The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/43128
SMART MOVES "I spend a great deal of time developing relationships and communicating with other departments who may be involved in the hold." • Problem Solving and Anticipation: The e-discovery manager must also be proactive. It's not enough to simply go through the motions and stop the bleeding during a crisis. A good e-discovery manager takes a comprehensive view by identifying the gaps in the process and finding ways to fix them. It's also imperative to look forward. Technology, and how people use it, is changing all the time (e.g., social media and the cloud). E-discovery managers need to anticipate how those changes might affect a company's risk. • Resourcefulness: Like any project manager, an e-discovery manager needs to find cost efficiencies. Economic times are tough and everyone is being asked to do more with less. How can we reduce our storage costs and minimize the number of documents that need to be produced and reviewed? These are questions that must be addressed as new data sources emerge and ESI continues to expand at an exponential rate. THE BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE As illustrated, e-discovery management requires legal, technical and managerial skills. In this economy, most 36 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer organizations can't afford to hire a full time e-discovery manager and, instead, assign those responsibilities to someone already in-house. E-discovery managers almost always come from a technical or legal background. As e-discovery expert Brett Burney suggests in his article "The Emerging Field of Electronic Discovery Project Management," the highly detailed nature of the e-discovery workflow process is better suited to litigation support professionals versus lawyers. He further points out that the best person for this job has subject-matter expertise combined with the ability to track simultaneous projects. As a paralegal with more than 20 years of experience, I had the legal background and the communication and organizational skills. I was also very familiar with the company. I lacked the technical background, though, and — like everyone else — I had to learn the new e-discovery rules. I wasn't even sure I wanted to take on such a big responsibility, but the challenge has proven to be very rewarding. I had to get educated, and quickly. I took e-discovery courses to become more technically savvy and spent a lot of time talking with vendors and other companies about how they manage their processes. There was also a lot of on-the- job training from my boss and the IT forensics team.