Peer to Peer Magazine

WWW.ILTANET.ORG 67 with electronically stamped pagination. Users could instantly access, annotate and collaborate on any of the material, even as the trial proceeded. Ultimately, 19,000 hyperlinks were created between and among witness statements, expert reports, skeleton arguments, chronologies, daily transcripts and thousands of underlying disclosed documents. The hyperlinking is perhaps the most striking example of new efficiencies e-litigation can bring to a commercial trial, especially when you imagine the time and effort attorneys would have spent leafing through binders and papers to find documents and establish logical connections an electronic link can forge in an instant. According to a BloombergBusiness article, the judge in the Abramovich trial, Dame Elizabeth Gloster, has now joined forces with Judge Vivian Ramsey in overseeing an ambitious five-year-long digital upgrade of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, one of the world's largest in terms of the volume of international business. The trial management system used in the Abramovich case that saved around five million sheets of paper and hundreds of thousands of pounds in printing costs might well have contributed to Judge Gloster's zeal in instituting reform. And nearly all major trials in the U.K., and many smaller ones, now use new cloud workspaces on a case-by-case basis to manage evidence more efficiently, reduce or eliminate the use of messengers to circulate hard-copy bundles to solicitors and barristers and, ultimately, foster a more collaborative approach to providing access to evidence, research, pleadings and other supporting materials throughout trial preparation and the trial. Arbitral courts in the U.K. are also reporting remarkable success with the same system used in the Abramovich proceedings. The technology spearheading these courtroom efficiencies by providing centralized electronic access to trial bundles and displayed documents is also reaping benefits for legal teams — both here and abroad — prior to appearing in court as they prepare for negotiations or trial, collaborating on activities like assessing findings, developing strategy, building arguments and preparing for depositions. CLOUD-BASED COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES The technology making e-litigation a reality and paperless trials a distinct possibility is also being used to streamline the collaborative tasks that legal teams typically engage in as they work their way through the various stages of litigation, beginning long before a trial ever commences. This work might include: • Analyzing important pieces of evidence as they are produced in early stages of e-discovery • Assessing strengths and weaknesses of a client's position in the matter • Annotating and commenting on documents or passages • Sharing research and linking it to relevant evidence • Discussing insights and sketching potential arguments This work must be accomplished in a way that makes it easy and efficient for team members to access the appropriate materials and to exchange expertise and ideas with colleagues. Electronic collaborative workspaces for legal counsel, which are already in use in some law firms and corporate legal departments — both in the U.S. and abroad — exploit the advantages of cloud technology to make legal teamwork more efficient and effective. The cloud model is important because costs tend to be directly proportional to the volume of a case, and it requires no purchase or installation of software on local machines — nor does it place additional burden on an organization's local IT infrastructure. The workspace is accessed through a familiar and easy-to-use Web-based dashboard, and users can log in from any device and location. Also, there are few limits to scalability with cloud technology. If, for example, the deposition calendar will yield many video files, the users of a collaborative workspace need not worry about crashing their local system or increasing capacity. The cloud model means the system will function as well in a small case involving fewer than a thousand documents and just a handful of users as it will in a massive commercial dispute on the scale of the Abramovich trial. WORKING MORE EFFICIENTLY Online legal workspaces have evolved as litigation becomes more global. Lawyers are increasingly mobile, and legal matters involve larger volumes of data and multiple electronic formats, including audio recordings, images and video. Printing hard copies of documents, preparing annotations on sticky notes and organizing papers into binders is no longer effective. Even email is rarely an efficient medium when files are sent back and forth, marked up and annotated, and discussed among multiple participants in a variety of locations. Collaborative workspaces have emerged as the most efficient way to make evidence, research, transcripts, depositions, pleadings, exhibits, sealed About the Author Clare Foley is the Vice President of Litigation Solutions at Opus 2 Magnum. She has been a driving force in the litigation services market for more than 20 years. In her current role, Clare advises law firms and corporate clients on their cloud collaboration strategies, specifically around the deployment of the Opus 2 Magnum platform. Clare is a contributing author to several trade publications and is a regular speaker on cloud technology. Contact her at cfoley@opus2.com.

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