NEXT
Sign in to follow

International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: Where lawyers fear to tread

Getting to grips with the disclosure of electronic documents is crucially important for every litigator. E-discovery is more than just a buzz phrase; it plays a key role in many cases. When done properly it can be the key that unlocks a case, and can save significant time and costs for your client. When done badly it can have disastrous consequences. Recent case law provides lawyers with a simple message: every party must give proper consideration to e-discovery or face adverse consequences if they do not. In this article we look at the basic rules, the new case law and provide some practical tips. We also ask the following difficult question: what do you need to know about IT to be a good litigator?
10 minute read

International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: Language barrier

Litigation and arbitration cases are increasingly becoming global in nature, and data may come from a variety of countries. There is a mixture of legislative jurisdictions involved as well as a myriad of languages and cultures - including vast differences in the maturity of attitudes towards e-discovery. In an increasingly integrated global community, with cross-border cases ever more frequent, the process of disclosure grows more complex. Documents created in any country and any language can be, and increasingly are, relevant to lawsuits, investigations or regulatory matters. Consequently, legal teams need to be fully aware of how to best equip themselves for the challenge of dealing with multilingual forms of evidence.
9 minute read

International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: A clear path

When The Ramones pleaded to be given "Shock Treatment", I somehow doubt that they were presciently pleading for help with project management issues in e-discovery. But I sense that shock is a common ailment for which some lawyers crave treatment. That shock has common symptoms: projects delivered late; inadequate budgetary reporting; insufficient explanation of problems; and multiple reporting lines. Indeed, this seems to be a global rather than a UK problem: recent Socha-Gelbmann surveys in the US reach similar conclusions.
9 minute read

International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: Sooner rather than later

The English Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) were amended in 2005 to give more clarity in respect of electronic discovery (ED), yet it was some three years later before a substantive judgment was given in this area. In Digicel v Cable & Wireless, Mr Justice Morgan highlighted the fact that the parties had not conducted a case management conference to address the subject of ED - as defined in the revised CPR 31. Clearly, most of the issues in the case should have been discussed and resolved at this stage rather than in court.The legal team spent 6,700 hours systematically reviewing around 1,140,000 electronic documents and emails. They determined that about 5,200 were relevant at a cost of around £2m. Mr Justice Morgan determined that "the rules do not require that no stone should be left unturned. This may mean that a relevant document, even 'a smoking gun' is not found. This attitude is justified by considerations of proportionality".
9 minute read

International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: Entering the spotlight

During the past six months we have met with mor than 100 law firms in the UK to discuss their current approach to e-discovery, their anticipated requirements in the context of the current economic climate and their expectation of increasing levels of disputes. We have concluded that the use of e-discovery technology for UK law has reached a tipping point whereby it will become normal practice to use e-discovery technology in relation to even relatively low value disputes.
8 minute read

International Edition

Management: Greasing the training wheels

In response to constrained budgets for 2009-10, most learning and development teams have focused on real and immediate needs and driving down costs. This has most commonly meant that career-critical training programmes have remained sacrosanct, attendances at external conferences require strong justification and the use of external training providers has been significantly curtailed.
5 minute read

International Edition

Management: Career makeover

As the effects of the economic slowdown take their toll on all aspects of UK industry, an increasingly negative atmosphere has begun to pervade the legal workplace. In a lot of firms, staff may well feel insecure about their position and feel the need to show their skills to the best of their ability, in order to become indispensable to the business and avoid possible threat of redundancy.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management: Ready, set, audit!

When law firms first considered the move to limited liability partnership (LLP) status, one of the barriers cited was, somewhat euphemistically, 'disclosure'. In reality this was the disclosure of partners' remuneration. Other aspects of disclosure were either just accepted or, possibly, not contemplated at all.
6 minute read

International Edition

The domain game

In June 2008 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced a process for applying for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). A TLD is the last part of an internet domain name; that is, the letters that follow the final dot of any domain name, including .uk, .com, .net and .org.Alongside the TLDs we have all grown familiar with, consumers and businesses will need to be aware of potentially hundreds of new suffixes. Law firms will need to be up to speed with the applications process for and the implications of the new gTLDs before this raft of new domains is introduced. Companies may well need to adapt their clients' domain name strategies in order to protect their online brands from being compromised or diluted by opportunists wishing to profit from making speculative registrations
6 minute read

International Edition

All for one?

As the economic turmoil intensifies and law firms face up to the possibility of further job cuts at increasingly senior levels, partners need to rapidly develop a more complex and subtle understanding of their partnership. Now more than ever law firms need to take a long-term view and appreciate the intricate system of fine checks and balances that partnership creates. Partnership can be a very special relationship, developed gradually over time and carefully nurtured. But it can be destroyed by careless action on the part of management, and the relationship could prove impossible to rebuild.
6 minute read

More from ALM

More from ALM

Legal Speak is a weekly podcast that makes sense of what’s happening in the legal industry.

Resources

  • Why Embracing Change Is Essential for Your Legal Department

    Brought to you by DiliTrust

    Download Now

  • International Export and Trade Assistance State Law Survey

    Brought to you by LexisNexis®

    Download Now

  • How This Personal Injury Firm Reduced Client Intake Time by 80%

    Brought to you by PracticePanther

    Download Now

  • The Hidden Cost of Bad Reviews: Why Law Firms & Attorneys Can't Afford a Damaged Online Reputation

    Brought to you by Erase.com

    Download Now