Beth Niepokuj is Litigation Support Manager at Plunkett Cooney, a newly created position within the firm. Her role at Plunkett Cooney is still evolving as she works to increase the efficiency of discovery by bringing her technological expertise to the table. Niepokuj’s understanding of the litigation management technology – and her ability to apply this technology to assist attorneys and paralegals – enhance the representation provided to Plunkett Cooney clients. Prior to joining Plunkett Cooney, Niepokuj was a senior litigation consultant and director of training for Prism Litigation Technologies. Her responsibilities included development of live and web-based litigation support training, data analysis and software installation and configuration. Niepokuj holds certification as a Summation trainer and as a trainer on inData’s Trial Director. She recently shared her thoughts with ALSP Update.
Getting started. Out of college, I submitted my application to be a paralegal but was hired as a document coder. I found that I had a knack for technology, and from there my position evolved into litigation support. I became a part of the first wave of Summation certification and have spent the majority of my career to date on the vendor side. My current position in the law firm environment is giving me another perspective of the industry. Regardless of being a vendor or practitioner, the best thing about litigation support is the diversity of the job. There are no two days that are the same – you are constantly working with different people and situations, giving a great amount of variety to tasks and projects. There is also a problem solving aspect of litigation support that keeps me intrigued and engaged in the profession.
Noteworthy experience. I have had a couple of interesting and unusual experiences during my career. I was working as a consultant in the late 1990s on a case where the defendant sold his company to plaintiff and started a competing company prior to leaving the plaintiff’s employ. We had a case in Summation that contained approximately 20,000 documents – mostly correspondence – much of it using the new company name - which amazingly existed in paper in the plaintiff’s facility. During the 12 day deposition of the defendant, we located and printed documents under the table and passed them to counsel to be marked as exhibits. Our activities were apparently making the defendant so flustered and enraged, he kept losing focus on the case and insisted that the conference room temperature was too hot and he that could not continue with the deposition. Another interesting experience that I had was when I was contracted to provide four days of Summation training for a firm in Chicago. Unfortunately the dates selected coincided with spring break and a major event in Chicago, leaving no available hotel rooms in the city. I thought I had found an apartment to rent in Lincoln Park, but someone else got it first. The owner of that apartment happened to have a sailboat on Lake Michigan, which he made available to me as my accommodations while I was there. Thankfully I was able to successfully get on and off the sailboat in a suit and dress shoes without dropping my laptop into Lake Michigan.
Industry changes. During my career, working with electronically stored information has changed the most in the litigation support industry. Litigation support professionals now have to synthesize paper, electronically stored information, possibly including data from social networking web sites. It is an especially great challenge to take all of these different pieces of data and make them useable to an attorney, both in practice and in format. One lesson that I have learned during my career is to figure out what the desired end result is instead of just answering questions as they come up. In the changing ESI environment, it is especially important to work together with the entire litigation team to achieve the overall goal.
Becoming a part of ALSP. I became a member of ALSP because I was interested in the certification process and I also wanted the opportunity to network with my colleagues from all sectors of the industry. I have recently been elected as the ALSP Michigan Chapter president, allowing me to get more involved with my local litigation support community. During my career, the best advice that I received was to not be afraid to ask for something. I hope that I can extend this fortitude to my peers and fellow litigation support professionals. To learn more about our chapter, including upcoming meetings, please visit the ALSP Michigan Chapter Web site.
Back to top
Next article
Previous article
Return to ALSP Update Home
ALSP Charter Sponsors