Anyone who has been involved with the review portion of a discovery matter can attest that it’s a fast-paced situation requiring the collaboration of many attorneys, paralegals, and sometimes linguists. While document review is a highly specialized profession requiring a significant amount of training and experience, review experts often work with various vendors in short bursts and are not afforded the employment stability and professional development that comes along with working for a single employer. As a result, the success of each and every case is dependent on a team of individuals that often have inconsistent standards for professional best practices in areas such as communication, quality control, and efficiency.

There is a popular meme making its way around the professional blogs surrounding resource management. There are variations to it, but it essentially goes like this:

CFO asks CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?”

CEO: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

Within the context of managed review, the more applicable question may be phrased, “If our people are only here during the chaos of the current case needs, where do they obtain professional training and development?”

At TransPerfect Legal Solutions, we’ve learned from working with hundreds of reviewers on thousands of cases that continuing professional education and strong relationship-building are key to maximizing the bar of excellence for our reviewers. TLS has implemented a number of strategies to cultivate a team-based environment and help our consultants enhance their professional skills—which, in turn, leads to the best service for our clients.

TLS aims to foster a fun, yet challenging culture. To reward hard work and promote teamwork, we invite contract reviewers to participate in social events such as happy hours, trips, and team volunteer opportunities. TLS also affords professional growth opportunities for those employed permanently or temporarily by providing continuing education from industry leaders.

The legal staffing team at TLS built a training program for review professionals who demonstrate leadership in review matters. The program consists of weekly training sessions over lunch presented by our industry experts. Topics range from general EDRM background and industry updates to best practices for handling tasks such as proactive QC, decisions logs, and daily reporting.

Equipped with the skills to jump into fast-based projects and immediately implement best-practice protocols, team leads have higher rates of job satisfaction, while also providing the best possible service to our clients. Since the implementation of this program, we have received considerable positive feedback from both clients and reviewers. Clients report higher satisfaction with the overall service experience, and reviewers are more likely to choose TransPerfect for future projects. It’s a win-win.