were hired to write programs to process coded information into records daily to be loaded into the database.       

Q.  How has your role in this field changed over time?

A.   I started my career writing programs and working as a technical consultant.   Over time, my role changed to more client facing and evolved into a managerial role.  I still stay closely involved with technology but my programming days are long gone.  

Q.  What do you find most interesting about this profession?

A.  How technology has evolved and really made an impact on the industry.  Being around when discovery was entirely paper and now it’s almost all electronic.  It also been interesting to see the profession grow and to see how people have made careers out of Litigation and Practice Support.   

Q.  What do you do for fun?

A.   I like to golf, sporting events, fantasy football, and I’m a history buff. 

Q.  What are some of the key concepts you hope to cover in your session at the 2013 ILTA Conference? 

A.  I think we have a great session on Discovery Workflow and how using various tracking tools you can improve the overall management of this process, your department services, and increase productivity.   It will be well worth your time.   

Q.   Anything you’d like to say to Conference attendees?

A.  Bring plenty of money since we are in Vegas and don’t plan on getting much sleep.

Duane Lites, JW’s Director of Litigation Support, has 15 years of experience managing the Litigation Support departments of major law firms.  He is responsible for managing all Litigation Support technology services for the Firm’s attorneys, paralegals, and support staff.  Duane frequently assists clients in the use of litigation technology and the E-Discovery process.  During his 25 years in litigation support, Duane has been a frequent speaker on litigation technology and electronic discovery.  He is the owner/moderator of the National Litigation Support Listserv, which has more than 9,500 members nationwide.  He is a Certified Computer Forensics Examiner.