P2P

18 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 2 1 can cut down on inefficiencies and use analytics to keep costs down while keeping standards high. The cost savings from leveraging such expertise alone can be staggering. Project Manager Though the project manager's role is certainly more generalized, this professional is just as important to the team as its other specialists. A competent project manager is not an order-taker or taskmaster, but instead truly shepherds the entire process through to completion. This person is usually involved in creating plans and workflows in collaboration with other members of the team. It is the project manager who then becomes the central figure in implementing that plan throughout the entirety of the process. An effective project manager coordinates the relationship between a company, its counsel and its eDiscovery partner while overseeing the entire process, from initial meetings to data collection, review and production. The PM should carefully track the project to keep it on budget, provide advice to company executives, counsel and other key players, and continually look for areas of improvement throughout the process. With these things in mind, the project manager should be almost as knowledgeable about the individual steps as the other, specialized team members. Because a large part of this role involves managing contact between the company and the eDiscovery firm, strong communication skills are crucial. A good project manager will be proactive, providing regular updates and anticipating questions and problems before they arise. The project manager will also handle the logistical aspects of the project — from organizing the necessary tools and resources to overseeing the phases of eDiscovery so they smoothly transition from one to the next. A person who is detail-oriented and analytical is ideal for this role. Pieces of a puzzle Each team member's unique specialty provides a different piece of the eDiscovery puzzle. But every member of the team needs to operate from a shared base of knowledge for the team to function most effectively. That means understanding the details of the case and the parties involved, the legal team's working habits and preferences, as well as other institutional knowledge. All this background information informs the eDiscovery team's decisions while working through a set of data and reduces the chance of a vital document being overlooked. Without the right experts involved from the outset, important details get overlooked — relevant files don't get collected (or identified at all), data gets collected in a way that affects its provenance or relevant data gets skipped over during the review process. These oversights give way to inefficiencies across the entire EDRM, incurring wasted time, duplicated efforts, and in a worst-case scenario, sanctions. An experienced team working in harmony will result in a process that's faster, less expensive, less chaotic and ultimately more successful. ILTA 4 Barry Schwartz, Esq., CEDS is SVP, Advisory Services at BIA, a leading national eDiscovery and digital forensics company. He is highly proficient in discovery and document review matters and holds more than 35 years of legal and business consulting management experience. He oversees BIA's advisory division and is primarily responsible for providing consulting and advisory services to BIA's clients. Barry can provide experienced, sound insight in multiple areas, including information management, litigation and discovery, document retention and management, regulatory compliance, and IT security.

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