Editor's note: This article first appeared in the March edition of Corporate Counsel and The American Lawyer magazines as "The Uncharted Legal Technologist Path."

Although a firm's closure requires everyone to find a new job, mergers can also leave staff, including legal technologists, feeling particularly vulnerable.

"Mergers are very stressful," says Marti Phillips, vice president of education at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) and a former law firm technologist. "When you have duplicates, somebody is going to be cut, and a lot of firms have legal technologists on both sides of a merger. I hate to say it, but when you have duplicates, you don't need duplicate technologists."

However, some law firm leaders say mergers do not automatically mean layoffs. "If anything, even as we combine there is more demand that we have the ability to deliver," says Dentons global chief innovation officer John Fernandez, whose firm announced that it will become the first national law firm in the U.S. by combining with several smaller firms. 

Still, those legal technologists that are laid off aren't out of luck. The legal industry is ripe with career opportunities for those able to use technology to assist lawyers with solving clients', as well as their own, challenges. 

But while the legal technologist role is in demand, its responsibilities differ in the law firm and corporate legal department setting. While the role in a law firm is driven by addressing firms' client needs, in corporate legal departments its focus is largely on evaluating and implementing legal and general technology in-house. For legal technologists, such a contrast makes migrating from a law firm to a legal department unlikely. 

Yet the need for legal technologists is only growing, and as demand increases, law firms and corporate legal departments are building a payscale and career track for this burgeoning role. There are, however, some barriers unique to the legal profession that may stymie innovative, entrepreneurial-minded technologists in both law firms and corporate legal departments. So while the legal technologist position is poised to take off, those looking to move up the career path should expect to encounter hurdles.

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From Foundational Technology to Emerging Roles

Industry observers note legal technologists are not just IT-minded professionals that leverage traditional technology or research to meet a firm's day-to-day demands. Instead, those that are most in demand understand how advanced technology can solve the firm's business needs.

"There is a group of professionals that are starting to emerge in the legal space, and they have a mindset about deploying and using technology as an enabler about how we do our work," Fernandez explains. Those emerging roles include data scientists, coders and software developers, which represent new opportunities for law firms to utilize and rethink legal service delivery.

Fernandez also notes technologists aren't just needed to enhance clients' solutions, but to also improve the law firm's workflows and practices to attract top talent. "I talk about the perspective from the client's needs, which is hugely important, but I think law firms need to think about how they adopt better solutions for the work we do in the context of the talent we need," he says. 

To help meet client and in-house attorney needs, legal technologists need to be versatile. Littler Mendelson chief data analytics officer Aaron Crews, for example, says his firm's legal technologist duties can vary from providing e-discovery to data analysis expertise. He notes that his data team specifically seeks professionals with a rare combination of high-level statistician and computer science experience who can help lawyers better resolve a client's challenge or build a strategy. 

To be sure, large law firms aren't the only ones hiring technologists. Unlike Big Law, however, technologists in midsized law firms focus mostly on streamlining workflows and broadening tech awareness in the firm, says Red Cave Law Firm Consulting CEO Jared Correia. Having such talent in-house, he says, can give these law firms a competitive advantage in the market.

"The difference between law firms that grow and law firms that fail is efficiency and utilization rate."

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Different Settings Requires Different Skills

The legal technologist role is also emerging in corporate legal departments, albeit at a slower rate compared to Big Law and with different responsibilities, according to industry observers. Like midsize law firms, legal technologists in corporate legal departments are tasked with identifying, implementing and supporting appropriate technology to meet in-house attorneys' needs. Suffice to say, in-house legal technologists must have a keen understanding of the overall corporation and the legal department's processes to be a key strategizer in the company.

However, the legal technologist role is rare to find in most corporate legal departments given that most legal departments have a small staff, notes Association of Corporate Counsel associate vice president of legal management services Catherine Moynihan. Instead, she says, larger legal departments in highly regulated industries are more likely to have a designated legal technologist position.

Some, however, don't believe that size matters. Fidelity Investment vice president and head of legal innovation and technology Jamal Stockton argues that the maturity and goals of the GC office, and not its staff size, should dictate if a legal department appoints a legal technologist. He cites the growing variety of legal tech options as one reason technologists are appealing in legal departments. "If you look back in history, there wasn't a lot of legal technology 15, 20 years ago, but now you are seeing an uptick in legal tech choices," Stockton notes. "You need your technologists to vet those choices."

Still, before law firm legal technologists apply to any in-house positions, Moynihan and Stockton caution that most corporate legal departments prefer to hire from within. That preference mostly hinges on the technologist's proven background understanding the company's needs.

"The reason the best place to get someone for this role is from within the company is because they understand corporate strategy and culture is very important. It's a fairly strategic role," Moynihan says. She explains important skills includes "being business-minded," assessing the tech marketplace and possessing strong people skills because "there's so much persuasion involved in getting the investment" for legal technology.

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The Sky Isn't the Limit 

Despite the growing need for legal technologists in corporate legal departments and law firms, there's a glass ceiling for earning the top position in each organization. Simply put, you can't be a shareholder in a law firm or the general counsel without being a lawyer.

"It's a barrier for people who are very entrepreneurial or really like the startup game and the gamble of, 'If this works we'll make a lot of money,'" says Littler Mendelson's Crews. Still, he says the law firm setting is worthwhile for technologists. "The law firms, the ones that are forward-thinking and trying to acquire this type of talent, are increasingly being creative in how they compensate and the titles they give."

Nonetheless, the rigid ownership structure of U.S. law firms may repel some. "I think the ownership construct could be a barrier, particularly when you are building new applications and platforms," Fernandez says. "But I think generally the competition for data scientists and system engineers is an obstacle because it's a new set of skills. We don't have a track record of competing for those types of skills and for many partners in law firms they aren't sure how to price it yet."

In corporate legal departments, the legal technologist career path is less-defined and varies per an organization, Stockton notes. He explains that some legal technologists may work through the ranks of an organization until they've reached the top chief technology officer role, while other corporations may cap the legal technologist position at setting the tech strategy and reporting to the chief legal officer. 

However, despite limited career paths, attaining a legal technologist position doesn't require a law degree. After all, the key for law firms to deliver solutions that meet clients' needs is to have a multidisciplinary team composed of lawyers and nonlawyers, including tech and data experts, Fernandez notes.

Burns & Levinson director of practice innovation and ILTA board of directors treasurer Angela Dowd adds that it's the quality of work and not a J.D. that gives a legal technologist's work authority. "In my experience, lawyers don't put on blinders. If you don't have those magical letters behind your name, it does not mean they won't listen to you."