Peer to Peer Magazine

37 WWW.ILTANET.ORG IG and Ediscovery: A Symbiotic Relationship FEATURES On the flip side, electronic discovery acts as an audit for IG policies and presents opportunities to beer manage information assets through existing and new policies. The symbiotic relationship between IG and ediscovery applies to entities subject to litigation, arbitration, investigation and other regulatory proceedings. Every entity that needs to identify and collect data, from corporations to law firms, will benefit from investing resources in IG because good policies and procedures facilitate an efficient, defensible collection that positions a corporation for success in litigations and investigations. Be Curious IG starts with sound policies and procedures. It does not have to be an initiative that breaks the bank, nor does it have to happen overnight. It simply requires that an organization be curious about how they manage information and document the findings in the form of a policy. Ask questions like: » What applications do we use? » What data sources do we have? » How do we manage information from these sources? » What is stored on-premises and what is in the cloud? » What is the retention period for email, network drives, FTP sites, etc.? » What information is stored on employees mobile devices? » How do we remediate information? » What happens when a litigation or investigation is looming? » What happens when an employee leaves? These are questions that every organization needs to answer, so why not answer them in the form of an IG policy? Don't be worried about geing it perfect the first time – the first dra is never the last. IG policies and procedures are evergreen documents – they change and adapt over time to accommodate changes in the company's data landscape, regulatory and compliance obligations, client demands, and other internal and external factors. IG Driving Clarity & Understanding It is increasingly important for IG policies to be clearly defined with the heightened privacy and security concerns in the digital age. IG policies are a resource for employees trying to understand how the company manages data and how they are expected to handle data on behalf of the company. They remove ambiguity and provide a united front for information management at an organization. IG policies, likewise, help ediscovery professionals understand and define the collection scope and strategy, facilitating efficient and effective identification, preservation, and collection efforts. Without IG policies and a culture of compliance, these efforts can be a wild goose chase, finding inconsistent information management practices across custodians and uncovering legacy data at every turn. IG policies provide clarity and understanding by defining how information is managed within an organization and creating a standard of care for information assets, assisting the ediscovery professional in their efforts it identify, preserve, and collect relevant data. Provide Good Defensibility Information governance policies also provide heightened precision and defensibility in electronic discovery. They provide a framework for the treatment and retention of information assets, and are used by ediscovery professionals to understand an organization's systems for data mapping and collection. Organizations performing discovery will be in a position to make informed decisions if they have IG policies to reference. Should there be any questions about the completeness of the collection, organizations RICKY BROOMAN Ricky Brooman is a Litigation Support Project Manager at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP. In this capacity, he consults clients on best practices for ediscovery and information governance, and manages all phases of the EDRM for litigation matters. Ricky is also a member of ILTA's Program Planning Counsel. Contact him at ricky. brooman@saul.com or on LinkedIn. IG starts with sound policies and procedures. It does not have to be an initiative that breaks the bank, nor does it have to happen overnight.

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