Corporate legal teams face unique challenges. On the one hand, they must operate as a business unit with budgetary responsibilities and management of processes and technology. On the other hand, they are practicing law, which lends itself to being more reactive and subjective. Those sometimes competing priorities were prominent in a recent survey of in-house counsel. Their top concerns were retaining more work, conducting early case assessments, improving information governance, and controlling spending.
Balancing the business and legal side and mitigating these concerns is part of eDiscovery. It’s the intersection of the law, technology, and information governance. By shifting eDiscovery in-house, you can reduce costs and boost productivity while meeting legal needs.
If you’re ready to move forward with in-house eDiscovery, the roles on your team will be instrumental in your success. These are the five that are essential.
1. eDiscovery Expert Attorney.
eDiscovery expert attorneys have deep knowledge of all the rules and complexities associated with electronically stored information. An in-house staff needs at least one eDiscovery supervising counsel. This role will be a key decision-maker on processes and workflows as you shift eDiscovery to an internal function.
Lawyers with eDiscovery expertise should be part of the team that evaluates eDiscovery software and determines if it will meet your needs. These attorneys would serve as the leaders of an in-house eDiscovery team, overseeing all activities and requests.
2. IT Coordinator/Liaison.
Any time you implement new technology, IT support is necessary. It will be less so if you choose a software-as-a-service application that’s cloud-hosted. However, an IT expert still needs to be in your top five team members.
Their expertise comes into play when assessing your network and its ability to manage eDiscovery software. They’ll also be instrumental in data privacy and security matters. Those in this role should be well-versed in application and infrastructure management. They should also know and deploy cybersecurity tactics to ensure the most secure environment for eDiscovery.
3. Processing Personnel.
Processing data is a major part of eDiscovery. One of the outcomes of using eDiscovery software is reducing the amount of data you have to process. Automated processing that can handle multiple media, custodians, job types, different data types, and intelligent error management are the areas of focus for this team.
Each case will be different, so having processing experts will be helpful in workflow creation.
4. Review Personnel.
Review is the most tedious and expensive part of eDiscovery. After processing, analyzing, and culling, you’ll have a smaller number of documents to review. If doing this manually, you’ll never make headway. eDiscovery platforms can provide full-featured, AI-powered review. With technology assisted review and continuous active learning, you can expect to reduce review data by 90% with the right eDiscovery platform.
Some manual review will always be necessary. Depending on the case, attorneys and/or paralegals may participate in the review process. The critical responsibilities of this group are to understand how the eDiscovery platform automates review and then develop workflows for individual assessment. These workflows will be pivotal in ensuring you meet deadlines.
5. eDiscovery Platform Expert.
Finally, your eDiscovery team needs a software expert. This expert doesn’t require specific expertise on one platform, but rather, they need broader experience. This person will understand the pros and cons of different solutions and offer advice on the most critical features to align with your processes and requirements.
When evaluating software options, this person should take a primary role, providing insights to the greater team about how to best implement, deploy, and scale the solution.
Build Your Team. Find Your Solution.
Building an eDiscovery team to bring the activities in-house is an excellent first step. Once these members are in place, it’s time to assess the options on the market. To help you do this, read “The Ultimate Guide to eDiscovery Platforms” today. You’ll learn all you need to know about eDiscovery software to navigate your journey ahead.
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