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eDiscovery in the Real World: Best Practices For Imperfect and Under-funded Organizations Minnesota Government IT Symposium December 10, 2009 Session #77

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Outline <ul><li>Background </li></ul><ul><li>A real-world example </li></ul><ul><li>EDRM phases </li></ul><ul><li>Best practices – Real World – Bridging the Gap </li></ul><ul><li>Lessons Learned </li></ul><ul><li>The Future </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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About Us <ul><li>Cathy Beil </li></ul><ul><li>Records Manager at MN DHS </li></ul><ul><li>MLIS </li></ul><ul><li>2010 MN-GRIN Chair </li></ul><ul><li>Monica Crocker </li></ul><ul><li>ECM Consultant, Genus Technologies </li></ul><ul><li>MN AIIM Board Member </li></ul><ul><li>CRM, PMP </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Facts and Figures <ul><li>Email is the leading piece of evidence requested at civil trials </li></ul><ul><li>Companies have been fined millions for non-compliance with holds and discovery requests – and government is not exempt! </li></ul><ul><li>The average knowledge worker generates 25,000 emails/year (AIIM) </li></ul><ul><li>1GB of data costs approximately $20,000 to harvest, process, review, and produce (CGOC) </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Climate <ul><li>“ This past year highlighted a major trend in cases concerning issues involving the exchange of electronically stored data: an increase in judicial unwillingness to display compassion or tolerance for negligent e-discovery blunders.” ( Kroll Ontrack Case Law Update & E-Discovery News January 2009 v. 9 Issue 1) </li></ul><ul><li>“ NightOwl Inc., which handles paper and electronic discovery for law firms and companies engaged in litigation, has seen its electronic-storage business increase 600 percent over the past two years.” ( MSP Business Journal , March 27, 2009) </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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A Real World Example… <ul><li>Multi-million dollar multi-year contract cancelled, lawsuit/s ensued </li></ul><ul><li>Hundreds of staff had contact with the project </li></ul><ul><li>Millions of responsive electronic documents and emails </li></ul><ul><li>Plus all the software code </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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A Real World Example… <ul><li>No Records Manager </li></ul><ul><li>Litigation Hold implemented via email </li></ul><ul><li>Identifying custodians was challenging </li></ul><ul><li>Collection instigated by disaster – flooding </li></ul><ul><li>Largest hold and collection DHS has ever implemented </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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A Real World Example… <ul><li>Collection via Outlook mailbox folders, network drive folders, a secure server </li></ul><ul><li>Parties agreed to small group of core custodians </li></ul><ul><li>Vendor contracted to scan paper for core custodians (116,000+ pages) </li></ul><ul><li>Initial relevance review using hosted service </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Discovery Process Steps <ul><li>Triggering Event (anticipated or filed) </li></ul><ul><li>Freak out </li></ul><ul><li>Identify responsive data </li></ul><ul><li>Freak out </li></ul><ul><li>Place litigation hold on responsive data </li></ul><ul><li>Freak out </li></ul><ul><li>Collect responsive data </li></ul><ul><li>Freak out </li></ul><ul><li>Process and review responsive data </li></ul><ul><li>Freak out </li></ul><ul><li>Produce responsive data </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Information Mgmt <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Records management policies in place </li></ul><ul><li>Litigation response procedures in place </li></ul><ul><li>Eliminate duplication </li></ul><ul><li>Backups used for disaster recovery only </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>What’s records management? </li></ul><ul><li>No SOP for litigation response </li></ul><ul><li>Many copies stored in many different places </li></ul><ul><li>Records regularly recovered from backups </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Information Mgmt <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Technology solutions in place that support RM policies </li></ul><ul><li>Training and audits to ensure compliance with policies & procedures </li></ul><ul><li>Legal, IT, and RM understand each other’s work and act as partners </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>RM policies not automated or supported by technology </li></ul><ul><li>RM policies exist…but no one knows about or follows them </li></ul><ul><li>Legal, IT, and RM don’t know each other or how to work together </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Information Mgmt <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Comprehensive data map in place </li></ul><ul><li>Policies and procedures regularly reviewed and updated </li></ul><ul><li>Policies regarding content ownership clearly defined </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>No way to know where responsive data might be </li></ul><ul><li>Retention schedules exist, but aren’t followed or up to date </li></ul><ul><li>Staff feel they own the content they create or store </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Identification <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Taxonomy and metadata in place </li></ul><ul><li>A place for everything and everything in its place </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>No standard naming conventions or categorization </li></ul><ul><li>No standard storage structure </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Identification <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Clear content ownership </li></ul><ul><li>Records management policies are a starting point for findability </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>Unclear responsibility for content </li></ul><ul><li>No connection between RM policies and content organization </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Preservation <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Activate established hold procedures </li></ul><ul><li>Hold in place </li></ul><ul><li>Appropriate storage media; migrate if necessary </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>Identification problems lead to patchy hold notification </li></ul><ul><li>Data held but can’t be retrieved </li></ul><ul><li>Might have to collect just to ensure preservation </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Preservation <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Appropriate file formats – don’t degrade! </li></ul><ul><li>Ensure adequate security </li></ul><ul><li>Maintain audit trail and chain of custody </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>Efforts to preserve degrade metadata (e.g.. Office formats to PDF or paper) </li></ul><ul><li>Access to responsive data not controlled; can’t prove it wasn’t changed </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Collection <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Activate established collection procedures </li></ul><ul><li>Leverage enterprise tools </li></ul><ul><li>Integrate with processing and production tools </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>Have to recreate / re-determine collection process each time </li></ul><ul><li>Buy tools that might have been unnecessary with better RM infrastructure </li></ul><ul><li>Hasty = Wasty </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Collection <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Isolate collected data from active data </li></ul><ul><li>Communication </li></ul><ul><li>Data ownership communicated and understood </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>Creation of a collection area within active systems – collected data unsecured </li></ul><ul><li>Custodian obliviousness </li></ul><ul><li>Unprepared to deal with ownership conflicts </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phase: Processing <ul><li>Best Practice </li></ul><ul><li>Utilize automated tools (OCR) </li></ul><ul><li>Identify active vs. inactive content </li></ul><ul><li>Seamless integration </li></ul><ul><li>IT and Legal determine details together </li></ul><ul><li>Reality </li></ul><ul><li>Overspend on manual processing time </li></ul><ul><li>Process inactive content without determining if it’s necessary </li></ul><ul><li>Each repository has to be addressed separately </li></ul><ul><li>Legal doesn’t understand the technology, IT doesn’t understand Legal’s needs </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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EDRM Phases: Review, Analysis, Production, Presentation <ul><li>We’re not lawyers—talk to them about techniques </li></ul><ul><li>Know when to use in-house vs. outsourced services </li></ul><ul><li>Good tools available </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Add-ons to ECM solutions </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Stand-alone solutions </li></ul></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Bridging the Gap December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Bridging the Gap <ul><li>Start learning about RM – make it someone’s responsibility – then implement policies, procedures, and audit compliance as you can </li></ul><ul><li>Legal, IT, and RM need to talk! </li></ul><ul><li>Build data map as cases come up </li></ul><ul><li>Educate staff – they’ll generate helpful ideas and projects </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Bridging the Gap – Cont. <ul><li>Develop SOPs for identification of custodians and responsive data </li></ul><ul><li>Establish a Litigation Response Team </li></ul><ul><li>Do an initial data survey/inventory </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Prioritize </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Work through it in Phases </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Clarify who is responsible for content and attach ownership information to the content </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Bridging the Gap – Cont. <ul><li>Establish SOP for litigation holds ASAP </li></ul><ul><li>Include documentation that SOP were followed </li></ul><ul><li>Learn about data spoliation and degradation and prevent it! </li></ul><ul><li>Track preserve actions – even if it’s not perfect! </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Bridging the Gap – Cont. <ul><li>Standardize (and document!) processes </li></ul><ul><li>Remind staff that you own the content they create and store on your systems </li></ul><ul><li>Regulate external storage – email, USB drives, PDAs, etc. </li></ul><ul><li>De-clutter </li></ul><ul><li>Explore enterprise search tools </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Lessons Learned in the Real World… <ul><li>Being proactive is best, but every case will involve some reactivity </li></ul><ul><li>No organization is perfect – learn/standardize as you go! </li></ul><ul><li>Document, document, document </li></ul><ul><li>Hey IT, Legal, and RM: educate each other! </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Hidden Benefits (yes, really) <ul><li>eDiscovery efforts can dovetail or support other efforts </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Disaster Recovery Planning </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>HIPAA Compliance </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Data Practices Compliance </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Public Data Requests </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Records Management policies, esp. retention </li></ul></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Hidden Benefits, cont. <ul><li>A Data Mapping Exercise might actually reduce costs </li></ul><ul><ul><li>For storage/system support/maintenance </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>By revealing existing data that can be used to make processes more efficient </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Good excuse to instigate collaboration between IT, Legal, Compliance & Business </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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The Future… <ul><li>Hosted services provide opportunities </li></ul><ul><li>Agency resources for discovery response are limited (RM, IT, Legal) </li></ul><ul><li>Experience is the best teacher </li></ul><ul><li>Staying current with best practices and case law is a full time job </li></ul><ul><li>Shared service model could provide benefits </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Resources <ul><li>Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) www.edrm.net </li></ul><ul><li>Sedona eDiscovery Principles www.thesedonaconference.org </li></ul><ul><li>ARMA www.arma.org </li></ul><ul><li>AIIM www.aiim.org </li></ul><ul><li>Compliance, Governance, and Oversight Council (CGOC) www.cgoc.com </li></ul><ul><li>Mimosa’s eDiscovery Resource Center http://www.ediscoveryresourcecenter.com </li></ul><ul><li>Fios’ Discovery Resources www.DiscoveryResources.org </li></ul><ul><li>K&L Gates www.ediscoverylaw.com </li></ul><ul><li>Kroll Ontrack http://www.krollontrack.com/publications/ </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World

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Thank you! <ul><li>Questions? </li></ul><ul><li>[email_address] </li></ul><ul><li>[email_address] </li></ul>December 10, 2009 eDiscovery in the Real World