Lawyer with e-discovery ‘passion’ and mother of five, Lisa Prowse borrowed from Christmas fund to take CEDS exam and now thrilled she is CEDS-certified
Lisa Prowse says she has a "passion" for e-discovery. That's why she borrowed from her Christmas fund, which augments what Santa Claus leaves under the tree for her five kids, to pay for her CEDS certification examination.
When you listen to the BIA director of strategic and legal services talk about her work as an e-discovery attorney and consultant, you do not hear that she provides the full support for her family. Her husband accommodates her “passion” by taking care of their five "rambunctious" kids.
"It’s a Saturday, and when I’m home with our five kids for the day I appreciate my husband so much more! He quit his middle-management job in manufacturing to take care of the kids, and that allows me to work the 80-plus hours a week I put in on e-discovery cases. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
“When I’m not actively working on cases for work, I’m working on things (related to the industry). This industry is my passion, so my husband and I have a perfect arrangement," Ms. Prowse said.
“We have five loud, rambunctious kids, and my husband’s full-time job is taking care of them, so we survive on my income, and that gives us a really limited budget. I paid for the CEDS exam myself out of the family Christmas fund," she added. The Prowse family lives in Portage, Michigan, which is not far from Kalamazoo and the Battle Creek Airport.
Several months ago, soon after the ACEDS certification examination was released, on a snowy, freezing day Lisa Prowse drove to a ACEDS-Kryterion Testing Center to take the Certified E-Discovery Specialist examination. At the time, ACEDS.org did a write-up of her experience and her as network of e-discovery friends expanded as people contacted her from around the country. Now, Lisa Prowse has something more to crow about. She was notified last week that she is one of the fortunate, diverse professionals who passed the rigorous CEDS certification exam. We caught up with her to see how it feels now that her sacrifice has borne fruit.
She was thrilled to hear the news of her new status as a CEDS-certified e-discovery professional.
"The CEDS examination was thorough, balanced, tough and definitely fair. It’s not one of those where you look at the manual and go in and pass it. I am more valuable now with the CEDS certification and it helps our company, BIA, just as much. BIA offers the full range of e-discovery services and we want to show that we're good in all areas.
"What I like about the ACEDS exam is that it tests knowledge across the full e-discovery range. Anyone who passes this exam has a good grasp of the entire e-discovery waterfront," she concluded.
