Contract Attorney, Texas Style

So, review attorneys are being marginalized, our jobs are being sent overseas, and what’s left of the process of finding, processing and reviewing documents is being turned over to computers.

Is it really?

The 2008 TREC Legal Track report had some interesting findings.  While it is 45 pages of pretty thick statistics and testing mumbo jumbo, it’s digested fairly completely in a couple of blogs here and here.  Four teams participated in the Interactive Task part of the project last year.  The Interactive Task attempts to mimic a real life litigation situation and see what search protocol can find the most relevant documents in a large document set.

Of the four teams who participated last year, two were groups from universities and 2 were vendors using their search platforms (Clearwell and H5).  The only one that performed any measurable level above the other participants was H5.  I’ve worked with this company before and I have an idea how they managed to accomplish their performance.

None of the teams were teams of document review attorneys.

Here’s my theory… I think the best option, after all the dust settles, in this war of “who will best handle electronic document review” will be the appropriate combination of experienced reviewers with the right search tools and methods.   I have a vendor who has volunteered to host the data for me and provide access to the database to a team of reviewers.  I have my ideas about how to go about finding relevant documents, now all I need are reviewers.

Do you want to play?

I mean, really, even the Sedona Conference wants you to help out!

I’m looking for a team of review attorneys who will volunteer to do what they do for a living (still looking for corporate sponsorship to make this part less painful) for some amount of time (up to the equivalent of a part time job) between about the second or third week in July and going through some time in August.  I will want you to keep track of your time to make the whole project more worthwhile, and you will have to be pretty comfortable with the review platform (probably Ringtail) and with running searches and generally being flexible and positive.   (Like a gazelle escaping a marauding computerized document search lion)

If my theory proves correct, I believe that the best solution in the document review market may well be a specialized document review boutique firm that has “documented” results that are better and more reasonably priced than any outside law firm or vendor alone can possibly put together.  This project could be the seed for that reveiw firm.

Like I said, the project is based around a made up Complaint in Federal Court.  The action is a securities fraud class action on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of Volteron Corp. (“Volteron”) between June 1, 1999 and December 2, 2001 (“The Class Period”), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).

If you’re interested, check out the entire Complaint and Requests for Production which can be seen by clicking here.

Then, if you’re still interested, send me an email at admin@documentrelations.com

I’ve heard a couple horror stories lately about reviews that were, let’s say, run differently than normal.  Any chance I can get some comments about any Houston document reviews from the last year and what made them “special?”

As if my last post wasn’t horrific enough, it had to be punctuated by the following email blast from Donovan & Watkins looking for document review attorneys:

Hello.  Donovan & Watkins is currently searching for at least 100 contract attorneys for an electronic document review project in Houston.  The projected start date is July 6th and it is expected to last a minimum of 6 months.  The pay rate will be $25/hour.  Location will likely be downtown and the Galleria area.

Please confirm with your recruiter - Caroline Garcia or Kim Burrow, if you’re available and interested in this assignment, as soon as possible.  We have been asked to present resumes tomorrow,…

So, what is your 3-year, post graduate level, debt inducing degree getting you these days?  A pay rate somewhere between baby-sitting and pushing a button on an assembly line.  At least you don’t have to commute very far and have no dry cleaning bills when you baby-sit.

By the way, why do they need 100 attorneys?  I’ve only seen a few reviews get to that size in Houston.  Most of them started off being pretty small and ended up growing to that size gradually.

Just the other day, I was going through a journal that I’ve kept intermittently over the years.  I saw an interesting entry back in 2004.  It had to do with the rate I was being paid back then.

Now, I had a private trial practice for 7 years before I started contract work.  I began working for a firm in a contract position in 2001, and by the time I had made this entry in 2004 I was still at the same firm and I was complaining that I was still getting paid at the same level I had been paid for a couple of years.

Here’s the sad part…

In 2007, I was going through the journal.   I saw the entry and wrote a note under it that while I had made higher rates in the interim, I was now being paid in 2007 the same rate I was earning in 2004.

Now the punch line…

When I saw these notes the other day, I had to add another note under the entry.  I wrote that I now get paid at a rate that is 10% less than what I was earning in 2004. 

This is in total dollars.  If you add in the fact that dollars today are worth at least 10% less than dollars in 2004, I’ve taken a 22% pay cut since 2004.  Just a thought…