August 27th, 2010
Law firms and corporations know that managing e-discovery is no fairy tale. But when the plot thickens in a case, uncovering ESI can seem downright villainous. That’s when our managed services can be your knight in shining armor. Let’s look at the four options for handling e-discovery:
1) Case by Case –Essentially a new contract with different providers to manage each case.
2) Preferred Providers – Law firms and corporations set up one or more “preferred provider” relationships.
3) Managed Services – A single contract with a full-service provider.
4) Build It – You build your own e-discovery solution internally.
Read between the lines (of our white paper) and you’ll find that case-by-case solutions are the most inefficient and expensive option. While the preferred providers option may provide more cost efficiency and risk mitigation than case-by-case, you still have to manage multiple e-discovery service providers. In comparison, managed services is the most compelling. It’s the only option to provide long-term repeatability, efficiency and low cost. Of course, you could choose the “handyman” approach and try to build your own e-discovery solution. But this will require the most time and money of all. And considering that the final results are uncertain, the build-it option rarely has a happy ending for litigators on tight deadlines.
Tags: corporate counsel, e-discovery, law firms, Managed Services
Posted in Electronic Discovery, Industry Trends, Managed Services | No Comments »
July 1st, 2010
We recently read Adrian Dayton’s blog about law firms using social media. He explains that while in-house counsel have embraced channels like blogs and Facebook, law firms are still figuring out when to arrive to the social media party. The arguments against social media that law firms used a few years ago aren’t valid today. Lawyers may think that none of their clients are using these new media channels or that in-house counsel doesn’t really spend time reading blogs, but the truth is spreading like wildfire:
- 27 percent of in-house counsel surveyed by Greentarget said blogs published by lawyers are among the “most important” factors in their hiring decision
- 43 percent read blogs as a primary source of news
- 50 percent agree or somewhat agree that lawyer-authored blogs will influence the process by which clients hire law firms in the future
Dayton also points out that lawyers in the 30 – 39 age group are exploring social media more extensively than their older counterparts. These “power users” are likely the future General Counsels (GCs) of major corporations. In fact, 35 percent of the thirty-something lawyers surveyed said they’d used Facebook for professional reasons in the last 24 hours and 54 percent had visited a blog in the past week. The 40 to 49 and 50 to 59 age groups aren’t far behind, with 25- and 24 percent (respectively) citing social media channels as their leading source of news and information. These two keywords – “news” and “information” – are critical to determine the relevance of a social media site. If a firm’s blog or Twitter account displays only self-centered sales pitches, they can’t expect to hold the attention of in-house counsel or other clients. Sharing information and growing community are key aspects of building social media infrastructure.
Curious to see what social media channels we’re a part of? Follow us on Twitter, “Like” us on Facebook and revisit this blog often for the latest company and industry info.
Tags: corporate counsel, e-discovery, law firms, social media
Posted in Industry Trends | No Comments »
June 24th, 2010
In what might be one of the most unfortunate booth placements in recent memory, Nuix was directly across from Clearwell at Legal Tech LA this week. Every time I walked by, the Nuix team was handling a crowd that was oftentimes two or three people deep.
We first looked at Nuix a year or so ago, and while it was powerful and fast, the interface left a great deal to be desired in terms of general “friendliness.” The new interface is much better, but I’d still have a hard time turning attorneys loose on it. At this point, Clearwell owns the advantage in user friendliness, while Nuix (according to their numbers) appears to have the advantage in ingestion and indexing speed.
What will happen next? We may be looking at the next Concordance/Summation situation. It’s likely to be Nuix and Clearwell wrestling for the early case assessment (ECA) higher ground. Whether IPRO and LexisNexis are in an ideal position — or are simply too late — to leapfrog Nuix and Clearwell remains a mystery for now.
Tags: Clearwell, e-discovery, Legal Tech, software
Posted in Clearwell, Electronic Discovery, Trade Show Recaps | No Comments »
June 16th, 2010
A new era of e-discovery service delivery is upon us. The goals of the e-discovery process remain relatively constant: win the case at the least possible cost while mitigating risk. The change will be in how corporations and law firms procure services. Until recently, the e-discovery battle has been primarily a “feature war.” Service companies built their own software and competed based on the notion that “our tool can do something other tools can’t.” Buyers spent their time evaluating software capabilities. Robust, market-leading software is now ubiquitous and freely available – and more is coming. Now the game is: “Who can build the most effective, defensible process around best-in-class software?” – in order to maximize the potential efficiencies. The winning service companies are going to be the ones who best define processes and who invest intelligently in people and infrastructure. Just as with ERP implementation and management, it will generally not make sense for law firms and corporations to make these investments – though of course some will try, and most will fail. Rather, the current market conditions and trends suggest the next three to five years will be characterized by both corporations and law firms outsourcing the e-discovery function via managed services and retaining relatively lean teams in-house to provide oversight. The e-discovery equivalents of Accenture, EDS and Perot Systems will be born.
Tags: e-discovery, software
Posted in Electronic Discovery | No Comments »
April 29th, 2010
Having been an EED software user for some years, I read Law Technology News’ article on E-discovery tools with some interest. While I agree with the author’s assessment about core code in tools, I don’t believe that the underlying code should be the prime differentiator for making purchase decisions. In much the same way that Apple has carved out a piece of the computing market by building software which allows complex tasks to be handled easily, the measures for software purchase can be explained by combining usability with insight into the processing function. In other words, pay attention to the front end.
It would be easy to believe that processing speed is the differentiator. I know people that focus on megapixels when they buy digital camera equipment, but after the images are recorded, does the camera actually render a decent image? I believe the same can be true for processing software. It may run quickly, but does it provide reporting and other insight that help present the “best picture” of processing to the client?
So, while tools may rely on similar software to process data, nothing will substitute for a front end that allows the operator to understand what’s really going on with the data. Are there password protected files? Are there zip files that can’t be opened? Are there other forms of corrupted files? The ability to account for every single file received with a Chain of Custody form is of prime importance if a vendor wants to be seen as a responsible and diligent provider.
If you were to build a data processing tool, what new components would you include?
Tags: e-discovery, Law Technology News
Posted in Electronic Discovery, Relativity | No Comments »
April 6th, 2010
Welcome to the SFL Data blog! For the past twelve years, you may have known us as San Francisco Legal or SF Legal. Starting today, our new company name is SFL Data. You know the saying, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet?” Well, we have news for you – this one smells sweeter. We chose this name to more accurately communicate our national reach and reflect our ongoing dedication to data services, including the investments we’ve made in people, processes and infrastructure over the last few years. Business will proceed as usual for SFL Data and our clients. If you have questions not answered by our FAQs, please contact Christian Lawrence at 415-392-2900 or email him at Christian@SFLData.com. Remember to add us to your reader or blogroll and visit us often for in-depth posts on all facets of litigation support and e-discovery from preservation through production.
Tags: e-discovery, new name
Posted in Electronic Discovery, Paper Discovery, Project Management | No Comments »
Law firms and corporations know that managing e-discovery is no fairy tale. But when the plot thickens in a case, uncovering ESI can seem downright villainous. That’s when our managed services can be your knight in shining armor. Let’s look at the four options for handling e-discovery:
