Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | L I T I G A T I O N A N D P R A C T I C E S U P P O R T 48 G O I N G F O R I N F O R M A T I O N G O V E R N A N C E G O L D – C L O S I N G T H E G A P O N D I S C O V E R Y M A T E R I A L S Discovery materials need to be part of the firm's overall information management strate that is outlined in this discussion. Proper document handling should be identified as part of the policy, with visibility and security paramount concerns in this age of exploding ediscovery processing, hosting, review, and ongoing data storage. Ultimately, the materials need to undergo the same disposition process as all other client materials, and this is a practice that historically was treated in a one-off fashion falling outside of normal records handling or governance. However, there is an opportunity for firms to clean up this oversight as they revisit their IG initiatives and deploy programs to address overall proper document handling hygiene. ILTA to devise a defensible plan for gaining visibility into box contents in advance of destroying those contents per retention schedules. A "flip-the-lid" reconciliation of the box contents and perhaps electronic media verification may be required if the firm lacks confidence in its historical indexing information. This is yet another element to be added to the project plan for proper remediation calling for resource allocation and milestone dates. For these process improvements to be sustained and lasting, the firm's leadership needs to understand that streamlining of firm-wide protocols is central to successful implementation. The standardization of tool sets, promotion of the correct user behavior, and the enforcement of methods for purging all ancillary data stores is recommended. Additionally, an extensive change management program needs to address user behavior, workflow, and the integrated use of systems. Stephen Cole Stephen Cole is Director, Client Technology & Strategy at Mattern & Associates. Cole has a successful track record with over twenty years of expertise in consulting for large law firms, extending from Litigation Support, Records & Information Management, Word Processing, Imaging, Cost Recovery to BPO and end-to-end eDiscovery services. Cole gained his experience both on the service provider and law firm sides including as the Vice President over the legal business unit at Pitney Bowes Management Services, a technology specialist at an AmLaw 50 firm, and most recently, a Regional Vice President of Ipro Tech, an advanced eDiscovery solution. Stephen can be reached via email at scole@matternassoc.com

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