OUTLINE - Project Management in Electronic Discovery - by Michael Quartararo - Chapter 2

Michael Quartararo's Project Management in Electronic Disocvery: An Introduction to Core Principles of Legal Project Management and Leadership in eDisocvery, is widely regarded as one of the best guides available for PMs. Here's my second installment in an outline of the work.

Chapter 2 - The Discovery Process: Narrowing the Issues, Avoiding Surprise and Uncovering the Truth

A. Discovery

1. Demand for the production of documents; answer interrogatories; or give deposition testimony, in order to narrow disputes and avoid surprises at trial.

2. Trial by ambush prior to adoption of FRCP in 1934.

B. Tehcnology Transform Discovery

1. ESI leads to an explosion in the amount of discoverable information.

2. Organizations respond to discovery requests in disparate ways.

3. FRCP amended in 2006 to allow for the discovery of ESI.

4. Rules do not require a company to implement a litigation hold.

C. Electronic Discovery Reference Model

1. Tom Gelbmann and George Socha brought together in-house counsel, law firms, and service providers to develop standards in 2005.

D. Information Governance

1. Storage, organization, management, securing and disposal of information.

2. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; Dodd-Frank Act of 2010; Stored Communications Act of 1986, and other regulations require businesses to maintain information.

3. All businesses have Records and Information Management policies. Having regulated businesses will have formal compliance policies.

4. PM must have a firm understanding of a client's policies.

E. Identification

1. What ESI is in the client's possesion, custody and control.

2. Identity location of data, who possesses it, and which systems it resides in.

3. Identify date ranges, names of the custodians.

F. Preservation and Collection

1. Litigation hold should be distributed.

2. Suspend record disposition policies, auto deletion policies and stop back-up media rotation.

3. Collection should keep metadata intact, and prevent writing to individual files.

G. Processing, Review and Analysis

1. Extract and index text and metadata.

2. Use dates, keywords and file extension filters to filter out irrelevant documents.

3. De-depulication and de-NISTing.

4. Load into document review platform after processing.

5. Review and analysis are an iterative process to search for responsive and privileged documents.

H. Production

1. Exchange of responsive, non-privileged information.

2. Parties agree on a format beforehand. TIFF images preferred because they can easily be redacted and endorsed with Bates numbers.

I. Presentation

1. Courtrooms are often equipped with monitors and projectors to allow for digital presentations.