Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | I N F O R M A T I O N G O V E R N E N C E 72 Thomas C. Gricks, III is a prominent e-discovery lawyer and a leading authority on the use of technology-assisted review, and is Director, Data Analytics, at Catalyst Cloud services (now part of OpenText). He advises corporations and law firms on best practices for applying technology to reduce the time and cost of discovery and investigations. Tom has more than 25 years' experience as a trial lawyer and in-house counsel, most recently with the law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, where he was a partner and chair of the E-Discovery Practice Group. He was lead e-discovery counsel in Global Aerospace v. Landow Aviation, the first case in the country to authorize the use of TAR over the objection of opposing counsel. 5 S T R A T E G I E S F O R E F F E C T I V E C O N T R O L A N D O V E R S I G H T O F E D I S C O V E R Y S P E N D the background, based on current coding, and are demonstrably more efficient than older, somewhat outdated niche protocols. Certainly, though, the key to real savings with TAR 2.0 comes from discontinuing review when the majority of the responsive documents confidently have been found. The inherent nature of continuous active learning makes this decision straightforward. When a TAR 2.0 review begins, reviewers will quickly see batches of documents that are predominantly responsive. As the responsive set is depleted, the fraction of responsive documents in every batch will plummet. At that point, statistical validation will confirm that production objectives have been achieved – all at much lower cost than other review alternatives. 5. Use business intelligence to make data-driven decisions Business often lives by the timeless adage, "if you can't measure it, you can't improve it." The legal business of eDiscovery in no different, and business intelligence (BI) provides the metrics that can be used to measure, and improve, a comprehensive eDiscovery program. A strong BI program places key metrics at the fingertips of in-house counsel, to drive strategic decision-making and foster informed eDiscovery management. Advanced BI tools aggregate comprehensive eDiscovery metrics that cross case boundaries and afford interdisciplinary benefits. Transcending case boundaries provides insight into comparisons and trends that will highlight opportunities for process improvement – e.g., responsiveness and privilege metrics to efficiently manage custodian collections; vendor, review team, and outside counsel efficiencies to properly allocate responsibilities; and, comprehensive review metrics for forecasting and budgeting. Interdisciplinary connectivity, for example, with the accounting and human resources departments, offers even more extensive control and management metrics. Individually and collectively, each of these strategies provides an opportunity for in-house legal teams to assert direct influence over the eDiscovery process by exploiting all available metrics, and all appropriate technologies. And, by exercising control over the eDiscovery process, counsel can, in turn, effectively manage and control eDiscovery spend. ILTA

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