Custodian interviews are a valuable opportunity to satisfy preservation obligations, gather discovery intelligence, and disseminate litigation information. Key custodians, representative custodians, and departmental custodians should be interviewed. Questions should focus on who they are, what they do, how they communicate and store information, and whether they understand preservation obligations. Answers can be documented through conversational interviews, scripted interviews, or automated questionnaires. The results of custodian interviews can be leveraged to validate preservation efforts, prioritize collection and processing, and customize document review.

1. CUSTODIAN INTERVIEWS
MAXIMIZING A VALUABLE OPPORTUNITY

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4. SPEAKERS
 Matthew Verga, J.D.
– Director, Content Marketing and eDiscovery Strategy,
Modus eDiscovery Inc.
– Matthew Verga has spent the past eight years working in
electronic discovery, four years as a practicing attorney with an
AmLaw 100 firm and four years as a consultant with national
electronic discovery service providers. Matthew has personally
designed and managed many large scale electronic discovery
efforts and has overseen the design and management of many
more as both an attorney and a consultant. As a consultant,
Matthew has counseled substantial companies and law firms
at both the matter and the enterprise level.
– As the Director of Content Marketing and eDiscovery Strategy
for Modus eDiscovery Inc., Matthew is responsible both for
enterprise-level consulting engagements and for the creation
of articles, white papers, webinars and workshops in support
of Modus’s thought leadership efforts.

5. SPEAKERS
 Gary Torgersen, CCE, EnCE
– Manager of Forensic Services, Modus eDiscovery Inc.
– A seasoned forensics expert, Gary Torgersen possesses more
than 12 years experience in the eDiscovery and digital forensics
industry. He stays on the cutting edge of technology to meet
the needs of his clients, including creating custom collection
processes and platforms and developing proprietary technology
assisted review programs and workflows.
– As Manager of Forensic Services for Modus eDiscovery, Gary
oversees and manages the Modus Forensics and Collections
department. Gary oversees and conducts data collections,
performs computer forensic analysis, and provides reporting, in
conjunction with clients and Modus Project Management and
Data Management teams. Gary also testifies in court on behalf
of clients, and is responsible for preparing affidavits and giving
depositions.

6. PROGRAM AGENDA
 Why They Matter
 Who to Interview
 What to Ask
 How to Document Answers
 When to Leverage the Results
 Key Takeaways
 Questions and Answers

7. WHY THEY MATTER

8. WHY THEY MATTER
 Three main reasons:
– Satisfying preservation obligations
– Gathering valuable discovery intelligence
– Disseminating important litigation information
 Satisfying preservation obligations
– Custodians are key information sources
– They know what exists
– They know where it is or is likely to be

9. WHY THEY MATTER, CONT.
 Valuable discovery intelligence
– Direct information regarding
o Device usage
o Software usage
o File storage practices
o Backup practices
o Communication practices
– Relative priority of people and sources
– Likely content (form and substance) of sources

10. WHY THEY MATTER, CONT.
 Information dissemination
– Disinformation and rumor common
– Opportunity to directly disseminate details and answer questions
– Opportunity to ensure hold understanding and compliance
– Opportunity to get face to face with key individuals

11. WHO TO INTERVIEW

12. WHO TO INTERVIEW
 In general, three buckets to be filled:
– Key custodians
– Representative custodians
– Departmental custodians
 Key custodians
– Who they are
– Why they matter
– Priority

13. WHO TO INTERVIEW, CONT.
 Representative custodians
– Who they are
– Why they matter
– When they are used
 Departmental custodians
– Who they are
– Why they matter
– How they differ

14. WHAT TO ASK

15. WHAT TO ASK
 Introduction to script concept
 Script development process
– Participants
 Use of templates or previous scripts as starting point
 Tailored to respondents

16. WHAT TO ASK, CONT.
 Who they are
– Identity, role, and connections
 What they do
– Activities, materials used, and materials generated
 How they do it
– Paper, hardware, software, and other tools or systems

17. WHAT TO ASK, CONT.
 With whom they communicate
– Internal and external, related to the matter, other suggestions
 How they communicate
– E-mail, text, voice, chat, paper, etc.
 Whether they understand and will comply
– Meaning of hold, meaning of interview, meaning of compliance

18. WHAT TO ASK, CONT.
 Device information
– Computers, mobile devices, storage devices/media, etc.
 Usage and practice information
– Software tools, file formats, local/network/cloud storage, etc.
 IT systems information
– Backup practices, janitorial functions, search and retrieval options, etc.

19. WHAT TO ASK, CONT.

20. WHAT TO ASK, CONT.

21. WHAT TO ASK, CONT.

22. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS

23. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS
 Three main approaches:
– Conversational interviews with manual recordation
– Scripted interviews with formatted recordation
– Automated “interviews” and recordation
 Conversational interviews with manual recordation
– Simplest and most traditional, one-on-one
o Can be started quickly and with little cost and allows you to speak with every
custodian
o BUT, yields inconsistent notes that are less useful and is time consuming when
custodians are numerous

24. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS, CONT.
 Scripted interviews with formatted recordation
– Closely follow a detailed script
– Record answers in a structured way to speed aggregation and enhance
utility
– Options include PDF forms, spreadsheets, and pre-formatted text
documents
o Yields more consistent, useful information, and multiple interviewers can conduct
identical interviews
o BUT requires more time and expense to start and is time consuming when
custodians are numerous

25. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS, CONT.
 Automated “interviews” and recordation
– No one-on-one interviews (at least initially)
– Electronic questionnaires or web-based surveys
o Easily scales to accommodate numerous custodians, produces consistent, easily-
used information, and custodians can be asked to sign and certify their answers
o BUT requires the most time and expense to start and there are none of the
peripheral benefits from speaking to all of the custodians

26. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS, CONT.

27. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS, CONT.

28. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS, CONT.

29. HOW TO DOCUMENT ANSWERS, CONT.

30. WHEN TO LEVERAGE THE RESULTS

31. WHEN TO LEVERAGE THE RESULTS
 Validation of preservation
– Confirm assumptions made about the appropriate scope of
preservation (i.e., what individuals, departments, and systems to
include) or to adjust that scope, if needed
– Confirm that all relevant individuals have understood, are complying
with, and will continue to comply with the preservation requirements
– Confirm that all relevant automated janitorial functions or back-up
media recycling have been identified and suspended

32. WHEN TO LEVERAGE THE RESULTS, CONT.
 Prioritization and organization of collection and processing
– Sources most likely to contain relevant data or documents can be
identified and prioritized ahead of all other sources.
– Sources unlikely to contain relevant data or documents can be
identified and excluded from collection and processing.
– The quantity and diversity of sources requiring collection and
processing can be determined and leveraged to inform decisions
regarding collection methodologies.

33. WHEN TO LEVERAGE THE RESULTS, CONT.
 Prioritization and customization of review
– The data and documents from the sources most likely to contain
relevant materials can be identified and prioritized ahead of the data
and documents from all other sources.
– Qualitative information from the custodians about the relevant
materials can be provided to the reviewers to enhance the quality and
efficiency of their review.
– Advance knowledge of privilege prevalence (and other content
attributes) can be used to inform better decisions about who should
review a particular set of materials and how they should be reviewed.

34. KEY TAKEAWAYS

35. KEY TAKEAWAYS
 WHY
– Preservation obligations
– Discovery intelligence
– Information dissemination
 WHO
– Key custodians
– Representative custodians
– Departmental custodians
 WHAT
– Identity
– Activities
– Communications
– Compliance
 HOW
– Conversational
– Scripted
– Automated
 WHEN
– Preservation
– Collection
– Review

36. Q / A