Company welcomes students to discuss their legal careers and learn more about the eDiscovery industry.
On Friday, April 10, 2015, Lighthouse hosted two Seattle University law students for the School of Law's Job Shadow program. This week-long program allows local businesses the opportunity to get involved with the community, open their doors to law students and share a firsthand look into the many different realms of the legal world.

"When I heard about this job shadowing opportunity, I thought it would be a great way for Lighthouse to help students better understand the options and career paths that they have before them," said Chris Dahl, Seattle University School of Law Alum and vice president of product development and consulting at Lighthouse. "It also allows Lighthouse to show law students an example of an alternative use for their law degrees."

In order to ensure that Lighthouse's job shadow program covered the topics that most interested the visiting students, Sarah Doyle and Jessica Cox, Dahl asked them what they were looking to get out of the experience and then built a specific schedule around their answers. Dahl formed an in-depth look into the world of eDiscovery and set-up several short meetings with five Lighthouse employees who graduated with their law degrees. These short discussions covered many topics, ranging from examples of the legal work that the employees preform in their current position to general career advice.

"I really enjoyed speaking candidly with some of the Lighthouse employees about the paths that led them to where they are now," stated Jessica Cox, first-year law student at Seattle University.

For the final part of the program, Dahl wanted to show the students an inside look into our proprietary services. He worked with Joanna Harrison, Solutions Architect at Lighthouse, to set up a couple demonstrations highlighting two of our newer services. Not only did the students get an inside look into the innovative technology we develop and utilize at Lighthouse, but they also got to listen in while Joanna Harrison, was being evaluated on her demo performance.

"That was easily the most beneficial program I've attended since starting law school," said Sarah Doyle, first-year law student at Seattle University.

Overall, the students were impressed with the program and mentioned that it helped them gain a better understanding of the options available to them.

"It is difficult to fully grasp all the different career paths available to attorneys after graduation, said Cox. "My job shadow experience at Lighthouse helped me understand a possible alternative career in the legal profession, and I am very grateful for this experience because it is easy to forget that there are other legal jobs other than working at a firm or for the government."

The demand for additional degrees, credentials, internships, and experience rises with each passing year and are, by no means, easy opportunities to find. Many current Lighthouse employees have mentors within the company that help to develop their general business capabilities. Mentorship is an important dimension to any education and is especially important in a quickly growing and entrepreneurial market like Seattle. Students don't always have this exposure, so as a company, Lighthouse aims to change this by providing more job shadow and mentorship opportunities to the community.

"I had never attended a job shadow program before, but I felt that the information exchanged with attorneys at Lighthouse (the paths they had taken, their tips for both law school and beyond, and real-world perspectives on some of the decisions we face as students) was more in depth and meaningful than I've experienced at purely networking events because it was in the context of the work each attorney does on a day-to-day basis," said Doyle.

Community involvement is essential to Lighthouse. It isn't something we do for recognition or reward, but rather something we do to give back and ensure the success of our community. Lighthouse will continue its relationship with Seattle University School of Law and plans to expand upon its current association by getting involved in the school's Mentorship Program, maintaining an ongoing discussion about internship opportunities, and continuing to host students interested in learning more about the eDiscovery industry.