LitWorks » ECA

What Will I Learn in the CLSP Class?

Marty Kendra — 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

Legal Tech NY 2010 – Highlights

Marty Kendra — 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

Marty Kendra — 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?