Taming the Chaos of E-Discovery with Workflows, Project Management and Technology

Introduction

The e-discovery process is complex and offers multiple opportunities for missteps. Organizational and functional silos, a lack of visibility, miscommunication, duplication of efforts, overlooked details and missed data or hardware disposition, as well as the inherent unpredictability of the legal process, can contribute to problems. Without a mature e-discovery process, often the best an organization can hope to achieve is “organized chaos.”

Organized chaos can lead to e-discovery mistakes, such as incomplete identification, collection or review of potentially responsive data, inadvertent production of confidential or privileged information, repetition of previously completed work or underutilization of existing technology. These errors can increase operational costs, lead to potentially expensive sanctions, adversely affect the organization’s reputation and negatively impact employee morale.

Fortunately, much can be done mitigate the chaos by transforming the e-discovery into a mature business process.

Project Management Can Help

Project management traditionally involves balancing the scope, cost and timing of a project while maintaining quality of output. Successful project management starts with a plan, proceeds to implementation and involves constant monitoring of activities to confirm initial assumptions, stay on schedule and on budget, and identify areas requiring adjustment. This activity tracking minimizes errors and limits the amount of repeat work required for any given project. E-Discovery project management can substantially eliminate chaos through improved control, oversight, repeatability and predictability.

Three pillars underlie e-discovery project management:

• People: Defining and organizing the various roles that are required to complete a project
• Process: Assigning the individual tasks that comprise a well-defined workflow
• Technology: Supporting the process through automation

Like all structural pillars, each of these must be strong and well-grounded. These three pillars of e-discovery project management can be viewed as a series of steps as follows:

Step #1 - Define Roles

Define the roles of those who will manage the process on the company’s behalf. Perhaps the most important role is that of the project manager (PM). The PM may be an attorney, a paralegal, an IT resource or perhaps a consultant, so long as he or she has appropriate project management training or education. While it is possible for a PM to transition from another industry, e-discovery experience is extremely valuable.

The PM must guide the process from start to finish, working with internal and external team members to define their specific goals, objectives and budgets. The PM also must understand and contribute to the litigation’s substantive and strategic goals, as well as have the expertise to guide the identification, preservation, collection and review of company data. The PM must regularly and clearly communicate with team members and stakeholders on deliverables, tasks and project status.

Step #2 - Standardize Processes

Create a well-defined e-discovery process with standardized protocols and workflows. The process protocols should address each e-discovery phase, from preservation and collection through review and production, including procedures for handling specific data types and exceptions. Creating protocols and detailed workflows is a matter of assessing the existing roles and components of the e-discovery processes to identify areas for standardization and improvement. It also includes identifying each of the specific steps to be taken, formalizing the process and creating strict documentation rules. E-Discovery experts, such as vendors or consultants, may be particularly helpful when leveraged early in the process to identify best practices, organize the program and jumpstart the documentation process.