E-discovery and litigation guide for CIOs

This guide is part of the SearchCIO.com CIO Briefing series, which is designed to give IT leaders strategic guidance and advice that addresses the management and decision-making aspects of timely topics. For a complete list of topics covered to date, visit the CIO Briefing section.

Table of contents

  Customized e-discovery tool lightens litigation load Table of Contents

[Linda Tucci, Senior News Writer]

Like most good-sized law practices, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP is in the knowledge management business. The 600-attorney firm tracks millions of documents housed in multiple repositories.

"You cannot hire enough people to read this stuff;...

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you can barely host it," CIO Sherry Lalonde said.

Cooley Godward has been a dealmaker in Silicon Valley since the 1950s, when it formed Raychem and chipmaker National Semiconductor Corp. The firm earned its chops in biotechnology in the 1980s, taking Genentech Inc. and Amgen Inc. public. And it seems to have adroitly exploited the tech boom of the 1990s, when it took 230 companies public.

For several years now, the firm has used MindServer Legal from Recommind Inc. to help rationalize its vast stores of data. The San Francisco-based vendor's "concept" search tools sit atop all of Cooley's repositories. The technology retrieves material based on the criteria provided by the lawyer. The query often goes well beyond finding a document, or an author or a date range with a title, Lalonde said. The lawyers are after the heart of the material -- the concepts or intent that underlie the metadata.

  [IMAGE] Find out more in "Customized e-discovery tool lightens law firm's litigation load."

  E-discovery more than just litigation insurance Table of Contents

[Elisabeth Horwitt, Contributor]

Electronic discovery (e-discovery) is viewed by most businesses as a form of litigation insurance: a means of satisfying the information demands of litigators and government regulators in a timely and cost-effective fashion. This only makes sense, as no company wants to suffer potential multimillion-dollar judgments or regulatory penalties.

More and more corporate IT executives, however, are beginning to use e-discovery internally for a different purpose: to fill the increasingly complex and costly internal information needs of their own end users.

E-discovery products use data classification and search techniques that vendors claim are far more sophisticated than simple keyword searches used in most archiving systems, and even powerful Web search engines like Google Inc.'s. The results are better organized corporate data and more accurate search results.

  [IMAGE] Learn more in "E-discovery more than just litigation insurance." Also:

• E-discovery must be a team effort (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
  IT managers at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) wear a lot of hats, but lawyer shouldn't be one of them. To ease the burden of e-discovery challenges at SMBs, business and IT alignment is crucial.
• E-discovery rules double-edged sword for CIOs (SearchCIO.com)
  The new rules regarding e-discovery show a growing appreciation for the vastness and value of electronically stored data. But don't expect them to make your job easier.

  Legal discovery: The CIO's role Table of Contents

[Michael Rasmussen, Consultant, SearchStorage.com]

Organizations can face significant consequences from doing business with companies and individuals involved in unethical business practices. However, many are unfamiliar with the regulations governing these transactions and have not assigned responsibility within the organization for ensuring compliance with them. Download this Expert Webcast to understand the requirements of legal discovery and what role the CIO should play in establishing data retention policies and ensuring legal discovery requirements can be met.

Listen to this Expert Webcast to learn how your IT department can work with business units to meet these government regulations and to understand the CIO's role in legal discovery in the event of a violation.

  [IMAGE] Find out more by listening to "Legal Discovery: Identifying the CIO's Role in Safeguarding the Business: An expert webcast." Also:

• New rules, new game for compliance and e-discovery (SearchStorage.com)
  The updated Federal Rules of Civil Procedure set new standards for electronically stored information, and may have a significant bearing on how your company manages its digital documents. Some of the country's top legal experts weigh in with suggestions on how to create retention policies that can keep your company on the right side of the law.
• Strategies for creating effective e-discovery policies: An expert webcast (SearchCIO.com)
  Discover the emerging best practices for e-discovery and learn about integrating business, legal and compliance needs with effective IT and storage strategies.

  Firms bridging the gap between IT and the law Table of Contents

[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]

Email and instant messages: They're evidence.

Because of it, IT organizations and lawyers have to collaborate more than ever. And since lawyers bill by the hour, CIOs might want to hire someone who can talk to them.

"It's a classic problem. IT doesn't understand lawyers, and lawyers don't understand IT," said Debra Logan, research vice president at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc., adding that businesses will increasingly hire professionals with combined IT and legal backgrounds.

Indeed, this new crop of professionals, called litigation support managers, will possess a combination of legal and technological expertise that will allow them to make a company's processes for data retention and e-discovery more effective and efficient. She said they will create and maintain inventories of information assets, advise legal counsel on e-discovery and litigation issues, execute holds to preserve evidence and collect data for in-house and outside legal counsel.

  [IMAGE] Learn more in "Firms bridging the gap between IT and the law." Also:

• IM, blogs next target for litigation (SearchCIO.com)
  In litigation, email is still the No. 1 target of subpoenas for electronic records. But IMs and blogs are easily targeted, too, and need attention.
• Blog rules: Best practices to keep you in business -- and out of court (SearchCIO.com)
  Author Nancy Flynn of the ePolicy Institute offers the first five of her 10 best practices-based tips on how to make the most of corporate blogs.

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