Peer to Peer Magazine

16 and cost-effective use of technolo? Did the outcome of Matter A align with the fees we paid to outside counsel? If not, precisely where did we overpay? What specific false assumption(s) caused us to the blow the eDiscovery budget on Matter B, and how can we prevent this from happening in Matters C and D? Data-Intensive Portfolio Management Enhances Visibility and Accountability Applying analytics across multiple matters is helping legal departments isolate key performance metrics that illuminate operational and spending trends extending well beyond the silo of individual matters. Armed with that data, your department has an unprecedented opportunity to refine its internal processes across the litigation workflow. With a few clicks you can pull up a dashboard that gives you a global view – in real time – of cost and efficiency trends across all your matters, both past and present. Suddenly you are armed with compelling historical information to bring to negotiations with law firms and legal services organizations to push for fee arrangements that are more directly related to proven performance and value. You can also use this information to perform regular internal SWOT analyses – for example, to gauge your department's readiness to support your organization's business objectives ahead of a potential strategic initiative or an entry into a new market. Your deployment of analytics across the portfolio also positions the department as model within the organization for using technolo strategically in anticipation of rapidly changing business requirements. Even if you have no plans to deploy an advanced eDiscovery platform with built-in analytics in-house, your evaluations of outside counsel and third-party vendors should consider whether those organizations are making effective and proactive use of advanced technologies and are achieving outcomes that are consistently commensurate with cost. If third-parties are using analytics in their own operations, you should push to identify and track key performance indicators for every engagement. Unlike many innovations related to artificial intelligence, the application of analytics to the litigation workflow is making an impact right now, and its utility is no longer confined to document review. Wherever legal work involves data, analytic technologies can be deployed to structure that data, make it more readily searchable, and reveal hidden patterns and insight that form the basis for making sound decisions – whether those decisions pertain to eDiscovery, legal strate or the business of law. Legal departments that embrace these technologies and apply them creatively will bring new rigor their operations, produce better outcomes for their organization and provide a template for proactive engagement in the service of the organization's overall business objectives. ILTA

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