Walgreens’s Sr. Counsel and Director of eDiscovery Operations Adam Rouse discussed using Relativity’s integration with Microsoft 365 for collections and legal holds at Relativity Fest. Walgreens’ eDiscovery team evolved from Adam’s prior role supporting compliance and IT security teams. His deep technical background translates to a very tech forward team comfortable with Powershell and other admin tools. While the Walgreens’s team may have more technical chops than many corporate legal departments, their approach to common pain points can be valuable to all.
Highlights:
- Walgreens’s previously used another cloud legal hold platform but found that Relativity’s Legal Hold module offered better automation, workflow and integration with Microsoft Purview. That made the migration effort worthwhile.
- Their initial interest in RelativityOne was focused on M365 collection automation.
- Use a threshold matter model where the case size/risk determines whether it is eligible for in-place selective criteria collections vs. processing full custodial collections in the Relativity ECA stage.
- eDJ: I love that this highlights the fact that one eDiscovery approach does not fit all matters.
- 75%+ volume reductions for full collections staged in the ECA workspace through analytics and counsel scoping criteria.
- eDJ: This aligns with 80-90% reductions seen in eDJ clients who invest in aggressive scoping and selective criteria development.
- Worth diligence on Purview security role-based access controls. The default Purview roles may not exactly match Azure EntraID roles or groups.
- Microsoft 365 is now charging for unlicensed OneDrive storage. Customers may have to reevaluate potential costs of departed custodians on legal hold.
- eDJ: Working on specific information and guidance on what changes with departed custodians on legal hold.
- Recommends disclosure of your commercial litigation manual to shut down eDiscovery fights over process and quality.
- eDJ: I call this the client eDiscovery Bible and recommend using versions with key stakeholders, retained counsel and even your auditors.
- Recommends creating a 1-pager guide to evaluate new matters and bucket workflow decisions.
- eDJ: Nice to see this kind of clear counsel guidance kicking off new matters the right way.
Greg Buckles wants your feedback, questions or project inquiries at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com. Book a free 15 minute ‘Good Karma’ call if he has availability. He solves problems and creates eDiscovery solutions for enterprise and law firm clients.
Greg’s blog perspectives are personal opinions and should not be interpreted as a professional judgment or advice. Greg is no longer an investigative journalist and all perspectives are based on best public information. Blog content is neither approved nor reviewed by any providers prior to being published. Do you want to share your own perspective? Greg is looking for practical, professional informative perspectives free of marketing fluff, hidden agendas or personal/product bias. Outside blogs will clearly indicate the author, company and any relevant affiliations.
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