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LitWorks 2011 Training Schedule

tbonk — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:37:01 +0000

Document Technologies, Inc. (DTI), the nation’s largest independent provider of comprehensive discovery and on-site facilities management services, and its wholly-owned training company LitWorks™, has released LitWorks’ 2011 course schedule. Next year’s schedule includes four Certified Litigation Support Professional Training courses and one Certified Litigation Support Project Manager Training course, with additional sessions to be added for the second half of 2011.

The LitWorks™ Certified Litigation Support Professional Training is a four-day course offering industry best practices learned through hands-on experience, networking with peers, and reviewing leading software tools. The course is designed for professionals with one to five years of litigation technology support experience or for litigation paralegals, document review attorneys and legal IT professionals. This course is being offered:

January 17-20, 2011 (Atlanta)
February 28 – March 3, 2011 (Atlanta)
May 9-12, 2011 (Chicago)
June 20-23, 2011 (Atlanta)
Additional 2011 dates TBA

The LitWorks™ Certified Litigation Support Project Manager Training is a three-day course that focuses on sharpening litigation support project management skills and techniques. Attendees receive practical resources and tools, including checklists and templates that can be immediately applied to their daily work as a litigation support project manager. This course is being offered:

March 21-23, 2011 (Atlanta)
Additional 2011 dates TBA

LitWorks is among the industry’s premier providers of formal training courses specifically developed for litigation support professionals. The company also offers a Certified Litigation Support Manager Training course that focuses on a mix of business skills, litigation support, e-discovery and technology, and is designed for litigation support supervisors, managers and directors looking to build or grow their departments to better compete in today’s litigation environment. 2011 dates for this course offering are to be determined.

To register for these or any upcoming LitWorks training courses, visit www.LitWorks.net.

About LitWorks™

LitWorks™, a DTI Company, is a leading provider of comprehensive training programs for litigation support professionals in AmLaw 200 law firms and Fortune 500 corporate legal departments. For more than five years, LitWorks™ has been dedicated to developing and sharing best practices in the litigation support industry through a variety of consulting and training services.

About DTI

Document Technologies, Inc. (DTI) is the nation’s largest independent provider of facilities management services and comprehensive discovery solutions, servicing clients through offices in more than 20 markets across the U.S. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, DTI delivers end-to-end solutions for electronic discovery, including forensics, data acquisition, processing, and an array of hosting platforms to meet a variety of litigation support needs. In September 2010, DTI acquired e-discovery industry pioneer Daticon EED to further strengthen its position as a leading discovery services provider. DTI clients include both top law firms and Fortune 500 corporations nationwide. For more information, visit www.DTIGlobal.com.

Advising your case teams on production formats

esantiago — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:38:01 +0000

When it comes to working with your case teams to meet document production deadlines, it helps to take a proactive approach. First, production formats are often unique to each firm based the litigation technology they have available. If you are a Concordance shop, then you don’t really want your attorneys to agree to delivering and/or receiving data as a Summation “briefcase.”A “best practice” for your firm may not be the desired production format for your opposing counsel. Litigation Support Professionals on staff should be engaged to determine what is the best production format or easiest-to-work-with-format for your firm whether you are the producing party or the receiving party. Then you should prepare your attorneys to be able to negotiate in your firm’s (and the client’s) best interests at the discovery conference.

Being proactive can be as simple as a production strategy meeting with your case team as early in the lifecycle of the matter as possible or taking the “edu-marketing” approach where you and your litigation support team address document production best practices for your firm at a lunch n learn training session for your paralegals & attorneys.

Proactive Preparation:

Define your firm’s production format best practices based on the technology you have available. Draft a “cheat sheet” for your attorneys to take with them to discovery conferences.

EDRM and elawexchange.com both provide direction and definitions:

Resources for consulting with your case teams regarding document productions:

Ralph Losey video: “Paper or Plastic” – a fun discussion of production formats
An example of what NOT to do can be found here

We discuss document productions, the best formats and production technology management in our LitWorks CLSP and CLSPM classes.

LitWorks News & Events

esantiago — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:56:20 +0000

Erika Santiago, National Training & Development Manager for LitWorks™ – A DTI Company will be the guest speaker at the June 17 ASDFED chapter meeting in Atlanta, GA.

To register for the event, please visit The American Society of Digital Forensics & eDiscovery website here.

The topic will be:

“Developing Standard Operating Procedures for Managing eDiscovery & Digital Forensics”

Erika will also moderate the Association of Litigation Support Professionals – Atlanta Chapter meeting on June 16th. The expert panel discussion topic will be

“Cost Containment Strategies & Best Practices in E-Discovery”

To register for this event, please visit the ALSP website here.

Case Law Summaries or When Things Don’t Quite Workout the Way You Planned

esantiago — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:33:38 +0000

As Litigation Support Professionals, sometimes it helps to have a story about what happens when e-discovery best practices are not followed. It helps us to understand the end result of the work we are typically involved in earlier in the lifecycle of a matter. The ESI processing (or conversion) that we are managing today will become next week’s document review database and later a production deliverable. The decisions about the form of production are often made by the attorneys well before we get involved in the matter and it has been my experience that many of the discovery disputes or mishaps could have been avoided had a Litigation Support Professional been engaged earlier in the litigation matter. But that’s a discussion for another post on another day… Earlier this week, someone asked me for a list of cases or case examples that present teachable moments regarding sanctions, preservation & collection, document productions, etc. I thought it would be useful to list a few of the websites that offer a neutral summary of recent cases as examples of what not to do in e-discovery. (I wish someone would start a site that shares case examples of when things go well…..)

E-Lessons Learned
K&L Gates – Electronic Discovery Law
Arkfeld’s E-Law Exchange
e-Discovery Team
Quarles & Brady’s E-Discovery Bytes
Post Process Blog EDD Bibliography

There are many other sites that provide case law summaries, these are just a few.

What Will I Learn in the CLSP Class?

esantiago — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:17:07 +0000

Recently, we were asked the question: What will I learn if I attend the LitWorks CLSP class? Generally, we like to address this question individually so as to make certain that this is the right training option to meet individual learning objectives… but sometimes, it helps to have something in writing to think about before speaking with one of our trainers.

Here’s a more detailed overview of our LitWorks Certified Litigation Support Professional training class… let us know if you have questions. The next class is scheduled for April 20 – 23, 2010. Register here.

Attendees will learn:

Litigation Management Concepts
Discovery Project Management Methodology
How to Assist Case Teams with Responding to Electronic Discovery Requests

Workshops Include:

The Corporate Perspective – Litigation Readiness Planning & Execution: Every corporations’ business model is different so asking questions about how your firm’s clients manage ESI is increasingly important. We will discuss what information LSPs should know in order to make the best recommendations for how data will be managed in litigation later in the discovery process
Cool Tools & Technology Overview: Our training program is vendor & technology agnostic, however we will discuss and provide attendees with information regarding the role technology plays in litigation, the types of litigation technology available and discuss what is bleeding edge vs. tried & true technology.
Introduction To Electronic Discovery Best Practices & Concepts: Our advanced attendees will appreciate the “train the trainer” delivery of this topic while our less experienced attendees will gain a strong foundation of what makes e-discovery so special… in the end, it’s all just discovery.
Managing & Responding To Discovery Requests: LSPs often participate on case teams in a consultative role, this workshop teaches how to address technology questions at every stage of the discovery workflow
Litigation (EDD) Case & Project Management: Attendees will learn how to apply project management methodologies and traditional litigation support case management techniques
Managing Internal & External Resources: Attendees will learn how to assess their internal organization resources and identify, manage and build relationships with both internal & external resources.
Defining The Role & Responsibilities Of Litigation Support Professionals: This discussion addresses the varied structures of litigation support departments and the role LSPs play in law firms, government agencies and corporate legal departments
Overview of Traditional Litigation Support Techniques & Strategies: Paper still exists in discovery and it would be almost negligent not to train today’s litigation support professionals on what to do with it in managing discovery. We address how many of the best practices developed over the last 25 years in paper discovery can still be applied to litigation projects today.
Database Design Methodology: LitWorks is software agnostic and we believe that the tools are not as important as the process. In this workshop, we define the process and goals of the database to learn how to make the best technology application decisions for our case teams
Strategies For Managing Transcripts: Attendees will learn about the various ways transcripts are used in litigation and trial, how to manage them and make them available to case teams for searching and reporting
The Lifecycle Of A Matter: Many of our attendees come from an IT background so we make sure we start class on the first day with an overview of what happens in litigation, the objectives of the case teams and how technology can be applied to every phase in the litigation lifecycle.
Effective Billing, Cost Containment & Cost Recovery Best Practices: Discussed in greater detail in our manager & director level class, we provide an overview of goals, objectives and best practices that are working in the industry today

Announcing LitWorks Spring Training Schedule

esantiago — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:39:55 +0000

LitWorks™ Announces 2010 Spring Course Schedule

Lineup includes a special one-day e-discovery workshop in Chicago

ATLANTA – February 24, 2010 – Document Technologies, Inc. (DTI), the nation’s largest independent provider of legal support services and document outsourcing, and its wholly-owned training company LitWorks™, today announced LitWorks’ 2010 spring course schedule along with a special training event being held next month in Chicago, IL. The E-discovery Management Workshop will take place on March 23, 2010 at DTI’s newest Regional Technology Center in the heart of downtown Chicago by LitWorks’ Training Director Erika Santiago.

The one-day Chicago seminar is designed for litigation support professionals and litigation paralegals and will focus on developing project management skills for electronic discovery. Participants will learn how to plan and manage e-discovery projects, cost containment and budgeting techniques, and develop a checklist for scoping and change management.

Additionally LitWorks, the first and most comprehensive training company dedicated to developing and sharing best practices in the litigation support industry, is offering the following two courses this spring:

LitWorks Certified Litigation Support Manager Training is being offered March 9-11, 2010. The three-day course focuses on a mix of business skills, litigation support, e-discovery and technology and is offered to litigation support supervisors, managers, and directors seeking to build or grow their departments to better compete in today’s competitive litigation environment.

LitWorks Certified Litigation Support Professional Training will be offered April 20-23, 2010. This is a four-day course offering industry best practices learned through hands-on experience, networking with peers, and reviewing leading software tools. The course is designed for professionals with one to five years of litigation technology support experience, or for litigation paralegals, document review attorneys and legal IT professionals.

To register for these or any upcoming LitWorks training courses, visit www.LitWorks.net.

LitWorks is among the industry’s premier providers of formal training courses specifically developed for litigation support professionals. The company also offers a three-day Certified Litigation Support Project Manager Training course, focusing specifically on project management skills. Last year LitWorks also announced the addition of custom Web-based training courses for law firms and corporate legal departments.

DTI delivers a full range of electronic data discovery solutions including data collection, processing, Web hosting and review, along with traditional paper-based litigation support services and comprehensive facilities management services at locations throughout the U.S.

About LitWorks™

About DTI

Document Technologies, Inc. (DTI) is the nation’s largest independent provider of legal support services and document outsourcing, servicing clients through offices in 22 markets across the U.S. DTI delivers end-to-end solutions for electronic discovery including forensics, data collection, processing and an array of hosting platforms to meet a variety of litigation support needs. The company also provides facilities management and traditional paper-based litigation support services. DTI services both top law firms and Fortune 500 clients. For more information, visit www.DTIGlobal.com.

Contact

Erika Santiago

LitWorks – A DTI Company

404.610.0270

esantiago@LitWorks.net

E‐Discovery Management Workshop

esantiago — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:22:05 +0000

Join Erika Santiago for a one‐day workshop in Chicago

to develop your project management skills for electronic discovery

Who should attend? Litigation Support Professionals, Litigation Paralegals

Participants will learn:

How to plan & manage e‐discovery projects
Cost containment & budgeting techniques
To develop a check list for scoping & change management

When? Tuesday, March 23, 2010 – 8:30am – 3:30pm

Where? Document Technologies, Inc. – Chicago

105 West Adams Street, Suite 1200
Chicago, IL 60603
312.739.9999 phone | 312.739.0899 fax | chicago@dtiglobal.com

Tuition? $350 per attendee

For more information or to register for this event, please send an email to esantiago@litworks.net or contact us here.

Workshop Schedule

8:30 am – 9:00 am – Networking Breakfast
9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Electronic Discovery Project Management Seminar
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – Networking Lunch
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Electronic Discovery Project Management Exercises
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Review / Q & A

The E-Discovery Application Matrix

esantiago — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:31:46 +0000

As a litigation support manager, you may be tasked with researching and selecting a standard litigation & e-discovery application(s) for your firm or organization. I’ve found the eDiscovery Application Matrix by Greg Buckles to be a great resource to kick start your research. We discuss this tool and other aspects of selecting software for your case teams in our Litigation Support Manager training class.

The E-Discovery Application Matrix is a non-commercial, independent site built to provide a fast and easy way to find software applications that contain specific E-Discovery related features. The site was created to help untangle the large number of providers, features and the sheer complexity of the application selection process. The features are grouped by Electronic Discovery Reference Model phase. You can select the features that you need and see who provides them. Alternatively, if you know that you just need to find all applications that deduplicate in the Collection phase, there is a quick selection option below.

Applications are submitted and reviewed by the public and the providers without subjective value statements or marketing language. We rely on public feedback to correct inaccurate listings and encourage you to contribute new applications and features. Please remember that you must independently verify all features and functionality during your purchase process. The site does not endorse or promote any application. With the number of new applications and versions available, it is certain that the listings will never be completely up to date, but it is a place to start.

Discussion:

If you have purchased / researched e-discovery software in the past, what are the most important things to look for when planning to purchase new software?
What do you think about the move some organizations (law firms, corporations, government agencies) have made to outsource litigation document review applications to a hosted SaaS environment?
What do you wish you knew before you purchased in-house ESI processing software?

Legal Tech NY 2010 – Highlights

esantiago — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:14:31 +0000

I think I counted close to twenty blogs or articles that summarized the news and trends coming out of Legal Tech NY this year. That’s a lot of reading… If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend or if you were there but were not able to be everywhere at once, then I hope the following list of resources gives you a good overview of the important take -aways from the conference. Traditionally, LTNY is the conference that sets the tone for the year in our industry and this year was no different. Pretty much everyone said that this year’s conference had a positive vibe to it and the light at the end of the dark economic tunnel seems to be getting brighter. One of the trends that seems to have carried over from last year is the increasing importance of having a litigation support (e-discovery) professional on your case team who understands both the technology and legal workflow objectives of the case teams. This is important whether you outsource your e-discovery projects or process & manage everything internally.

The “official” summary of the show by Sean Doherty @ Law.com can be found here.

The 451 Group’s “Too Much Information” blog highlights the following points:

Defensibility and the Scheindlin Opinion
Price sensitivity
New software releases – …” customers should continue to educate themselves about their organizational needs, what other companies are doing, and what the market has to offer…”
Early case assessment
Information Management Reference Model

The Posse List gave a very detailed & comprehensive overview of the conference here. They covered the show as a team and interviewed an impressive list of industry who’s who.

If you have projects that are international in scope, then you’ll enjoy Chris Dale’s perspective here.

Ralph Losey & Jason Baron premiered their new video at Legal Tech NY. They were recently interviewed by the Posse List here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Estimating & Managing Risk in E-Discovery Projects

esantiago — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:00:37 +0000

Making the decision to settle a litigation matter is often not about “if” but “when.” Early Case Assessment (ECA) technology allows case teams to work together to determine the risk and strategic plan for reviewing electronically stored information (ESI) relevant to the litigation matter. As a litigation support project manager, how do you explain the value of ECA to your case team?

According to a recent article by Oliver Silva,

“ECA allows litigation support professionals, paralegals, and attorneys to gain greater insight into their document collections by interacting with the data prior to review. By implementing an e-discovery strategy utilizing ECA,case teams no longer need to use their best guess for relevant search terms. They become active participants in the search and culling process, which can be extremely advantageous when formulating effective search terms. Add to that arsenal the ability to apply advanced filters such as searching for “SPAM”, categorically excluding emails from an HR distribution list or seeing statistics of a document’s relevancy percentage — all completed within minutes. Thousands of false hits or irrelevant documents can be discarded from the review in a few mouse clicks. “

Litigation Support Project Managers can add ECA to their tool kit of options for their case teams. Silva outlines the value proposition for considering ECA in his article but here are a couple of the key points:

Formulating Search Terms vs. Negotiated Search Terms
Documented and Defensible Search Methodology

Does your standard e-discovery project management workflow include early case assessment technology? What are some of the key concepts in explaining the value of this option that you normally share with your case teams?