E-Discovery

Even when the need to preserve mobile data is clear, for clients who are not technical experts or who do not have technical experts on staff, how to go about actually preserving that data may not be so obvious. As legal professionals, it is important that we understand how to help our clients preserve mobile data and what pitfalls they may encounter.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC (October 24, 2019) -- Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is excited to announce that its LitSmart® AutoTasker app has been awarded the “Best Innovation: Law Firm or Corporation” at the 6th Annual Relativity Innovation Awards ceremony. The awards ceremony concluded the 10th annual Relativity Fest user conference hosted in Chicago.

This Quarterly Spotlight focuses on Virginia Duke Ring, a Senior E-Discovery Attorney on Kilpatrick's LitSmart E-Discovery Team. Virginia joined the LitSmart team in January 2018 after previously practicing with the Firm's insurance recovery group. Virginia has proven herself to be a strong leader. She promotes collaboration among team members and is the consummate "team player." Scott O'Neal was fortunate to learn more about what makes Virginia such a valuable team member.

It takes a minute to come to terms with the definitions of "structured" and "unstructured" data. It seems logical to associate “formatting,” such as the formatting that comes with word documents (indentation, headers and footers, paragraphs, etc.) with “structure,” but the terms are used very differently when it comes to describing data. This blog will explore structured data, particularly as it pertains to the preservation, collection, processing, review and production of such data, using the Slack instant communication tool as an example.

There is often a lot of discussion around the processing and review of documents in a litigation, most likely because these phases end up costing the most money and taking the most time. What is often overlooked, however, is the collection process and how that phase sets the tone for the rest of discovery, including overall case strategy, knowledge gathering and cost thresholds for the case. In this blog, I lay out some best practices that can be followed to collect data in a sound manner while keeping costs reasonable and gathering all relevant information. 

Picture this: Your team has completed the first level and quality control reviews. Your documents have been produced, your privilege log is out the door and you have just received the incoming document production from the opposing party. Now you have a universe of documents with the potential to be used as deposition exhibits, in expert reports, and as trial exhibits. It would be nice if there was a way to take advantage of your previous work identifying hot documents during first level and quality control reviews by using them to identify documents with similar issues or themes in the opposing parties production. You and your team spent days, weeks, or even months reviewing documents for production. Leveraging this time (and costs) would be greatly appreciated by your client. But is that even possible? Yes it is!