New eDJ Report – Managing eDiscovery as a Repeatable Business Process

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Barry Murphy. Published: 2011-07-15 12:00:38  I’m happy to announce that a new report I authored with Kevin Esposito is now available on our site: Managing eDiscovery As a Repeatable Business Process.  It’s been a hot topic lately as corporations seek to control costs and get out of the vicious cycle of reactive collections.  Today, most organizations manage eDiscovery on a matter-by-matter basis, stuck in a reactive nightmare that plays over and over. This approach is both costly and risk-laden. Organizations do not have the time, internal skills or tools required to cull down collected data sets. This results in unnecessarily expensive third-party data processing and legal review. The matter-by-matter approach also leads to inconsistencies in how the same data is treated across matters. Multiple handoffs and increased movement of data from application to application and vendor to vendor raises the chances for spoliation and the potential for negative repercussions such as sanctions.As eDiscovery gains a higher profile in the mainstream news and on the corporate radar, there is a strong desire on the part of corporate executives to reduce both costs and risk. We at eDiscovery Journal believe that the way to accomplish both goals without sacrificing legal defensibility is to approach eDiscovery as a manageable, repeatable business process.The report examines the components of the eDiscovery process and the role of various constituents (e.g. Corporate legal, law firm, service provider) within that process. It will also explore how technology and service solutions can support managing eDiscovery and the trends that affect decision making, such as the emergence of more integrated eDiscovery platforms.I’ll be doing a panel discussion on this topic at the Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat next week.  There should be some good debate on the panel with regards to who is ultimately responsible for the eDiscovery process.  My view has always been that Legal is the business owner of the process, but that ultimately, the CIO (and IT) will be the owner of technology purchases and budgets.  I say that because I know how enterprise IT purchasing works.  But, there are other angles I’ve heard from real practitioners such as Legal should own the process and the solutions and leave IT out of it.  I’m excited to see what the audience next week thinks of the debate and see the results when we poll the audience.  Have an opinion on the matter?  Please comment below.