Digital White Papers

ILTA WHITE PAPER: JUNE 2014 WWW.ILTANET.ORG 30 SECURE SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR BETTER ATTORNEY WORKFLOW .PSTS IN THE HOUSE! Lawyers are go-getters and like to make things happen, so it makes sense that most law firms want to do as much as they can internally to service their clients. Given the choice of hosting a document review internally or externally, a firm usually decides on an in-house option. An in-house option makes sense from the standpoint of due diligence. Clients trust law firms to protect the confidentiality of their email messages and documents, and firms have always believed hosting documents internally is more secure. However, this approach leads firms to make substantial investments in litigation technology that becomes outdated quickly and is expensive to upgrade. It's not just a question of the technology — litigation software requires expertise to achieve a maximum ROI. Rather than hire a dedicated litigation support professional, many firms ask an IT staff member or paralegal to take on an extra load that quickly becomes burdensome. The most dangerous perception about in-house litigation support is that since the firm owns the software, it doesn't need to charge clients for the cost of this support. That results in a lost opportunity for the firm to recover dollars for a valuable service. OUTSOURCING LITIGATION SUPPORT Is the answer then to outsource a firm's entire litigation support structure? Hosted platforms and HYBRID LITIGATION SUPPORT The big decision when considering a hybrid approach to litigation support is when to outsource work and when to keep work in-house. Coming to a conclusion usually requires someone who has a good understanding of the different tools and software available on the market — each matter could require a unique tool or approach. As one example of a hybrid approach, it would take many days to conduct a traditional manual review of several million email messages. Instead, your firm could send the entire collection to an outside service provider for a first-level review. All managed services providers can supply levels of security, data redundancy and scalability that no law firm can aspire to on its own. Hosting providers can get a matter up and running within minutes and push upgrades to the software platform within hours. Hosted document reviews also offer easier database access to clients and co-counsel. And, interestingly, lawyers usually find it easier to pass the cost of outside services to clients than the cost of in-house support. Offloading maintenance responsibilities for the litigation support solution to a hosting provider means a firm's IT professionals and paralegals can focus on a more consultative role at the firm. This is good, but outsourcing every shred of litigation support could be overkill. Many low-profile matters can be handled effectively in-house as long as steps are taken to ensure an efficient workflow.

• Cover