The Organization of Legal Professionals - A Group Worth Joining

by Suemagazine

The Organization of Legal Professionals, a new non-profit, has just been formed in order to provide certification to legal professionals. 

Why certification?  One is only to read recent comments from judges, attorneys and clients to realize that new technology has more than stymied the legal field.  Technology and e-discovery is moving faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than Superman and certainly more confusing than the old Rubic's cube.

Three years ago, I posted to the Litigation Support listserv why certification is important, particularly for non-attorneys working in the litigation support arena.  As a result, the Association for Litigation Support Professionals was formed for the purpose of certifying litigation support staff.

The Organization of Legal Professionals was recently formed with a very impressive Board of Governors and Board of Directors.  Powerful and knowledgeable people, actually, concerned with the lack of skills and standarization in e-discovery and other legal arenas.  The first certification exam is currently being developed after research and understanding where the need is most. 

I recently reviewed the original post I wrote and felt that it still holds true today.  Here is what I said revised to fit the need for e-discovery, trial specialists, trial presentation technicians and other legal careers:

As an educator in the legal field, I see problems in e-discovery staffing as very similar to those in the paralegal field. Thirty-five years ago, there were few paralegal schools to teach paralegals how to approach their jobs, how to complete assignments or even what assignments they could perform. Primarily, anyone who wanted to call themselves a paralegal and could do so without any training whatsoever. Paralegals were trained on the job by other paralegals, legal secretaries and overworked attorneys who could barely complete their own assignments.

Today, many states have mandatory legal education (such as California Business & Profession Code 6450) that requires paralegals to have standard educational requirements just to enter the field and mandatory continuing legal education that must be fulfilled on a regular basis just to keep that position. What I have witnessed as a national educator is an overall upgrade of quality and sophistication of work; a higher educated person entering and staying in the field; and law firms (who in the past could care less) now support furthering education as critical to getting higher quality work and retaining quality people.

Positions such as e-discovery manager, case manager, reviewer, complex case manager, and others are not much different from the paralegal field. Right now, anyone who wants to can call themselves an e-discovery "expert" — whether they are in a law firm or as a vendor. Standard educational requirements to hold the position do not exist and there are no educational requirements to enter the field other than what each individual firm or vendor sets forth for their own organization.

Most litigation support staff learn on the job. Many are victims of descending quality of on-the- job training. That is to say, the person training them received inadequate training; the person training that person did not receive adequate training, and so on and so on and so on. Most law firms and vendors do not have substantive or substantial training programs geared toward individuals dealing in e-discovery.  You cannot go to school to earn a certificate in e-discovery and other than some current law schools, there is no formal training other than seminars. The one "certification" out there is given by a well-known vendor who is known to be good as a vendor but definitely uses the certification as a marketing tool.

While there's plenty of continuing ed and in-house seminars for associates, firms hesitate in spending very much money on any revenue or non-revenue producing employee who is not slated for partnership. Firms and vendors alike take a staff member from another position i.e., litigation paralegal; computer technician or manager from outside the field, etc. to transition into the e-discovery or trial presentation arena and call them an expert.  The "expert" status is given only after plenty of trial and error. There is no test, no certification, no standards to enter or stay in this relatively new profession.

The argument that certification is not appropriate or warranted because each job for each law firm or vendor is different is, frankly, baloney.  Few attorney positions are the same.  For that matter, few professional positions anywhere are the same.  However, the need to understand basic policies, procedures and laws are critical.  One has to just point to an e-discovery professional or trial presentation technician originating from another field without the benefit of learning simple basic fundamentals such as legal ethics, the discovery process itself or for that matter, the court system.

Maybe it's the legal administrators who know the secret to certification.  They are in charge of budgets and they will tell you that insurance companies issuing malpractice insurance drop their rates when presented with certified professionals such as calendaring and docketing employees.  Malpractice insurance is one of the highest costs for a law firm.

It will only be when professionals band together through their associations such as paralegals have done that standards will be set. Mandatory training to enter the field and maintain the position will become a requirement that not only vendors but law firm staff as well will want. It is only by grasping a fuller understanding of all the elements required for the position will expectations be better met. Where now can you go to earn a certificate to become a certified an e-Discovery Case Manager? Schools are only just now looking at offering technical classes beyond Word, Excel and Access. This is a relatively new development and slow-moving reaction to high-speed growth of an explosively booming field.

That's not to say that the enormous challenges that have been met by legal technology stars and hard-working, dedicated and persistent individuals in this field are underestimated nor dismissed. It's simply time to take a look at the future and who will be entitled to call themselves an "expert" and why.

For more information regarding The OLP and to join, please go to:  www.theolp.org.