How to Create an E-Discovery Team

E-discovery is a rapidly growing function within all company legal departments. It is a crucial component of litigation and, thanks to the amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, noncompliance can mean large penalties. To ensure compliance, it is important that a company consider forming an e-discovery team. Not only will the team have designated resources that can handle the arduous process of e-discovery but, by in-sourcing much of the work, corporate legal departments can find major cost savings.

Things You'll Need

• Legal department
• IT department
• At least one legal service professional
• At least one records management professional

Instructions

Creating an E-Discovery Team

1. Find a member of the legal department who is knowledgeable about the amended Federal Rule of Civil Procedure. If none are available, consider bringing an e-discovery consultant in-house.

2. Select a designated resource from IT to work closely with the legal professional. This should be someone who is very knowledgeable about the IT infrastructure of the company, but who also has an ability to understand points of law.

3. Call a sit down meeting between the legal and IT professional, along with at least one legal service professional and a representative from records management.

4. Share the important elements of e-discovery with the team. This should be led by the legal counsel. Although not everything must be divulged, enough must be discussed to give each stakeholder an understanding of his role.

5. Take charge of compliance going forward as well as contracting outside vendors for e-discovery work, including collection, processing and review of electronically stored data. This should be relegated to legal counsel, who will also inform the other stakeholders in IT and records management when litigation occurs that will set off the e-discovery process.

6. Map the company's data storage units, including all servers and e-mail exchanges. This action should be performed by the IT personnel, who should work closely with outside vendors for the technical processes behind collection, processing and review of electronically stored information.

7. Ensure that the records manager works closely with IT to map the content of the data held in all storage units. This person should also ensure, along with legal, that all data retention and destruction policies are being complied with.

8. Track every step of each e-discovery to ensure there is a record of all actions taken by the company. This process, which is crucial if the process is ever questioned in court, can be relegated to the legal service professional

9. Stay informed of the evolving e-discovery case law and report to the other units any changes that should be implemented in the process. This function should be performed by the in-house attorney, who will act as the director of e-discovery.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider using wikis or shared documents to co-author corporate policies across different departments, including legal, IT and records management.

• Track cost savings as a result of bringing the e-discovery function in house. It may help a legal department receive a larger budget from C-suite executives to spend on amping up e-discovery programs.

• Not following through with written policy can result in sanctions against a company. Be sure that IT and records management stay on top of their duties, especially when it comes to data retention and destruction.