Digital White Papers

ILTA WHITE PAPER: JUNE 2014 WWW.ILTANET.ORG 11 Across the nation, the legal world approaches e-discovery with a stale case-by-case method, relying on the untested belief that every unique case requires a similarly unique approach to discovery. As a result, organizations often incur great costs in attempts to marry pre-existing, onsite solutions with the contracted-for solutions required to handle new cases. Piecemeal adoption of solutions can create a lot of inefficiency, especially when several aspects of an organization's existing cases can support a long-term, comprehensive portfolio management approach to e-discovery — one designed to minimize data transfers, decrease the number of stored documents and provide everything needed for e-discovery in one place. For those brave enough to take off their blinders, the inefficiencies of one-off e-discovery projects become clear: • Duplicate Documents. Corporations and law firms that support long-term clients often reuse documents (e.g., merger and acquisition agreements, insurance documents, contract versions, etc.) in simultaneous or consecutive litigation. However, if a firm could isolate batches of documents potentially subject to repeat litigation in a universal post-processing database, there would be no need to re-identify, recollect or reprocess them upon request. • Repeat Custodians. Just as a contract might appear in multiple cases, so too do custodians E-DISCOVERY EVOLUTION: STREAMLINING THE DAUNTING DISCOVERY PROCESS (C-level executives, HR managers and product developers). In a similar vein, if electronically stored information (ESI) associated with these personnel resided in a suspended state of storage that spanned multiple matters, the time spent collecting and manipulating this ESI could be reduced — creating a fast track for analysis and review. • Overlapping Tools. From a functionality perspective, few differences separate the tools the industry uses for the stages on the right side of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). Everything from keyword search to predictive coding can add value during analysis and, later, review. It is worth wondering why so many organizations purchase separate tools with overlapping purposes, subjecting the organization to additional data transfer and perhaps even additional processing. WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER Embracing a portfolio approach — whether onsite, partially onsite or as a comprehensive software as a service (SaaS) offering — requires what can be an intimidating amount of forethought. Certain things can be done to support an enlightened approach when corporations or law firms consider what approach to adopt for e-discovery. The following series of questions is designed to drive a successful analysis:

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