Digital White Papers

Litigation and Practice Support — May 2015

publication of the International Legal Technology Association

Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/518940

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ILTA WHITE PAPER: MAY 2015 WWW.ILTANET.ORG FOUR PRINCIPLES OF RESPONSIBLE E-DISCOVERY DATA MANAGEMENT Information governance principles can provide tremendous guidance in helping us make those decisions. The Information Governance Initiative defines information governance (IG) as "the activities and technologies that organizations employ to maximize the value of their information while minimizing associated risks and costs." Plainly stated, IG means knowing what data you have, where they are stored, how they are protected, why you have the data, and when you can get rid of the data. Law firms can routinely and unthinkingly create 10 or more copies of a single document during the life of a litigation matter. Consider a single email message in a custodian's mailbox: • The firm receives an Outlook PST on a drive, litigation support creates a working copy of the PST file and loads it to the processing platform, where it is then output as individual messages and attachments to the review platform. • Subsequently, an associate attaches the client's email message to an internal firm email to confirm with the partner the privilege redactions. • The litigation support team converts the native message file to a TIFF format for redaction, Bates Numbering and production to the opposing party. • Later, the redacted message might be printed as part of a witness kit, attached to a pleading as an exhibit and stored with the pleading draft on an associate's desktop. • It will also be stored in final form in the document management system (DMS), provided to an expert for analysis, copied and marked as a deposition exhibit by the court reporter, and later marked as a trial exhibit. • Perhaps a copy was sent to co-counsel. Opposing counsel and co-counsel are similarly making copies of that same email message. All the while, IT is making sure backups are being generated. At the end of the matter, when asked to destroy or return all copies of the client's materials, how do you find them? Where do you begin? 13 Keep client data away from systems that automatically alter metadata, such as a DMS or metadata scrubbers.

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