Changing face of Litigation Support?

As I’ve mentioned before, in talking to various folks working in this industry it becomes apparent that the background of the litigation support people in any firm makes a huge difference in how they interact with the paralegals and attorneys.

I come from an IT background, and haven’t really had to go on site for a trial. Our paralegals generally handle that part of the Litigation Support process. Other firms that I’ve come in contact with that have Lit Support folks from an IT background tend to have similar situations.

On the other hand, Lit Support folks who move from a paralegal background have been more likely to see on site trial work, vendor relations, etc. as part of the Litigation Support workload.

When I first made the move into Litigation Support, most of the information I read about it included a whole lot of work that I’ve never really been called on to do, because the paralegals in our firm have always been doing that work. While we are certainly capable, and should have the capability, to do that work, it’s not really considered technical work, and Litigation Support is considered a technical specialty. (In fact, it’s part of our IT department)

I wonder, as more Litigation Support folks come into the career from the IT side of things as opposed to the legal side (paralegals and attorneys), if we’ll start to see the typical Litigation Support job description change a little to be more of a techie job, or if the handful of firms I’ve dealt with are the anomalies?

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