Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job? Forum

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Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Dec 12, 2018 11:40 pm

3L here. I'll have plenty of free time next semester (<10 credits), but in terms of postgrad jobs, nothing lined up yet. If I take on a lot of document review work during 3L and after law school (if I still haven't found anything by then), will this look bad on resume? I heard that document review looks really bad on resume, but I'm not sure. On the other hand, some document review attorney positions get paid well, and I really need cash to pay the bills and student loans at the moment.

Has anyone ever been a temp document review attorney? I'd appreciate any input!

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Lacepiece23

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by Lacepiece23 » Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:14 pm

Anonymous User wrote:3L here. I'll have plenty of free time next semester (<10 credits), but in terms of postgrad jobs, nothing lined up yet. If I take on a lot of document review work during 3L and after law school (if I still haven't found anything by then), will this look bad on resume? I heard that document review looks really bad on resume, but I'm not sure. On the other hand, some document review attorney positions get paid well, and I really need cash to pay the bills and student loans at the moment.

Has anyone ever been a temp document review attorney? I'd appreciate any input!
This is just my opinion, but I don't think it has to be career ending if you supplement your doc review with other stuff. Plenty of ppl do doc review while trying to start their own firm. If that's not in the cards, I'd suggest volunteering at a public interest organization and getting real experience. The people who I've seen get stuck are those who sign up to work 40 hours a week at a big law firm and only work on document review work. They have no options because they build no skills. And there may be some policy against them moonlighting as well.

I'd just make sure that you are able to do 10-20 hours of other legal work on the side so that you can build skills while you look for a job.

nixy

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by nixy » Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:22 pm

I thought usually doc review attorneys had to be licensed?

misterjames

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by misterjames » Thu Dec 13, 2018 3:05 pm

nixy wrote:I thought usually doc review attorneys had to be licensed?
yeah kind of a crucial point OP seems to be missing here. You need to be licensed to perform doc review, and you certainly don't want to work for a company that would be willing to overlook something like that.

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nealric

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by nealric » Thu Dec 13, 2018 3:59 pm

nixy wrote:I thought usually doc review attorneys had to be licensed?
Depends on what they have you doing. Plenty of low-level doc review (i.e. just marking documents as responsive or non-responsive) arguably is not the practice of law, and is often done by paralegals in practice. I imagine most places would want licensed attorneys for privilege review though.

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nixy

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by nixy » Thu Dec 13, 2018 4:30 pm

nealric wrote:
nixy wrote:I thought usually doc review attorneys had to be licensed?
Depends on what they have you doing. Plenty of low-level doc review (i.e. just marking documents as responsive or non-responsive) arguably is not the practice of law, and is often done by paralegals in practice. I imagine most places would want licensed attorneys for privilege review though.
Oh, sure, I think plenty of it could (legally/ethically) be done by students, I just thought most of the actual job postings required you to be licensed.

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nealric

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by nealric » Thu Dec 13, 2018 4:47 pm

nixy wrote:
nealric wrote:
nixy wrote:I thought usually doc review attorneys had to be licensed?
Depends on what they have you doing. Plenty of low-level doc review (i.e. just marking documents as responsive or non-responsive) arguably is not the practice of law, and is often done by paralegals in practice. I imagine most places would want licensed attorneys for privilege review though.
Oh, sure, I think plenty of it could (legally/ethically) be done by students, I just thought most of the actual job postings required you to be licensed.
Right because they want to bill you out as an attorney :lol:

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:52 pm

Although not ideal, document review is not career suicide. If you do not have a job, my suggestion to you would be to hustle, and to be fearless while doing so. What do you have to lose? The world we live in is not fair, and the likelihood of you receiving a random handout just for being an unemployed lawyer is nonexistent. I have met many jobless 3Ls and recent graduates, and have given them the same advice. Do what you need to do to get substantive experience. If this means volunteering and taking on pro-bono cases from you local bar association or some sort of unpaid position, then so be it. I understand that you can't live on no money, so this path will require that you have side gigs, e.g., working as a review attorney, waiter/waitress, high school tutor, etc. It may not be ideal. But, it is up to you to decide whether you want to take the bull by the horns, or just keel over and let the world pass you by.

I have seen review attorneys promoted to associates at the global law firm where I work. I have seen the same at other global law firms. I have also seen others go from unemployed following graduation to becoming ADAs, AUSAs and partners at global law firms. Although the people I mentioned are not the norm, they all have a couple things in common: they did not give up, no matter how hopeless their situation seemed, and they hustled.

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Re: Is document review attorney a "career suicide" job?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Dec 17, 2018 10:10 pm

I know of 1 Vault 100 firm that hires document review attorneys full time on salary and benefits. There's a Partner that heads just that department (has many years of experience in document review). I know of another major firm that hires them permanently from contractors if they're good, and there's career progression (they get turned into staff attorneys, some become project managers, a couple became associates).


So, I don't think it's career suicide. If you believe it's career suicide, you can just leave it off your resume anyways. I'd hire someone that's done document review and I wouldn't even really think much of it, especially if it wasn't for a long time. I'd just view it similarly as if I had to high a fresh college grad and they had spent some time after graduating waiting tables. I'd definitely view it more highly than someone who's been unemployed for an extended period.

People warn of document review because it's easy, low-stress money. So people get stuck in it. Then a problem arises where that's all they can do because they haven't developed any other of their legal skills. But you can say that about a lot of 9-5 office jobs where a lot of temps are used (data entry, accounts receivables, entry level recruiting, entry level human resources).

In your case, you're still in school so you'll probably just be first level review, with an attorney ultimately checking your work. Also, I'm assuming it's going to be through a contracting agency since law firms would typically seek JDs and people who have passed the Bar. Contracting agencies tend to be less cushy, they're more crazy about the way they manage since temps tend to be fleeting and it's hard to manage with the unpredictability. If you're a K-JD who has never worked a full time office job, you should keep in mind that it could get crazy.

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