THE IMPACT OF PEOPLE, PROCESS AND TECHNOLOGY ON E-DISCOVERY
The explosion of data in our world is almost incomprehensible and is growing at rapid rates. This requires law firms and their clients to think more proactively about electronic information – specifically, how to ensure potentially relevant data is preserved, collected, processed, reviewed and produced.
The reality of managing these increasing volumes of data in a rapidly evolving legal and technical landscape affects everyone, from small and large firms to Fortune 100 companies. While this can be a daunting task, filtering gigabytes into useful information can efficiently resolve a legal matter while simultaneously reducing costs and risks, so long as the right combination of people, process and technology is in place.
With all this data can come great expense. While in the past many businesses wrote off legal expenses as ‘overhead’, today they are far more likely to scrutinise the cost of litigation. The emergence of the great recession, market consolidation, price pressure and the availability of real-time data have all contributed to increased accountability. Companies are eager to create best practices and create e-discovery protocols, then, use key performance indicators to determine whether their strategies are effective. Corporate legal departments and law firms have created critical positions to account for the quality of their legal operations. These positions involve competencies such as strategy, financial analysis, data analytics, technology support, data governance, records management and litigation support.
To effectively create and measure value for an organisation, it is crucial to divide its accountabilities into the three key realms of people, process and technology.
Apr-Jun 2018 issue
Epiq