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Allysia Edwards

eDiscovery History: Welcome to Throw-back Thursdays!
 

I was recently teaching a project management class at a large law firm, and a student mentioned that he was working on a case that involved a very old document collection, some of which only existed on microfiche. He asked me for advice on managing the conversion of those documents and incorporating them into his bigger-picture project. 

I watched as another student turned to her laptop and started typing.  She was quite young and looked a bit confused, or maybe inquisitive, I suspected she was Googling “microfiche”.  I was right.  And it made me chuckle.  I asked for a show of hands… she was not the only one in the room who didn’t know what microfiche was. Since I, of course, could quite handily speak on the subject, it got me thinking about just how long I’ve been working in this field, and about how much things have changed. 

I wondered if it would be useful for some of the younger folks in eDiscovery to understand the history… to know how original litigation support databases were built, to know how they were used, and to know a little bit about the older technology that was employed.  Except for the rare case where legacy methods are an issue, I concluded that it’s probably not particularly helpful… but it might be interesting, and it might be fun to look back. So, we’re starting a “Throw-back Thursday” blog series, where we’ll go back in time and I’ll tell you a bit about how things used to be.

In this series, we’ll talk about the ‘litigation support’ culture and industry in the old days, about the technology that was used, about the processes for building databases, how databases were searched, how documents were retrieved, and the evolution of the process between those old days and now. So tune-in next week for discussion of the litigation support industry, circa 1980 (and even a little before that).

Please let us know if there are eDiscovery topics you’d like to see us cover in eDiscoveryDaily.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Professional Profile: Do You Know Duane Lites?

This blog is the first in a series aimed at helping you to get to know your peers better.  Each week I’ll give you career highlights of a law firm or corporate law department eDiscovery professional.  Today’s profile is on Duane Lites – an eDiscovery and Litigation Support veteran.

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Duane is the Director of Litigation Support at Jackson Walker LLP, located in the firm’s Dallas office.  Jackson Walker is one of the largest ‘all Texas’ firms with 350+ lawyers in seven offices located throughout the state.  Duane has been with the firm since 2007.

Duane manages the firm’s Litigation Support department, which offers litigation support and eDiscovery services to all the firm’s litigators.  The department does its own eDiscovery processing, manages document reviews, provides trial graphic services, provides litigation support consulting services and on occasion provides forensics services. Duane manages the day-to-day operations of the department, trains and manages the staff (located in 4 of the firm’s offices), develops and implements department policies and procedures, consults with litigators, and procures and implements technology based on the practices and needs of the litigators.

In the mid 1980s Duane worked as a computer programmer at an oil and gas company in Dallas.  His boss left to take a position at a litigation support vendor, and convinced Duane to join him there in 1986.  Duane’s first work in litigation support was on a large asbestos case, working with a paper collection of about 500,000 documents (that was a huge case in the 1980s!). He worked converting key-punched data into load-ready form for the vendor’s timeshare system. Over time, he moved into working more with the databases and was heavily involved with integrating images with databases when that technology was first implemented in the industry. Between then and starting at Jackson Walker, Duane worked at two other law firms in Dallas and also spent some time with a few Litigation Support vendors and consulting organizations to round out his experience.  Over time he realized that his preference was being in a firm, assisting and working directly with litigation teams, understanding their needs, and finding solutions to their problems.

The move to Jackson Walker was a good one for Duane. He has buy-in at all levels. Litigators through the firm’s executive managers support his efforts, trust his judgment, and provide the resources he needs to optimize the department’s value to the firm.

One of the most valuable things Duane has learned in his years as a litigation technology professional is that ‘relationship’ is critical to the success of a litigation support department and to effectively marketing litigation support and eDiscovery services within a firm. To be successful you really need to understand what the lawyers are doing and what they need.  The best way to do that is to develop good relationships with them.

His biggest challenge today is managing resources with workflow — the workflow is increasing at a faster pace than the resources are, and managing that can be tricky.  One of his initiatives for this year is to get everyone in his department cross-trained, thereby giving him more flexibility in allocating resources.

Throughout his career, Duane has been active in professional organizations and endeavors.  He is a past president of the Dallas Fort Worth Association of Litigation Support Managers, a member of ILTA, on the editor board of the Litigation Support Today publication, and a co-founder of the popular Yahoo Group, The Litigation Support List.  Started in 1998, the list has grown its membership to over 9,000 litigation technology professionals. Duane still maintains and monitors the list.

Duane was born and raised in Texas and has been in Dallas for almost 30 years.  He is a history buff.  In his spare time he researches American history, builds military dioramas, and enjoys antique shopping with his wife. He has recently taken up restoring antique desk fans, circa the early 1900s. He also enjoys golf, sporting events, and spending time with his family.

He’ll be at the upcoming annual ILTA conference in Nashville in August.  Say hello or introduce yourself if you haven’t yet met him. Duane always enjoys meeting peers in the litigation support and eDiscovery community.

Please let us know if there are eDiscovery topics you’d like to see us cover in eDiscoveryDaily.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Useful eDiscovery Information Resources: Evaluating Products and Services

This blog series – Useful eDiscovery Information Resources – is aimed at giving you information on resources available to eDiscovery professionals… resources aimed at education regarding eDiscovery and resources aimed at keeping professionals up to date regarding the latest and the greatest in the industry.  The first posts in the series can be found here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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For quality and efficiency purposes, most law firms and corporate law departments standardize on an approach to eDiscovery:

  • They create best practices for how eDiscovery will be handled.
  • They create guidelines for what tasks and volumes of materials will be handled in-house and what will get out-sourced to a service provider.
  • They standardize on a limited number of in-house tools that they’ll use for processing and reviewing eDiscovery.
  • They create a short list of approved online review tools that they’ll use when in-house resources aren’t sufficient for a project.
  • They’ll create a short list of approved service providers that they’ll use for various eDiscovery and litigation support services.

Selecting in-house tools to purchase and creating these service and product “approved lists” is not an easy task.  Done properly, it can take a lot of time.  And it’s not a one-time thing.  Products and service providers need to be routinely reviewed to ensure that they continue to be a good fit, and new technology and service providers should be evaluated.

As a first step, you need to ensure you really understand what the firm needs and wants, and you also need an understanding of the firm’s culture and its clients.  You need to have a good handle on the size of the cases handled by the firm, what attorneys expect of a product or a service, and what selection criteria is most important to the firm (is it price? Quality? Turn-around time?).  And of course, in this initial step, you may find that you have to educate yourself about emerging technology, and likewise educate the attorneys in your firm so that they make the right decisions regarding needs and wants.

Once you’ve got your selection guidelines in place, there’s the tedious task of evaluating and selecting the right products and the right service providers for your organization. You’ll rely on your own experience.  You’ll contact peers in the industry and get opinions from them.  You may post questions on the various internet forums to which you belong.

There are also a couple of web services that can help you here:

  • Apersee:  Developed by George Socha & Tom Gelbmann (the guys behind the Socha-Gelbmann Electrionic Discovery Survey and the EDRM), Apersee is a system for selecting e-discovery providers and products. This statement from the website’s About page best summarizes how it works: “The Apersee Selection Engine allows consumers to choose the criteria that matter most to them, assign priorities to those critera, evaluate the results, and modify their searches… “  Click here for more information on Apersee.
  • eDJ Matrix:  Created by eDJ Group Co-Founder Greg Buckles, the eDJ Matrix is an interactive, dynamic tool that provides information on and evaluations of eDiscovery solutions – both products and services. Click here for more information on the eDJGroup and the eDJ Matrix.

These resources can save you a lot of time – the folks behind these tools have done a lot of the leg-work for you. These tools can really help to narrow down the product and service provider candidates that are a good match for your firm.

I’ll be back next week with the next post in this resources blog series.  In the meantime, let us know if there are specific topics you’d like us to cover.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Careers: Achieving Success as a Non-Attorney in a Law Firm: Find/Make the Right Environment, Part 1
 

Last week, I introduced a new series regarding achieving success as a non-attorney in a law firm.  One key to achieving success is being in an environment that permits it. In the next posts I’m going to talk about the type of environment that fosters growth and success. Let me make it very clear, however, that I am NOT suggesting you look at these posts and decide that it’s time to call a recruiter! There are a few things you should keep in mind as you read the first few posts in this series:

  • It is unlikely that any firm is going to be the perfect environment.
  • Even if you determine your firm may not be the best place to attain your ultimate goals, it may be exactly what you need today.  It may be the right place to develop essential skills that you’ll need.
  • If things aren’t in place at your firm today that would make it the right environment, that could be an opportunity rather than a negative. I’ll expand on that a bit later in the series.

So, my purpose in talking about “the right environment” is not to encourage you to start shopping around.  I’m discussing this so that if and when the time does come for you to move on, you can use these points as a guide for assessing firms you are considering:

  1. How significant is the litigation practice to the firm?  If litigation is a small part of the firm’s overall practice, that could hinder your chance for senior level status.  You’ve got a better chance of being noticed if you are working in a practice area that is very significant to the firm.
  2. How widely used is technology in the firm?  This is becoming less and less of an issue — especially at large firms.  Occasionally, however, I still run into firms that have a fair number of attorneys who just don’t want to use technology.  Don’t be concerned specifically about the use of litigation support technology.  If the attorneys are technically solid otherwise, this could be an opportunity rather than a negative.
  3. How aggressive is the firm’s marketing?  This is an indication that the firm recognizes the need to be competitive and has taken steps to do so.  Does the firm highlight litigation support and electronic discovery services in its marketing to potential clients?  If it doesn’t, this might be an opportunity rather than a negative.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue with additional things to look at when assessing an environment. So, what do you think?  Do you have suggestions for what to look for?  Please let us know or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Careers: Achieving Success as a Non-Attorney in a Law Firm — Introduction
 

In the 30+ years that I’ve been working in litigation, I’ve seen a dramatic change in law firm culture and operations.  Let me start with what it was like way back when:

  • Law firms thrived simply by having talented attorneys with winning records.
  • Law firms got business based almost exclusively on the relationships that partners had with clients.
  • It didn’t matter if law firms were behind the rest of the world with regard to technology use.  Clients didn’t care.
  • Clients didn’t pay too much attention to bills.  Attorneys were expensive and that’s just the way it was.

This meant that law firms didn’t have to operate efficiently.  They did legal work, they billed their clients, they got paid, and they got more business.

How times have changed!  Here’s what it’s like today:

  • Clients pay close attention to the costs of legal representation. 
  • Clients want to know how much legal services will cost.  They want to know what they’ll be paying for.  They want to know what type of people will be working on their cases and how much those people cost. 
  • Clients dictate what they will pay for and what they won’t.
  • Clients want to know what technology will be used.   
  • Clients scrutinize bills and they question costs that they think are excessive or didn’t expect

In short, clients have forced law firms to be competitive, to do marketing, and – most significantly – to be efficient.  Clients are forcing law firms to operate like the rest of the business world.

This shift in operations and culture means more opportunities for non-attorney professionals.  Law firms today need more than talented attorneys.  They also need talented business, technology, and marketing professionals.

Today, I see more and more non-attorneys attaining senior level positions and high compensation levels in law firms.  I see non-attorneys treated as equals by senior partners in law firms.  I have also, though, seen very talented people who haven’t climbed that ladder of success in a law firm.  The difference doesn’t always come down to knowledge and skills.  To achieve that success, we have to do more than be good at our jobs.  That’s what I’ll be focusing on in this blog series.  I’ll walk you through some steps you can take and techniques you can employ that will increase your odds of grabbing that brass ring. Specifically, we’ll cover six general topics:

  1. Find/make the right environment
  2. Know your stuff
  3. Make yourself well-known
  4. Make yourself critical
  5. Expand what you do
  6. Master some good habits

Next week, we will begin talking about finding/making the right environment.  See you then!

So, what do you think?  Have you gotten to the position you’ve sought in your firm?  Do you have tips you can share?  Please let us know or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Trends: Making the Most of LegalTech
 

It’s that time of year… LegalTech® New York is right around the corner.  People are talking about it, making plans to get together, scheduling demos and meetings, and deciding which parties to attend.  Newbies to the show are excited to go.  More seasoned attendees are looking forward to seeing peers.  It’s a great time to catch up with people and it offers a great opportunity to keep abreast of new industry trends and technology advancements.

Is there a downside? Well, yes, there is.  Attending the show costs money (travel expenses, lost billings, or both).  And more significantly, it eats up one of our scarcest resources:  time.  Some years I’ve questioned whether it was worth it.  Other years, it’s been obviously valuable.  Interestingly, the difference has not had anything to do with the show itself, but rather with my approach to it.  So let me suggest an approach for making the most out of your next LegalTech show.

  1. Establish one or two primary objectives:  Determine what you want to accomplish or what you want to learn, and make those your objectives.  For example, maybe you don’t have experience with predictive coding and want to learn more about it.  Or maybe it’s been awhile since you’ve looked at document review tools and it’s time to re-evaluate them.  Identify specific objectives to focus on.
  2. Identify conference sessions to attend:  Look at the conference schedule and identify sessions aimed at the objectives you’ve established.  Put them on your calendar.
  3. Identify vendors with products and/or services aimed at your areas of interest:  Review the exhibitor list, go to vendor web sites, and make a list of vendors of interest.  Identify the exhibit booths you’d like to visit, and identify the vendors with whom you’d like to meet.
  4. Schedule demos and meetings:  To ensure you meet your objectives, schedule meetings and/or demos with a few vendors. 
  5. Prepare lists of questions:  You will get the most out of meetings/demos with vendors if you are armed with a list of specific questions.  For each of your objectives, identify the questions you should be asking.
  6. Keep good records:  At the show, take good notes and collect contact information.  You will be meeting a lot of people and it will be very difficult to remember everything you’ve learned if you’re not taking good notes!
  7. Take advantage of the networking opportunities:  Get together with peers and talk about what they are doing, what tools they are using, and what approaches they’ve implemented.  Introduce yourself to people you don’t know.  Casual conversations in social situations can be invaluable!
  8. Commit to reporting on what you’ve learned:  Before the show, commit to preparing a report on your findings.  You are more likely to stay focused on your objectives if you’ve committed to reporting on them.

If you haven’t approached LegalTech with this type of plan yet, you may be surprised at what a difference it can make!  Do the up-front leg work, enjoy the show, and make it a good use of your time!

So, what do you think?  Are you ready for LegalTech?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Marketing a Litigation Support / eDiscovery Department within a Law Firm: Closing Thoughts
 

In the past few weeks we’ve talked about various marketing techniques and mechanisms that — in my experience — work well in a law firm.  In closing, I have just a few additional thoughts I’d like to share with you on the subject.

  • Whether you realize it or not, everyone in the department is involved in marketing.  Your clients’ interactions with department members form their impression of your services.  Everyone in the department, therefore, is contributing in a positive, neutral, or negative way to marketing.  Work with the members of your department to ensure that everyone is contributing in a positive way.  Make sure that everyone is projecting a spirit of cooperation and an eagerness to help.
  • You want your clients to see you as a peer.  You don’t want to be viewed as “the help”.  You want the relationship to be one of partnership.  How do you make this happen?  First, practice the techniques we covered for building good relationships and for providing suburb customer service.  Next, be confident in what you know and what you can do.  You are the expert.  You want your clients to see you as such.  And last, project the right image.  Look and act like you belong in your client’s environment.  
  • Always remember that everyone you talk to in the firm is a potential customer or has links to a potential customer.  So every interaction you have should be viewed as a marketing opportunity.
  • Make this a goal:  Everyone in the firm will know who you are, what you do, how you can solve their problems, and how they can reach you.

I hope you enjoyed this series on marketing litigation support services within a law firm.  Let us know what you think.  And be sure to let us know if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Marketing a Litigation Support / eDiscovery Department within a Law Firm: Keeping Existing Customers, Part 2
 

In the last post in this series, we began talking about marketing techniques for keeping the customers you have.  The first point we covered was continuously reminding your customers of the services that you offer.  The second thing you need to do is to look for new ways to help the customers that you have.

You have a significant advantage here… you know the litigation process, you know how attorneys work, and you know what they need.  In short, you know what’s coming.  Be proactive.  Anticipate what your clients will need and let them know how you can help.  And if their needs are outside the scope of what you do, determine if that work should and could be within the scope of your offerings.  You may uncover ways to expand your department’s services.

The last – and probably most effective – way to keep existing customers is to provide suburb customer service.  All the time.  Without fail.  You need to treat your clients well; you need to get them what they need, when they need it; and you need to make it very easy and painless for your clients to work with you.  Establish customer service guidelines for your staff and establish top priorities for the department.  At a minimum, the department’s priorities should include meeting deadlines, delivering high quality work, and effectively communicating with clients.

Customer service guidelines include things like making sure that it’s easy for clients to reach you and being responsive to phone calls and email.  You need to make sure your staff is trained in dealing with clients.  For example, make sure that everyone on your staff knows the right way to respond if client is unhappy about something.

Tomorrow, we’ll conclude this blog series on Marketing a Litigation Support / eDiscovery Department within a Law Firm.  Let us know if you’ve got any questions or comments.  And be sure to let us know if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Marketing a Litigation Support / eDiscovery Department within a Law Firm: Keep Existing Customers, Part 1
 

Yesterday, we concluded our discussion about getting new customers.  Today, we begin discussing how to keep the customers you already have.

Getting repeat business from your clients is essential.  If every client only used your services once, at some point you’d be out of business.  You need to focus, therefore, on getting repeat business.  There are three things you should be doing: 

  1. Continuously remind your customers of the services that you offer.
  2. Look for new ways to help the customers that you have.
  3. Focus on providing premier customer service. An attorney will not use your services a second time if he or she was not happy with the service you provided the first time!

Let’s start with reminding your customers about the services that you offer.  Don’t let them forget that you are available to help them.  Many of the mechanisms we covered in the posts on Getting New Customers apply here too.  Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Make sure that all of the clients for whom you’ve done work are on your newsletter distribution list.
  2. Invite them to presentations that you’ve got scheduled.
  3. Contact them when you see they have a new case and ask how you can help.
  4. If you see an article that is relevant to a client, forward it with a personal note.
  5. Pick up the phone and call an attorney for whom you’ve done good work and ask how they are doing, what they are working on, and if you can help.
  6. Be visible.  Be everywhere.  Attend every firm event that you can.  Eat lunch in the firm dining room.  Walk around and schmooze.  Of all the points on this list, this one is the most important.  Everyone is familiar with the saying “out of sight, out of mind”.  Don’t be either!

Next week we’ll continue talking about ways to keep the customers that you have.  In the meantime, we’d really like your input on how you’ve approached marketing in your firm.  How much marketing do you do, and what’s worked well for you?  Please share any comments you might have or let us know if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Marketing a Litigation Support / eDiscovery Department within a Law Firm: Getting New Customers, Part 5
 

Last week, we started talking about techniques and mechanisms for one-on-one marketing to individual attorneys and litigation teams in your firm.  Here are a few more tips:

  • Be enthusiastic about what you do.  It’s contagious and it will get others excited about your offerings.
  • Be prepared for objections.  If you’ve been working with attorneys for a while, you know what objections might be raised to using your services and products.  Be prepared to address them.  Some of the repeated objections I’ve encountered are:
    • “My client won’t pay for this”:  Be prepared with cost information and cost analyses and comparisons.  You know that what you do fosters efficiency and saves money in the long run, so have the information you need to demonstrate that.
    • “Only an attorney can do this”:  Be prepared to describe a process that will make them comfortable and ensure them that substantive decisions and answers remain in the hands of attorneys.  Have testimonials from other attorneys in the firm that rave about how well it worked for them
    • “I tried that once and it was a disaster”: You may face some attorneys who have had a prior bad experience with the services you offer.  The costs may have been out of hand, deadlines may have been missed, or a database may have not been useful.  Be prepared to discuss the mechanisms that are built into your approach for controlling costs and meeting deadlines.  Be prepared to discuss the planning and design steps that you take to ensure that a database will be useful.  Be prepared to discuss the approach you take to monitoring service providers to ensure that they live up to the commitments they make.
  • Provide references.  When you’ve done good work for someone, ask if they will serve as a reference, and have references on hand for potential new clients.
  • Make “Getting that first sale” your primary objective.  Don’t try to sell them the whole ball of wax.  Identify what they need right now and focus on that.  Focus on solving an immediate problem.  If you get your foot in the door with one task and you do a good job, getting them to buy off on future work will be easier.  And, don’t give them too many options unless that’s necessary.  You are the expert and you know the best options.  If you give them too many options, the decision will be harder to make.

So far, we’ve covered several mechanisms and techniques getting new customers.  Tomorrow we’ll start talking about techniques and mechanisms for keeping your existing customers. 

In the meantime, we’d really like your input on how you’ve approached marketing in your firm.  How much marketing do you do, and what’s worked well for you?  Please share any comments you might have or let us know if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.