Discovery Collection Strategy: A Hybrid Approach

As in-house counsel at a large company, you just received discovery requests from opposing counsel in one of your active matters. You speak with outside counsel and decide it is time to search and collect email and documents from 20 employees and executives who are likely to have relevant information. After talking with your CIO, you have a basic understanding of the company’s IT landscape and know that each of the 20 “custodians” is likely to have data on his or her hard drive and in his or her mailbox, and possibly on network share drives and applications. You consider your collection options: send an email to all 20 custodians asking them to search for and email responsive documents to you? Hire a discovery vendor to come on-site and make sweeping copies of all those potential data sources? Or is there a better way?

Does this scene sound familiar? Collections can seem daunting, especially given the explosion of data sources and the proliferation of information that continues to accelerate dramatically. The questions can be equally daunting. What data should be collected? You know the volume of potential data — and the corresponding costs of processing, hosting, reviewing and producing that data — could be staggering. Can you devise a collection strategy that limits the volume of data collected without running afoul of your discovery obligations? In other words, can you conduct collections defensibly without breaking the bank?