E-discovery and litigation for CIOs

This guide is part of the SearchCIO.com Executive Guide 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 Executive Guide section.

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Customized e-discovery tool lightens litigation load

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[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; 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.

   Find out more in "Customized e-discovery tool lightens law firm's litigation load." Also:

• New book and toolkit preps companies for legal e-discovery (SearchStorage.com)
  E-Discovery and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: A Pocket Guide claims to be "a concise expert guide" to the updated Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that now includes all electronically created documents. The book gives storage managers a very general understanding of how to find and hold documents that may be relevant to a lawsuit, and coaches them on how to create enforceable storage policies before there's even a hint of possible litigation.
• Snapshot: E-discovery confidence dips from last year (SearchStorage.com)
  E-discovery requests continue to rise. Sixty-three percent of our survey respondents have been asked to perform a legal or compliance request -- up from 57% one year ago. And backup tape continues to be the most likely place the data can be found.

E-discovery more than just litigation insurance

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[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.

   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

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[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.

   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

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[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, execute holds to preserve evidence and collect data for in-house and outside legal counsel.

   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.

New rules of engagement for e-discovery

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[Info-Tech Research Group]

The revised U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure came into effect Dec, 1, 2006. These rules set forth guidelines for the discovery of electronic evidence in civil cases; for example, if someone is suing or investigating the enterprise. This legal development presents an opportunity for enterprises to be more proactive about document archiving and records management strategies.

The Letter of the Law

The e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure put new pressure on IT departments to cooperate with legal authorities. The amendments' goal is to control the length and expense of the data e-discovery process by defining the process or protocol beforehand, as well as to circumvent potential e-discovery disputes later in the trial. Applying to all cases filed and pending after Dec. 1, 2006, the main changes were:

1. Rule 26: An IT manager or representative from IT will be required to attend preliminary discovery meetings between lawyers from both sides. The purpose of this meeting will be to agree upon the discovery process and to build a plan for the discovery and disclosure of data.
2. Rule 34: Previously, enterprises only had to deliver evidence in PDF form. However, converting a file to PDF erases the metadata attached to it, and metadata is now a focus of investigation as well. The native format of the original file is to become the default standard for submission.
3. Rule 37: This amendment pertains to the immediate halt on an enterprise's document destruction policy when faced with an ongoing lawsuit. This process is called "legal hold" and is intended to preserve electronic evidence.

   Learn more about this in "Avoid lawsuit nightmares: New rules of engagement for e-discovery." Also:

• Bad behavior (CIO Decisions magazine)
  Email policies, as well as those for blogs and IM, show your users what they can do on their office laptop -- and in the process can reduce your company's risk.
• Lawyers discuss e-discovery gotchas (SearchStorage.com)
  During panel sessions at Legal Tech, lawyers provided their insights into the e-discovery process, retention policies and helping judges get up to speed.

More resources

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