Evaluating the Electronic Discovery Capabilities of Outside Law Firms: A Model Request for Information and Analysis

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Evaluating the Electronic Discovery Capabilities of Outside Law Firms: A Model Request for Information and Analysis

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Published October 2006 Authors Jeffrey Ritter & Karen Worstell Waters Edge Consulting LLC 150 pages $289 - Hard Copy Edition $399 - Electronic Edition (includes report PDF + Model RFI in MS Word^TM -- purchase subject to Terms & Conditions)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TESTIMONIALS

The greatest economic risk companies face with electronic discovery is choosing the wrong law firm. Under the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the amounts at stake are not just legal fees or settlement costs; searching for and recovering electronic business records causes productivity losses and threatens revenue. Bottom line, selecting a law firm that is ill-prepared to effectively manage electronic discovery can cost enormously - internal records preservation and production costs are considered one of the largest uncontrolled expenses in corporate America.

Evaluating the Electronic Discovery Capabilities of Outside Law Firms: A Model Request for Information and Analysis provides corporate law departments, records management and IT departments an invaluable tool to ensure that the legal risks of e-discovery are competently addressed. Exhaustively researched and written by two of the nation's foremost authorities on establishing trustworthy digital information, this new work:

Analyzes the economics of e-discovery and provides insights into understanding the full financial burden of e-discovery on companies and the important role informed, capable counsel can perform in managing those costs.
Delivers an integrated view of how companies must consider the many different judicial rules, case decisions, business processes, technology standards and best practices in records management, information security and automated services in order to navigate the challenges under the new amended Federal Rules.
Presents a complete and customizable tool for developing and conducting the due diligence required to make sure the best law firms are chosen for the job.
Organizes into one place the multitude of questions that must be asked to better protect an enterprise against the risks that arise when legal counsel is not properly prepared to handle electronic discovery.

For law firms, this volume presents and provides:

A critical roadmap for understanding the economic pressures on their clients, and the importance of strong electronic discovery legal capabilities.
A practical, comprehensive view of how the many different judicial rules, case decisions, technology standards and prevailing business practices impact how legal services should be performed.
A comprehensive vision of the resources, services and tools law firms must develop in order to ethically and effectively represent their clients in managing electronic records as evidence.

Further, from a managing partner's perspective, The Model RFI is a superb self-evaluation tool to ensure the law firm is prepared to meet its clients' e-discovery demands - before they're presented.

Evaluating the Electronic Discovery Capabilities of Outside Law Firms takes account of the new amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedures, all other e-discovery court rules, 350+ published court cases and published technology standards and business practices in records management, information security and compliance.

The Model Request for Information provides a complete, fully customizable document that a company can send to current and prospective law firms or use as a basis for informal dialogue.

The Model RFI invites law firms to demonstrate they are adapting to a business world where 97% of the potential documentary evidence is created in electronic form. The Model RFI is comprehensive and detailed - asking a law firm to describe:

The training standards and ethics requirements they have established for those providing e-discovery legal services.
The range and depth of skills development provided to e-discovery professionals, with an emphasis on IT, records management, and digital forensics.
The structure and experience of their e-discovery teams - lawyers, IT staff, and third party vendors-and the practice management techniques, agreements and resources employed by those teams in client services.
The practice tools, checklists, protocols and model documents employed by the law firm to enable stronger planning and execution of e-discovery activities, cost-effectively and in a legally sound manner.
The professional malpractice and business insurance in place for e-discovery and for protecting client records from adverse incidents, including electronic hacking and attacks.
The records management practices and information security controls employed by a law firm to protect electronic client records.
The financial impact on professional fees and other charges associated with the firm's e-discovery capabilities.

Testimonials

"This book is a timely and clear call for change – to lessen the currently painful costs of e-discovery that all-too-often are the result of failing to proactively manage electronic records. The fact that a very comprehensive “how to do” model is included makes this book unique and very valuable both for litigators and those paying the costs of e-discovery – the litigators’ business and government clients."

Robert F. Williams
President
Cohasset Associates, Inc.

"Evaluating the Electronic Discovery Capabilities of Outside Law Firms is no longer an option for corporations. If they have any prayer of containing electronic discovery costs and effectively managing the massive amounts of ESI involved in significant cases, they must focus quickly on developing the best possible practices for dealing with electronic discovery. This includes bringing outside counsel up to speed on ESI best practices . . . or finding alternative counsel already fully equipped to deal with ESI. The Waters Edge Consulting Model RFI is a superb product, both comprehensive in scope and wholly pragmatic. This is a timely gem for corporate executives and general counsels struggling to deal with the dramatic new challenges presented by electronic evidence. Law firms who do not wish to receive “pink slips” from their clients would also be well-advised to take a hard look at how well they are prepared to respond to requests for information on their electronic discovery preparedness. Law firms which insist on remaining dinosaurs are likely to share their fate."

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq.
President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Co-Author, Electronic Evidence Handbook: Forms, Guidelines and Checklists
Chair, ABATECHSHOW® 2006
Member, ARMA’s Electronic Discovery Advisory Group

About Authors

Jeffrey Ritter is a co-founder and director of Waters Edge Consulting, LLC, which advises global and Fortune 500 companies on achieving competitive advantage through the innovative use of streamlined processes that address the myriad of standards, best practices, regulations, statutes and IT technologies confronting business management.

Jeffrey is recognized as a pioneer in shaping the legal framework for the Internet. Throughout his career, he has combined his capabilities in academic research, diplomacy, the practice of law and teaching to develop and extend the rule of law into global cyberspace. In 2004, the American Bar Association recognized Jeffrey for his substantial contributions in this field.

His career reflects a long-term involvement with enabling electronic commercial practices-including the use of electronic signatures, long-term archival storage of electronic records, electronic discovery activities, authentication technologies, information security controls, data forensic investigations, software licensing, web-based services, and the use of open source code.

Jeffrey has held leadership roles with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and American Bar Association, and has been actively engaged in the activities of the Internet Security Alliance and the Information Systems Security Association. He has addressed audiences around the world on the issues of enabling electronic business practices.

Jeffrey received his BA and MA degrees from The Ohio State University and his JD from Duke University. He lives in Reston, Virginia with his wife Jane Kuhar and is an active cyclist.

Karen Worstell is a co-founder and director of Waters Edge Consulting, LLC. Her twenty years of information security and IT Risk Management experience spans multiple sectors, most recently in the last 3 years as CISO of Microsoft and the VP of IT Risk Management/CISO for AT&T Wireless/Cingular. At both Microsoft and AT&T Wireless, Karen played a key role in the successful implementation of general computer controls for Sarbanes-Oxley in their respective IT organizations.

Prior to joining AT&T Wireless she led the Security practice for SRI Consulting and its spin-off, Atomic Tangerine, where she assisted clients with opportunity analysis for information security startups, led product development and security research on emerging trends, and consulted to global Fortune 500 and government customers in the US, Singapore and Europe. She has also served in senior information security roles at Bank of America, Boeing Defense and Space, Boeing Research and Technology, and Union Carbide Corporation. She has held leadership roles on the Computer Systems Security and Privacy Advisory Board for the Department of Commerce, the OSI Implementer's workshops on Security Architecture at NIST, Open Group, the security subcommittee of NSIE, Aerospace Industries Association Security Subcommittee, and was involved in the early standardization of secure email, directory security, and Kerberos authentication.

Karen holds BS degrees in Chemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington, and an MS degree in Computer Science from Pacific Lutheran University where she did graduate work in fast hardware encryption. She is a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), and participates in ISACA, ISSA, IIA and ASIS. Karen is a frequent speaker for information security events and participates in multiple boards and advisory groups. She and her husband, Craig, live in Gig Harbor, Washington.

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