Historical Essays

The legal community is just coming to grips with the implications of native files and their metadata. I like to think of this as the content vs. context of ESI or the letter vs. the envelope in communications. Parties and courts are still arguing about how to handle, track and present multiple copies of the same item collected from different locations. Now we move that content into a dynamic environment with multiple, simultaneous ‘custodians’ that may contain historical versions, associated commentary, workflow and more. It is any wonder that many corporations have tried to define restrictive acceptable usage policies and implement net filters to limit user access to Facebook, Twitter and more from the enterprise?

Microsoft SharePoint provides many business benefits and its usage has exploding and is growing further. But, as is often the case with new, exciting business tools, eDiscovery is an afterthought and becomes very challenging. It's only a matter of time before the challenges with forensically collecting SharePoint information hit the headlines. There are tools out there to address SharePoint eDiscovery management, but each take different approaches and buyers must beware.

In Part 1, we explored changing face of internet and intranet collaborative communication platforms and the increased risks posed by outdated policies and technologies. My main concern over these systems is the unreasonable expectation that a typical corporate custodian could preserve relevant ESI stored in Sharepoint or another cloud based system. Despite recent rulings emphasizing written Hold Notification, most users simply do not have the tech savvy, rights or proper tools to either make a complete preservation copy or secure the items in place against expiry or accidents. That shifts the onus back onto Legal to effectively preserve these dynamic data sources.

Information governance is simply a new perspective - a conservative one - on information management. It's about managing the risk inherent in creating and using information assets within an organization.

The first two journal entries on autocoding definitely resonated with the market and generated a lot of on/offline responses. One of those responses was a call and subsequent briefing from my old colleagues at FTI Technology on their latest offering, FTI Acuity. [EDITOR’S NOTICE– Greg worked at Attenex prior to the FTI acquisition.] A quick visit to the FTI site leads one to believe that Acuity is just a packaged services-hosting offering with a fixed per-GB or per-Document pricing model that they term Integrated Document Review. DiscoverReady was one of the first Attenex partners to offer fixed-fee per document review pricing back in 2005. The FTI materials barely mention the new predictive coding and quality control functionality that has been added to the Ringtail-Patterns platform.

I was recently asked what training and certifications could help an attorney looking to break into contract work on eDiscovery projects. This is an attorney that has practiced for 20 years , but she still felt the need to put some technical alphabet soup behind her JD. The questions mostly focused on which software and what level of training would demonstrate overall competence. What it takes to ‘break in’ as an independent is a good topic for a full article, but I will start with my perspectives on software, training and certifications as they exist today. Although contract attorneys are primarily used as reviewers, I am going to assume that an experienced attorney or other professional wants to take a case or project management role for a corporate or law firm client. This role has traditionally been filled by the service provider, but with corporations insourcing discovery and firms taking more fixed fee engagements, I can definitely see a potential niche market for someone with the right skills.