Litigation Readiness
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Transcript of Litigation Readiness
Allison Brecher, Marsh & McLennan Co.Hilary Lane, NBCCheryl Strom, McDonaldsBruce Whitney, Air ProductsDominic Jaar, Bell Canada
Identifying Risk Areas Developing a Solution “Selling” it to Management
Telecommunications – Dominic JaarFood Services – Cheryl StromMedia/Entertainment – Hilary LaneFinancial Services – Allison BrecherIndustrial – Bruce Whitney
Need for Uniformity and Cost-effective Solution to
E-Discovery
Built a custom solution to manage legal holds and document preservation Created a short webinar for outside counsel describing our systems and capabilitiesPreparing web-based training for employees involved in a legal hold
Emphasize cost savings, both on outside counsel spend and reducing riskEvaluated products on the market and assessed cost of and time involved in building a custom solutionThe e-discovery rules will likely catch on outside the US…better to be prepared now
Cost control in a new environment
E-discovery is still at its early stage in CanadaHigher management sees it as an extraordinary situation where they would rather spend the money on a case by case basis rather than invest in education, processes and toolsMeanwhile, the legal department’s budget is not increased while the expenses relating to e-discovery soar
Benchmark peer companiesCreated a Steering CommitteeEducate each other and management about e-discoveryHandle legal hold notices and prioritize technology investments
Compliance with Legal Hold PolicyGetting employees to understand their responsibilitiesMaking the process easier for in-house counsel
Employee training and certificationCurrently testing various solutions to more easily search for relevant ESI
Improving communications while promoting e-discovery
awareness and enhancing technology capabilities
Established working group of litigators and IT personnel to collect documents, monitor/prioritize, consider best practices Hire IT personnel dedicated to e-discoveryNew software
Starting from scratch
Sweeping changes in e-discovery obligations required:
creation of uniform procedures major technology investments
Purchased two software products to classify records on a company-wide basis and implement legal hold noticesCurrently developing e-discovery extranetConsidering selection of single firm to handle e-discovery issues
Many employees join company via acquisitionNeeded to develop cohesive and uniform records management strategy
Developing internal website based on Sharepoint with access given to records managersWebsite used to
maintain and revise records retention policiesfacilitate communication among different subsidiaries identify confidential data
Explosion of the volume of e-docs transformed litigators in records collectors and analystsLitigators spent a great deal of time
dealing with IS/IT understanding the infrastructure interviewing custodians
Developed a clear process to handle e-discovery by delegating different tasks to IS/IT, RM, security, etc. Put in place a semi-automated litigation hold procedure supported by interview forms
Legal Searches for Electronic InformationNeeded a way to search and preserve electronic information
Identified and evaluated various e-discovery solutions that would enable paralegals/attorneys to search electronic information across all repositories (including web-content) and preserve potentially relevant informationParalegals/attorneys would be able to cull out potentially relevant information before exporting to outside counsel for additional review