A quick discussion and reference guide for small law firms to review and consider ESI processing options.

1. MerlinOne, Inc. 17 Whitney Road Quincy, MA 02169 Phone: 617.328.6645 Fax: 617.328.9845 www.merlinone.com
Small Law Firm ESI Processing Solutions
Standard Office/Home Computer Applications (minimum geekiness required):
Outlook, MS Office: PLUS - familiarity, zero/little cost. MINUS - lost/changed metadata, inability to search
effectively or timely, misses some hidden portions.
Inexpensive COTS (commercial off the shelf) software (higher level geekiness required):
- Adobe FTK Imager (free - use for imaging hard drives).
- Trident Lite (free - use for a "quick peek" at PSTs).
- QuickView Plus ($40) is good for viewing native files if you don't have the software.
- Bulk Rename Utility (free - great for adding DocIDs to the front of native file names or general renaming
tasks)
- Advanced Directory Printer (about $30) is a great way to generate a list of files & some metadata.
- Pinpoint Lab's Metaviewer (if you can still find a free copy) is good for viewing internal metadata of MS
Office files.
- IPRO
Summation vs. Concordance: Both are very easy to download. Summation is a bit harder to load and run.
Both load the same PST file from EDRM in about the same amount of time and indexed it similarly. With both
it is easy to re-sort the data, add fields to capture additional information, and re-size the windows to make the
navigation panes smaller and the viewing pane larger. Both offer text view and near native view. Both have
online help and seminars. Both have certified trainers around the country who will provide consulting services
to get you up and running. Both have networked versions.

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MerlinOne, Inc. 17 Whitney Road Quincy, MA 02169 Phone: 617.328.6645 Fax: 617.328.9845 www.merlinone.com
Summation iBlaze Concordance
30 day free evaluation Yes Yes
Stated number of Users >100,000 >70,000
User reported #files limitations 100,000 500,000
Parent company Access Data (recent) LEXIS-NEXIS
Cost per installation (w/o negotiation) $2,750 + $550/year $4,200 + $840/year
Appliance Type S/W LAW Pre-discovery from LEXIS-NEXIS – Multiple monthly license options, $1,000-
$5,000 per month. Serious tech skills and time required to load, operate and extract. You supply and support
hardware.
Local Litigation Support Companies
Many in NYC area. They offer scanning, copying, printing, binding, bibliographical and logical coding,
forensics, processing, hosting, production, trial presentation prep and consulting on all of these. No investment
or technical skills required. You are going to pay more. See me for specific recommendations for lit support
companies with whom I have experience but no affiliation.
SaaS (Software as a Service) Multiple vendors: Plus - usually relative to individual cases and clients. Minus
- many levels of complexity and learning curves. Pricing models can be confusing and almost impossible to
predict. Often combinations of per GB, per file, and per image depending on the stage of the process.
Top Ten Reasons One May Choose To Use a Hosted Digital Asset Management System (“DAM”)
1. You need a DAM, but have limited or over-taxed internal IT support.
2. You don’t want to spend money upfront for hardware or to continue to spend money to add more storage.
3. People may need to add content easily from distant locations and they do not have access to your internal
networks.
4. Several offices or affiliates or even the public may need access to the assets through the Internet.
5. Consistent monthly payments of a hosted DAM.
6. Fast ramp-up time of a hosted system.
7. Your DAM will always be available 7x24.
8. Tech Support troubleshoots problems 24/7 without your involvement.
9. Not necessary for you to know how a fault-tolerant system works.
10. No need for multiple servers occupying your office workspace.
Not-All-Inclusive List of Resources:
ABA Lit Support Software Comparison http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/charts/litsupportchart-final.pdf
Electronic Discovery Reference Model http://edrm.net/
The Sedona Conference http://www.thesedonaconference.org
E-Discovery for Everybody: The Edna Challenge. Craig Ball http://www.craigball.com/
E-Discovery – Employment Law Collection http://www.craigball.com/
Reason- ED Greg Buckles http://reason-ed.com/Reason-eD/
Michael Arkfeld’s E-law Exchange http://www.elawexchange.com/
LinkedIn Groups – Small Firm e-Discovery, EDRM
Yahoo Groups – litsupport
Georgetown Law e-Discovery Blog http://www.law.georgetown.edu/cleblog
Ralph Losey Blog http://e-discoveryteam.com/
George Socha Consulting http://www.sochaconsulting.com/
Legal Tech http://www.legaltechshow.com/