A Q&A with Matt Wheatley, VP of Client Development at Priori

Matt Wheatley, VP of Client Development at Priori, has a unique perspective on alternative career paths for attorneys: Not only did he take one himself, starting his career practicing law and eventually moving into legal staffing and now business development at Priori, but he has also spent years working with attorneys and helping them pursue paths outside of the traditional model. In this Q&A, Matt shares some career advice for legal professionals looking to explore all of their options and reflects on his experiences as a practicing and nonpracticing lawyer.

The traditional legal career path can be limiting for many people, but it’s also a known quantity so it feels safe to follow. Looking back at your experience in law school, how do you think people can start to explore alternative legal career paths?

I think the reality is a lot of 22-year-olds are not thinking intentionally about law school. I went to law school because it seemed like the next logical step. Now, with the experience I have, there are a few things I would say that potential law students should do.

We should take a page from what most people who get their MBA do: They get real-world practical experience before they apply to go to business school. There are existing paths for people to take that approach in the legal industry. You can be a paralegal. There are programs for people who have just graduated, typically from top-notch undergrads, to go and work at the top firms and get a couple of years of experience while they decide whether or not to go to law school.

While that may not be feasible for the kid who went to University of Kentucky, like me, or another big state school that may not have the prestige to draw an offer from a big firm out of undergrad, there are other options too. You could work in a local law firm which very likely could be a litigation practice and you’ll get to see what that looks like.

And, increasingly, there’s an opportunity to work as a legal operations professional out of school. For example, getting a job as a legal ops coordinator at a medium or large-sized company that is starting to think more intentionally about how they run their legal department. Another option is to work at a legaltech company like Priori. Our Attorney Network team has been a feeder to lots of great law schools. They’re interacting with lawyers and getting to see what their life looks like and their quality of life and earning potential.

And, ultimately, you may find you don’t want to go to law school. You can be a legal operations professional or a corporate paralegal and make a great living just by staying on that path. So you can be in legal with or without your law degree.

You started off on a traditional legal career path but then went an alternative route. What made you pursue that path?

I almost went to work at a big legal recruiting firm right out of law school. But one of the people I met there during the recruiting process gave me some advice and said that I should take the opportunity to get some practice experience. He didn’t want me to jump into recruiting and a few years later be wondering whether I would have been happier as a practicing lawyer. At the time, I didn’t really care about being a practicing lawyer; I just wanted to live in New York. But I took that advice to heart even though I didn’t want to and I practiced for about a year and a half after law school.

I kept in touch with the person who gave me that advice and eventually they reached out again to revisit the conversation. As a lawyer, I wasn’t unhappy—I was doing some interesting things—but I still wanted to move to New York and I was in a better place financially and with my personal relationships to make the move. I certainly didn’t know that I was moving into something that could be just as fulfilling as a legal career can be, but I got lucky. I also ended up working under someone who was a fantastic mentor and boss and I was surrounded by other great people at the company.

What brought you to Priori?

Working in legal staffing around that time, in 2017, was a far cry from what it is today. It wasn’t as widely accepted in the legal industry and it was still growing. But by 2019, things were really taking off and people in the legal industry were thinking more about how to get work done more efficiently without adding headcount or sending work to large law firms. It started to click for me—what I was doing wasn’t legal staffing, it was helping people and law departments get work done more efficiently at better rates using different models than they previously had access to.

I started to nerd out on this idea and I wanted to be part of something on the cutting edge of this new environment, particularly something that was tech-enabled. I saw how technology was revolutionizing all of these different industries but it wasn’t as dominant in the legal world. That’s when I found Priori and reached out to Basha [Rubin, Priori CEO and Co-Founder,] on LinkedIn. She didn’t respond immediately, but by the time she shot me a message back I had seen more of the news about Priori growing and raising money. I met with her and the rest of the team and decided to join the company.

My move to Priori was kind of the first intentional move of my career. I thought, there is a ton of opportunity in this space and these people are really smart. I’m really thankful for the experience that I serendipitously gained at my previous job and how it forced me to grow because that set me up perfectly to be a part of Priori.

What has been the biggest surprise for you in taking an alternative career path as an attorney?

The biggest surprise for me is being at Priori and seeing that there is so much opportunity in the legal industry that’s not just following this traditional path that I had always looked for in the past. That path was: top law school, top law firm, in-house experience and available for 40-plus hours a week dedicated to a company.

What has been super motivating for me at Priori is to see that there are so many different paths that you can take in this industry that you don’t see every day. You might not see them on LinkedIn or when you’re looking at the background of the general counsel at a Fortune 500 company or an AmLaw 50 law firm partner.

You can go to a Big Law firm, you can get in-house experience and then you can hang up a shingle and be a solo practitioner and make really good money for yourself using the skills that you’ve learned. You can not go to a Big Law firm; you can not go to a law firm at all. You can start a data privacy consulting firm. You can go straight in-house at a tech company and start negotiating commercial contracts. If you can find the right niche and develop the right expertise, there is an opportunity for you to do really well.

There’s no path you have to follow, despite how it sometimes seems in the industry. You’re not doomed if you’re not following exactly what you’ve been told you need to follow because of the pristine examples that you’ve seen in the upper echelons of the industry. That’s been motivating for me working at Priori and seeing people who have taken those paths and helping to facilitate those paths. I have the opportunity to do that in a way I never would have in my previous role and certainly not as a practicing lawyer.

Follow Matt on LinkedIn for more insights into legal industry careers, how technology is changing the legal industry and much more. And if you’re interested in learning more about how Priori helps legal teams of all sizes work more efficiently, find out how it works or start an RFP today.

Many courts across the country have resumed in-person trial operations. Law firms now face new challenges when it comes to planning for out-of-town trials, as the return to in-person proceedings requires coordinating travel logistics such as airfare, hotel reservations and technological needs.

Click for the article.

by Ryan Spear

Law firms are witnessing a resurgence in the popularity of partner and firm-wide retreats.

Table of contents

• Reconnecting in a Changing Work Landscape
• A Reintroduction of Retreats
• The Power of Face-to-Face Interaction
• Destination Choices and Trends
• Early Booking and Considerations
• Creating Memorable Experiences
• Hotel Stay Giveaway: Get Inspired!

Click to read the full article on AttorneyAtWork.com.

UPDATE

QuikData, the E-Discovery platform rising to the top for law firms and service providers searching for alternatives  

Houston, Texas, January 22, 2024 – QuikData is a software development and legal services company that has been rising through the ranks since the first release of the Quik E-Discovery and Data Room platform in 2017.  The industry veterans behind QuikData include the same development team that developed the “Viewpoint” E-Discovery platform, the on-premises E-Discovery platform that paralleled Relativity from 2007 to present. 

For the last six years, the same development and support team has focused their effort and talents in developing its powerful cloud-based platform, Quik. In speaking with the Vice President of Operations, Greg Anderson, the message is clear:

 “Our mission is to create a platform that offers advanced features while remaining user-friendly and easy to learn.  We concentrate our development efforts on providing intuitive, yet sophisticated, E-Discovery features and workflows. We recognize that a significant segment of the market is looking for an E-Discovery platform capable of handling complex tasks while reducing requirements for training, support overhead, and extensive change management efforts.” 

The most common first impression of the layout is that the user interface feels very familiar. Users immediately notice that they can easily drag and drop or right click and find a wealth of high-powered automation and analytics capabilities right away.

When evaluating a new E-Discovery platform, the primary considerations often revolve around its power and range of features.  Key questions include whether the software is light-weight or robust enough to handle complex cases involving large and varied data sets.  

QuikData addresses those concerns by prioritizing the needs of its E-Discovery users.   The Quik platform offers essential features tailored for litigation professionals, facilitating their engagement with complex data sets and extensive document collections.  QuikData’s intuitive interface simplifies the E-Discovery process for litigation service providers, attorneys, and support staff, enabling them to navigate the complexities of E-Discovery with ease.  This user-focused approach boosts legal team productivity and reduces the learning curve, allowing users to concentrate on winning legal cases, rather than struggling with software intricacies.

QuikData streamlines the e-discovery process with its drag-and-drop functionality, powerful templates, and customizable interface, allowing users to initiate projects swiftly and in their preferred manner. This efficiency eliminates the prolonged wait times previously experienced while preparing data for review. Moreover, QuikData provides many advanced features that enable users to access crucial information quickly and effortlessly.

Sophisticated Features

QuikData’s effectiveness stems from its combination of simplicity, affordability, and a rich array of features specifically designed for legal teams and technologists.  A key component is its integration of predictive coding, a potent E-Discovery tool that significantly improves the accuracy and speed of document review for litigation service providers.  Additionally, QuikData offers advanced email threading and communication analysis tools, including the ability to handle short message formats. These features provide a thorough understanding of communication patterns, an essential aspect in many legal cases.

QuikData distinguishes itself with its concept clustering feature, which facilitates a nuanced comprehension of how documents are interrelated. This feature is particularly valuable in scenarios where identifying connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information is crucial. 

The platform’s dedication to technological advancement is clear in its ongoing evolution, guaranteeing that litigation service providers and legal professionals always have access to cutting-edge tools to efficiently manage and understand the complexities of electronic data.

Come meet the QuikData team and see Quikdata for yourself at booth 3116 on the Americas 2 Level.