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NEWS
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ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY
e-Discovery Readiness and Response Team
Electronic discovery and information management are serious problems faced by many organizations today. Akerman has developed an interdisciplinary team approach, including both attorneys and information technology specialists, to solve these problems. This new approach is needed because there has been a dramatic change in writing and documents in the past two decades. The evidence needed to prove or defend a law suit is no longer found on paper and is no longer located in filing cabinets. Instead, today it is nearly all digital - zeros and ones - and is stored in a disorganized manner in very complex networks of computers. Moreover, the volume of this electronically stored information (ESI) is staggering. The typical Fortune 500 Company has more information in its systems than the world's largest libraries.
As a result, attorneys today, especially those involved with litigation, must not only understand the law, and the facts of a dispute, but also the organization’s computer systems and data retention practices. They must have the skills to preserve, identify, collect, review, and produce ESI. This has never been taught in law schools and are skills that most trial attorneys lack As a consequence, for the past several years e-discovery has been excessively expensive and risk filled. So much so that in December 2006 and 2008 New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence were enacted to try to address the problems created by the discovery of ESI. Still, these new tools will only work in the hands of skilled attorneys.
Akerman was one of the first law firms to recognize the problem and invest in creating a team of attorneys and techs who work only in this area. These new e-discovery team members have devised strategies and methods to use the new rules and protect Akerman clients against runaway e-discovery costs.
The leader of Akerman's team, Ralph C. Losey, is a nationally recognized expert in this field, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida School of Law on this subject, and author of the American Bar Association's two best selling books on electronic discovery: Introduction to e-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques (2009); and, e-Discovery: Current Trends and Cases (2008). Ralph also publishes a personal, popular weekly blog on e-discovery - e-Discovery Team. Ralph and other members of the Akerman e-Discovery Team are active participants in The Sedona Conference and frequent speakers at e-discovery conferences and CLEs around the country.
The Akerman team uses a threefold approach to control e-discovery costs and risks: Teams, Metrics and Strategic Cooperation. First, we empower our clients by helping them to form their own interdisciplinary e-discovery response teams. Where needed, we also help train our client teams to perform many of the functions necessary to manage e-discovery internally. Trained teams have a proven track record of dramatically reducing the costs of e-discovery, some by as much as 90%. Clients who have already established e-discovery teams are assisted on an ongoing basis by our service as a team coach and national coordinating counsel. As national counsel we advise on e-discovery related issues in all law suits, help maintain consistency and accuracy of positions, and appear in local courts as needed. As e-discovery team coach we assist our clients in improved designs of ESI preservation and collections systems, records management policies, ESI storage architecture, and the purchase of e-discovery related software and vendor services.
Second, regardless of whether our clients have established an internal team, we can help them to respond to litigation and other demands to preserve and produce ESI in a cost controlled manner. We do that with our second approach of metrics and quality controlled project management services. A key ingredient of the metrics project approach is use of an e-discovery cost estimator spreadsheet we have developed. It allows for accurate projections of e-discovery costs before they are incurred and while there is still time to seek protective orders from the court. This estimation tool, when used in connection with other new IT/Law systems and methodologies that Akerman has developed, allows for timely opposition to excessive demands for production of ESI.
The third approach Akerman follows to control costs and risks is strategic cooperation. We avoid unnecessary, costly disputes with opposing counsel on what should be, if properly understood, simple technical issues. Akerman thus follows the Cooperation Proclamation developed in late 2008 by The Sedona Conference. This cooperative approach has been endorsed by leading judges around the country and other e-discovery industry leaders. Cooperation on basic e-discovery issues is possible with understanding and technical competence. Strategic cooperation from a position of strength is a key component to cost containment and risk management.
The Akerman e-Discovery Team can provide a number of services that employ these costs-savings approach, including:
| ● | The creation, retention, collection, review and production of documents in complex litigation, including metadata and privilege screening |
| ● | Compliance with new state and federal rules of procedure governing electronic discovery, spoliation and ethics |
| ● | Litigation assessment of data and information systems |
| ● | Litigation hold procedures; creation, communication and compliance monitoring |
| ● | Industry specific requirements, such as Medical Records, HIPAA, OSHA, IRS, SEC and other regulations |
| ● | Evaluation and retention of outside Experts and Consultants for litigation support and pre-litigation analysis |
| ● | Pre-Litigation Technical Reviews: Data Surveys and assessment of a company's practices in place regarding the use, retention, storage, preservation and destruction of records, including its records management policies and schedules |
| ● | White collar criminal defense of Sarbanes-Oxley, and obstruction of justice charges |
Akerman can provide the solution your company needs today to the e-litigation issues of tomorrow.
Akerman e-Discovery Team Brochure
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