LDI in the News: The Rise of the General Legal Technologist
Author: LDI Team
Editor’s Note: Zach Warren from the Thomson Reuters Institute recently interviewed LDI founding member Adam Rouse on the mission of the Legal Data Intelligence model and the emergence of Legal Data Intelligence practitioners. The article carries eye-opening insights on a range of topics such as the interoperability between different technology systems and practice groups, the benefits of a shared internal knowledge and resources center that could benefit disparate teams, and the need to run the legal department like a business. We are publishing an excerpt of the original article below.
Legal organizations may be investing in technology, but the professionals needed to run that tech can be tough to find. However, a new group believes that legal data intelligence analysts are the key to integrating legal data and knowledge across businesses.
The explosion of business data is not a new trend. In fact, the total amount of data created worldwide has increased 74-fold to 149 zettabytes in 2014 from 2 zettabytes in 2010. And by 2028, that figure is expected to more than double once again. (For the uninitiated, 1 zettabyte equals 1 trillion gigabytes.)
That means for corporate law departments, data presents both a risk and an opportunity. There are the governance, privacy, and security questions involved in holding large amounts of data, of course; however, at the same time, there is the opportunity to leverage data to more effectively move law departments towards the Holy Grail, which has been passed down by their C-suites: Legal functions should operating more as a business unit, rather than a cost center.
“Every company generates more data than they need, honestly,” says Adam Rouse, Senior Counsel, E-Discovery Operations, and Director of Legal Operations at Walgreens. “But if you can sort through that data and get it to a useful state, you can enable or empower your legal partners to help your business partners make better data-driven decisions.”
Within the legal sphere, much has been made of getting data systems to converse with one another. If billing systems are connected to contracting systems which in turn are connected to case management systems and so on, in-house legal counsel would then be able to get a more comprehensive view of their matters and the business impact of their department.
Of course, that raises a complementary, but perhaps less talked about question: What about the people handling all that disparate data? Many larger legal departments either segment their technology from their attorneys, or have technologists focus on a specific discipline such as contracting, discovery, or something else. The idea of generalist legal technologists — professionals who not only know the technology, but the larger data systems tying the department together — are still rather rare.
A new initiative aims to have people in place to tie this data together, however; and that could give rise to a new role within corporate law departments and law firms alike: legal data intelligence analyst.
Jack-of-all-data
Rouse is one of the founding members of Legal Data Intelligence (LDI), an association of leading legal professionals gathered to address the increasingly complex data challenges facing the legal industry. At its core is the LDI model, which explores various use cases for legal data and how these use cases can interact with one another.
There are other legal industry technology architecture models as well: the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), which focuses on e-discovery; CLOC’s Core 12 framework of legal operations; and more. But where Rouse and the LDI co-founders want to stand out is by not just focusing on the technology, but on how the technologists involved can make a business impact — and in the process advance their own careers.
“We are really focused on the people, and so it’s not just, Here’s a workflow, implement it,” Rouse explains. “It’s Here’s a workflow, and here’s how you can demonstrate that you as an individual can add value and to the organization.”
At Walgreens, Rouse has put this core belief into practice. His team previously had two members with the titles Legal Operations and Legal Hold Analyst and E-discovery Analyst — both with very specific, albeit segmented job titles. Now, both have the same job title: Legal Data Intelligence Analyst.
The idea, Rouse says, is that legal technologists should be focused on more than one piece of the puzzle, similar to how in-house generalist attorneys function. Now, rather than focusing specifically on litigation, these team members can feel more empowered to aid in compliance investigations, privacy issues, or transactional work. With the switch, he feels that his team is now more adequately relied upon — and rewarded — for the work they’re actually doing.
Check out the rest of the article here.