A Happy New Year to All : some closing thoughts

We grew to 26,000+ members in 2010.  When we started The Posse List in 2002 our base was contract attorneys, the lawyers who work on document review and production — the “right side” of the EDRM.   These still constitute the largest part of our membership base.   We add 25-30 new such members every week.  But in percentage terms our fastest growing segment has been outside the contract attorney base:  forensics consultants, paralegals, in-house counsel, law firm attorneys, solo practitioners, e-discovery companies, legal media entities, and numerous legal support professionals.   So it has been a little tough at times to please such a diverse audience. 

For many of our contract attorney members it has been a tough year.   They are dealing with continued repercussions from the financial melt-down, and the tectonic shift in the legal industry.   “Temp is the new perm” has been written about extensively in the past year (see one of our previous posts on the subject by clicking here).

And 2010 saw extensive discussion/coverage/debate about automated document review vis-a-vis human-assisted search.  We’ll address this issue in more detail in 2011 but we’d like to bring your attention to two recent articles:

*   “Human-Assisted Computer Search in EDD” by Jason Krause of Law Technology News (click here)

*    “Reinventing Review in Electronic Discovery” by Venkat Rangan of Clearwell Systems (click here)

We’ll try not to bore you with trends/predictions for 2011 (but don’t miss our “must read” predictions for 2011 ..click here).   Here are some things we have in store for 2011, and things likely to continue in 2011:

1.  We are going to be working with Ralph Losey in the launch of his new online mass collaborative e-discovery program.  We’ll have a detailed post next month but for some preliminaries click here.

2.   Our job lists will continue to expand, as will the diversity in our job posts.   We have linked up with several new companies and job sources for 2011.   And we’ll be expanding job posts for returning Vets and ex-military Posse List members.  In 2010 our job postings had widened due to the increasing trend of attorneys straight out of law school (or with a level of substantive experience under his/her belt) who have decided to pursue other ventures, be it a solo practice or a business outside of the practice of law.   Much of this is due to a trend we (and others) have discussed:  the unbundling of legal services.  Stephanie Kimbro provides a nice overview on what this is about (click here).  

3.  We’ll have a continued focus on the lawyer as technologist (see our recent post by clicking here) which is the reason behind our link-up with Ralph Losey as described above.  As we have discussed over at our sister site The Electronic Discovery Reading Room  in our e-discovery and legal technology events coverage, one of the ways you can learn about e-discovery and all the technology out there is by going to a conference near you.   Most offer free admission to the exhibit hall (those that have exhibit halls) where you can meet technology vendors, collect information, see the technology at work behind e-discovery, etc.   We’ll be providing information on free exhibit hall passes for Posse List members for LegalTech2011 which is in NYC at the end of next month. 

We believe all our members can reposition themselves and obtain something better than document review (if that is your choice) in the e-discovery market, or reposition themselves to find more creative ways to raise their profiles and make contacts.  And for some very helpful advice read Paul Easton’s post “Transitioning from Document Review to E-discovery Project Management” (click here).

In spite of all the challenges you think you face in trying to hit the “exit” button and get of contract legal work, be comforted by the fact that scores of Posse List members are doing it, and successfully.   The best news:  we are working in a part of the legal industry that is unusual because it is open to sharing and collaboration, through publications, quality conferences, and trade shows, and peer networking organizations.

And we will continue to do what we can to help.  A Happy New Year to all, and we sincerely appreciate your support and feedback.