Peer to Peer Magazine

22 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | FALL 2016 BEST PRACTICES by Kim Edwards An e-discovery managed services (EMS) partnership with a third-party vendor has proven to be a successful method to manage and reduce litigation discovery costs. The partnership allows firms to bridge the gap between self-service and full-service without additional burden to the firm's internal resources. EMS partnerships are oen described as a marriage. Significant time is invested in the selection of the third-party vendors for the managed services partnership; therefore, it benefits both parties to exploit this extraordinary and strategic arrangement. Lighten the Network Load One benefit of the EMS partnership is a decrease in the network storage footprint for the firm. Having EMS allows you to take advantage of the expertise of vendors that house and maintain the infrastructure for the required systems while also providing a more robust review platform for the firm. Further, it allows internal IT teams to focus on day-to-day operations and firm projects. The ability of the vendor to quickly add additional storage for cases and provide backup solutions is equally important for the firm and IT staff. Involving the firm's IT staff in discussions with the selected vendor ensures internal security protocols are communicated, surveyed and followed. Standardize Case Costs A fixed monthly cost for services and storage offers certainty in preparing sustainable cost budgets for cases of all sizes. Vendor-provided utilization reports of the EMS space allow for monitoring of storage space and lead to beer administration of firm costs for adding necessary storage space throughout the year. Litigation support managers and directors manage time, money and resources daily. New cases and individual projects require budgets inclusive of an itemized list of tasks, available assets and costs; these budgets must be fashioned with the goal of keeping discovery costs affordable for the client. Better Together with E-Discovery Managed Services Beer Together with E-Discovery Managed Services KIM EDWARDS Kim Edwards is the Practice Support Manager for Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in New York. Besides spending over a decade in litigation support, her professional experiences include stints in graphic design, human resources, commercial property management and technical training, all of which she finds to be reliable resources for her current position. It is Kim's pleasure to manage a humorous, hardworking and talented practice support team. She can be contacted at kedwards@pbwt.com.

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