Job Description for a Law Firm Director of Practice Support
When a lawyer works for a large firm, what he does in the courtroom does not represent the efforts of himself alone. Someone had to handle billing the client, organize the legal database he used to search for legal precedents, and assist him with document discovery. The person responsible for overseeing all this is the law firm's director of practice support.
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Practice Support
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The director of practice support for a law firm used to primarily supervise the staff, such as assistants and document clerks, that performed behind-the-scenes services that helped the firm run administratively and helped lawyers prepare for trial. However, recent advances in technology have changed this position's focus to finding ways to integrate the technology into the firm's operations to make the firm itself more efficient and help lawyers in the courtroom.
Assessment
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A major part of the job description for a law firm's director of practice support is to identify areas in which the firm would be well served by integrating new technologies. This could be items such as software for accelerating the document discovery process by scanning documents for key words and phrases, or database programs that could more efficiently track a lawyer's caseload and productivity. The director of practice support will also identify current digital technologies the law firm uses that are out-of-date or have been abrogated by better products.
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Implementation
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After identifying areas in which the firm could integrate new technologies to improve its efficiency and performance, the director of practice support is responsible for identifying the best product for the firm to use. This will entail shopping products not only on their technical capabilities, but their relative prices and the technical support services which the product's vendor will provide. Efficiently completing this process requires the director of practice support to keep abreast of these products and services to have a pre-existing knowledge of what is available in the marketplace.
Training
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After the director of product support leads the acquisition of new technologies for the firm, he then has to confirm that everyone who needs to use the technology knows how to do so. This will frequently require coordinating with the vendor to provide the initial training to the necessary personnel, and coordinating with the firm's director of technology to ensure the firm has the technical support personnel to help employees out after the initial training.
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References
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