eDJ Contributor: Amber Scorah
Posts by Amber Scorah
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- May 2nd
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International Data – When your data is spread throughout the world: Interview with Jonathan Wilan, Partner at Hunton & Williams LLP
Many players within the oil & gas industry operate internationally, and this often results in discoverable data spread throughout the world. I interviewed Jonathan Wilan, Partner at Hunton & Williams LLP, to get some insights into international data privacy laws that have a bearing on eDiscovery, whether these laws create a conflict with discovery obligations in the United States, and what to do when a conflict arises. Amber Scorah: Can you give us an overview of international data privacy laws that may have a bearing on eDiscovery? Jonathan Wilan: When preserving, processing, or exporting data from a foreign jurisdiction to the United States, it is essential to consider the laws of the jurisdiction where the data is located that might prohibit or limit the ability to conduct discovery in the same manner a party might in the United States. Of [...]
posted at 9:00am on May 2nd
- April 12th
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Legacy Data and Data Remediation: What is the ROI? Part Two of an Inteview with Jonathan Wilan with Hunton & Williams
PART TWO OF INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN WILAN Partner at Hunton & Williams LLP With the exploding rate of data growth, data remediation is a serious exercise that all companies must consider. In part one of this series, I spoke with Jonathan Wilan, Partner at Hunton & Williams LLP, about the risks of not having a data remediation policy. In this part two, we discuss what departments should be involved in data remediation efforts, what the return on investment is, and how to measure this. Amber Scorah: What are the relevant departments that must be involved in data remediation efforts? Jonathan Wilan: To succeed, a remediation project will require involvement of a number of departments. Obvious stakeholders will include IT and Records Management. It is absolutely essential (for the legal preservation obligation reasons I discussed previously) that the Legal Department be [...]
posted at 9:00am on Apr 12th
- April 3rd
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Clearing up the Toxic Waste Dump of Digital Data: Legacy Data and Data Remediation with Jonathan Wilan from Hunton & Williams
PART ONE OF AN INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN WILAN Partner at Hunton & Williams LLP Inside and outside counsel, in-house eDiscovery teams and records management departments understand the duties to preserve data subject to a legal hold, and the need to have a retention policy. But with the exploding rate of data growth, data remediation is a serious exercise that all companies must consider. I spoke with Jonathan Wilan, Partner at Hunton & Williams LLP, about the importance of data remediation. In part one of this two part series, we discuss the risks of not practicing data remediation, and the main challenges to accomplishing it. Amber Scorah: How important is data remediation — i.e., what are the risks of not practicing data remediation? Jonathan Wilan: Data remediation is a critical information governance requirement for any large organization. While most sizeable companies [...]
posted at 9:00am on Apr 3rd
- March 13th
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Interview with Jeff Nadalo from TransCanada Pipeline – Predictive Coding and Why You Should Care About It
The paradigm of review is changing. Predictive coding has made a huge impact in the e-discovery and document review world. In this interview, I speak with Jeff Nadalo, Litigation Counsel at TransCanada Pipeline. He helps cut through all the marketing jargon to give an understanding of the technical and realistic implications of predictive coding, and how it can affect your e-discovery practice. Amber Scorah: What do the courts think? Is predictive coding defensible? Jeff Nadalo: I think we certainly are seeing that. There are some recent cases coming out which are indicating that predictive coding is certainly an acceptable means of minimizing the resources that it takes to perform large-scale discovery. Amber Scorah: If your competitors are leveraging this technology, should you? Jeff Nadalo: TransCanada has invested heavily in predictive coding and I think the key reason is that it can pay for [...]
posted at 9:00am on Mar 13th
- March 1st
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How to Create an eDiscovery Team that Works for your Organization Part 2
Creating a solid in-house eDiscovery team is indeed a big undertaking, and in last week’s post we talked about how to determine which procedures should be handled internally vs. externally, and some good strategies for getting cross-department collaboration. Another challenge is determining how far the in-house team will take discovery. It’s often a question of resources. What is the appropriate EDRM stage to which the in-house team will take discovery? Legal teams first of all need to determine what level of effort they want to provide to Early Case Assessment and First-pass review. If the staffing is too thin to spend time performing these functions, you will definitely be paying to have your outside counsel and eDiscovery vendors doing it for you. The best thing to do is get a handle on your litigation costs, and compare the charges against [...]
posted at 9:00am on Mar 1st
- February 21st
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How to Create an eDiscovery Team that Works for your Organization
With budget constraints and reduced internal staffing putting pressure on in-house corporate departments that analyze and make decisions on an ever-increasing pool of potentially discoverable material, creating a solid in-house eDiscovery team is a big challenge.
Even so, there are ways to leverage your current corporate organization structure to create a solid in-house eDiscovery team. In part one of this two part article, we offer some good strategies for getting multi-department collaboration, and advice on how to determine which eDiscovery procedures are more effectively and economically handled internally.
posted at 11:37am on Feb 21st
- February 14th
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Don’t Create a Failed eDiscovery Police State – Why Programs Work Better than Policies
Policies are like laws… we need them, they give structure. But policies tend to be reactive, just like law enforcement. Take, for example, the war on drugs. Passing drug laws alone isn’t enough – we have programs in schools to teach kids, communities offer programs to help people get off drugs. This is, of course, because knowing what one is supposed to do sometimes isn’t enough to make a person comply. On the other hand, creating a living, breathing program brings your policies to life and creates a living, breathing culture of compliance. How can you do this in an eDiscovery context? How do you do this in an eDiscovery context? “Creating a culture of compliance” One definition of culture is: “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group.” This implies that a culture is created by the behaviors [...]
posted at 12:32pm on Feb 14th
- February 6th
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Walking the Lines of Transparency and Attorney-Client Privilege for ESI – An Interview with Sarah Jane Gillett, Partner at Hall Estill – Part Two
The line of transparency and privilege is a difficult one to walk. In part two of this interview, we discuss more issues faced by outside counsel, including some insights into asserting attorney client privilege for electronically stored information, where the line of transparency lies, and how to ensure that reasonable steps were taken to prevent inadvertent disclosure that may result in a privilege waiver. Amber Scorah (AS): How does one effectively assert attorney client privilege for electronically stored information? Sarah Jane Gillett: There is a growing debate about how to claim privilege for large groups of electronically stored information, such as volumes of email. Preparation of a log in the event of thousands of communications is extremely burdensome and time-consuming, if done email by email. While some jurisdictions continue to require a document-by-document log, other courts are more open to [...]
posted at 5:23pm on Feb 6th
- January 24th
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Walking the Lines of Transparency and Attorney-Client Privilege for ESI – An Interview with Sarah Jane Gillett, Partner at Hall Estill
In the highly litigious oil and gas industry, outside counsel must ensure that they have conducted adequate due diligence in managing and producing electronic evidence. The line of transparency and privilege is a difficult one to walk. In part one of this two-part interview, Sarah Jane Gillett, Partner at Hall Estill, gives an overview of the increased responsibility to preserve and subsequently produce relevant documents in various forms, and some insights into what exactly is protected by attorney-client privilege: AS: Can you give a brief overview of the increased responsibility to preserve and subsequently produce relevant documents in various forms? Sarah Jane Gillett: There is no question that counsel today must be cognizant of the responsibility to identify and potentially collect various forms of evidence at an extremely early stage of any litigation or investigation. While the Federal Rules of [...]
posted at 11:42am on Jan 24th