The Document Reviewer's duties are straight forward. The attorney performing the duties does not have to write up any papers, he doesn't appear in court and he does not have to see the clients. He has the potential to earn a hefty salary with very little stress. The job is typically temporary, but more and more law firms are deciding it is more cost effective to divide the case work between the attorney and the Document Reviewer.
The position was created to assist lawyers in large firms. It is detail oriented work that requires the knowledge of a lawyer and used to be a job that went to new hires but now is being outsourced to temporary lawyers. An increasing number of law school graduates are finding that this is the way the life of a lawyer begins. The Document Review Attorney sorts through hundreds of documents in the form of:
- Emails
- PowerPoint presentations
- Memos
- Anything that exists on a hard drive
The Document Reviewer looks at the document and then rates it with one click, relevant or not relevant. The work is in a pleasant environment and the attorney must be flexible when overtime is required. This work is very important to large cases the firms handle and the pay is realistically anywhere between $28K and $48K. There are reports for the possibility of higher salaries but the range reported here seems to be the standard. It would depend on the firm and having any other requirements for the position. For instance, a Pharmaceutical company may ask the Reviewer to have experience in the field of Pharmaceuticals. A Reviewer with medical background experience in law might be hired as a Medical and Safety Reviewer going for about $87K annually. A tax background in law can get $59K as a Tax Reviewer. The salary depends on specialization in a field and it is typically in the large firms found in big cities.
The question that many companies ask about this position is, ''Does the Document Reviewer need to be an Attorney?'' The resounding answer is yes, most of the time they do need to have an analytical mind for law and able to decide what would be important to a case. There are a few times that this is not the situation. Especially, as pointed out, many Reviewers need to have a law background in a specialized area, like titles, tax, or medical law experience.
There are now companies that specialize in Document Reviews. In studies, many law firms have found that much of the cost of large litigations went to document review. Reviews cost form 50% to 90% of the budget for a case and they are determined to have winning outcomes. The Document Reviewers are usually banded together for one case and then disbanded at the end. This creates training and re-training costs for the firms. Companies have been formed to do only Document Review with Attorneys trained in many areas. Trained once and contracted at competitive prices.
If you are in the right place this is a position that is appearing in the classifieds very often.
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