Lighthouse Blog

Lawyers, and the legal field in general, are not exactly known for their willingness to embrace new technology and change the tried and true, traditional ways they’ve always used to practice law. But as technology has taken over our everyday lives and become the norm across most industries, there’s no time like the present for lawyers and litigation support professionals to take a second look at how they can get up to speed on the best and newest eDiscovery technology that will ultimately transform their business, and in turn, create happier clients who are laser focused on reducing costs and increasing efficiency.Like cassette tapes and the beloved Walkman, when it comes to eDiscovery, that old model of managing your own IT infrastructure and utilizing on-prem review platforms is becoming a thing of the past. This reminds me of other eDiscovery relics we knew and loved… not to call anyone out, but dare I mention Concordance or Clearwell in case you’re still using them?!In this changing technology landscape where most clients are moving (or have moved) their data to the cloud, it’s a perfect match to also modernize your law firm’s eDiscovery program and adopt a self-service, spectra model that will work seamlessly with data stored in the cloud, and deliver less risk and more benefits for both you and your clients.Just what are those benefits? Here are three reasons why adopting new technology and going to a SaaS eDiscovery solution will bring added efficiency, more billable hours, and happier clients.Eliminate the Risk and Expense of Managing Your Own IT Infrastructure - For law firms, managing an IT infrastructure and maintaining servers for the purpose of hosting client data is expensive and involves a large amount of risk. Electronic data has become overwhelmingly voluminous and types of data have become so much more complex than when law firms first got into this business and we were primarily dealing with email. Think about mobile devices, chat data, ephemeral communication, etc. as just the tip of the iceberg. With cybersecurity as a top concern for corporations, I think it’s fair to say that law firms probably never meant to take on the risk that comes with managing a complex IT infrastructure for their clients. Having a self-service, spectra, modern SaaS solution at their fingertips, law firms can lower costs and transfer the risk of hosting client data to the SaaS solution provider.Using SaaS Review Platforms Improves Client Services - Not only will a SaaS solution provide the benefit of relieving the security and risk burden, it will improve client services which is a win-win for the firm and the client. Although on-prem review platforms are what law firms have typically used, a SaaS platform reduces costs and improves efficiency. With an on-prem solution, license fees and infrastructure maintenance fees generally create out-of-pocket costs with no cost recovery mechanism. Moving to a SaaS solution introduces new ways to recover costs and makes solving substantive client concerns the primary job, rather than the inefficiencies that come along with maintaining an on-prem solution. To make the process of implementing a SaaS solution much easier, it’s important to note at this stage that building a business case and getting senior management on board with upgrading to a SaaS solution is critical. That way all parties understand the benefits to both the firm and its clients will be on the same page with making the change.Upgrading to SaaS Allows Firms to Provide the Latest Technology to Clients - Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could easily and quickly upgrade your eDiscovery technology and always provide the latest and greatest technology to clients? Moving to a SaaS platform immediately provides this benefit as the service provider maintains the infrastructure and makes technology upgrades behind the scenes for you. In case you’re feeling a little nervous that opportunity for some portions of internal work will disappear with this eDiscovery model, in fact the opposite is true. This isn’t a threat to the traditional litigation support model. It will instead allow for a greater focus on more valuable and strategic work while a solid partnership is established with the trusted service provider who runs the infrastructure of the SaaS platform and will work alongside you.If your primary goal is to create efficiency, lower costs, and ultimately make your clients happy, now’s the time to take your eDiscovery program to the next level and adopt a SaaS, self-service, spectra solution. You’ll have a modernized eDiscovery platform that allows for independent access and control to process, review, and produce data, while removing the risk and cost that comes with managing an IT infrastructure.ediscovery-review; ai-and-analyticscloud, self-service, spectra, cloud-security, blog, ediscovery-review, ai-and-analyticscloud; self-service, spectra; cloud-security; bloglighthouse

We're excited to announce that season one of Law & Candor, the podcast wholly devoted to pursuing the legal technology revolution, is now live!We at Lighthouse recognize that podcasting has become a popular form of content consumption, and to support our mission of providing valuable information around the eDiscovery, compliance, and information governance space via our thought leadership efforts, we have decided to launch a podcast dedicated to just that.Law & Candor co-hosts, Bill Mariano and Rob Hellewell, alongside industry experts, explore the impacts and possibilities that new technology is creating for the space. Our dynamic duo, who have their finger on the pulse of the rapidly evolving world of legal technology, will discuss the latest trends and newsworthy topics that are dominating the eDiscovery revolution. Take a quick look at the episodes they showcase in season one:The Future is Now – AI and Analytics are Here to StayThe Truth Behind Data ReuseMicrosoft Office 365 Part 1: Microsoft’s Influence on the Next Evolution of eDiscoveryMicrosoft Office 365 Part 2: How to Leverage all the Tools in the Toolbox Moving to the Cloud Part 1: A Corporate JourneyMoving to the Cloud Part 2: A Law Firm JourneyThe episodes are short and easy to consume and each one shares key takeaways for you to take back to your team. Listen here or on a platform of your choice and follow us on Twitter for updates and to join in on the conversation.For questions regarding this podcast and its content, please reach out to us at info@lighthouseglobal.com.ediscovery-reviewmicrosoft, cloud, self-service, spectra, ai-big-data, data-re-use, blog, ediscovery-review,microsoft; cloud; self-service, spectra; ai-big-data; data-re-use; bloglighthouse

Planning the best ways to find key documents will pay off in the long run. Getting to the bottom of alleged claims is often a high-stakes race to find critical information amidst an avalanche of data. Regardless of whether you are conducting an internal investigation, early case assessment, or preparing for depositions, there is no time to waste. Although it’s surely tempting to dive right into document reviews to find the key documents that will shed light on the matter at hand, litigators and investigators know that good preparation leads to a better result.Conducting fact-finding in a reactive manner by skipping upfront preparation diminishes the ability to systematically investigate the full set of allegations and compromises the development of a comprehensive factual narrative. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare.Consider the source(s).To conduct efficient fact-finding through key document identification, you need to first take stock of the various sources of data available for review and then map them to the type of evidence they may contain.Is the evidence you are looking for likely to reside in reports, communications, or memos? Are there particular sets of custodial data that are likely more important to understanding the case than others? Are inbound consumer marketing solicitations to employees, or bulk email news alerts likely to contain important information for the case? Taking the time to consider these questions and articulate hypotheses about where important evidence may reside allows you to effectively prioritize which data sets to search through first.What are the targets?In addition to prioritizing the data, it’s critically important to articulate the array of evidence you are looking for based on the set of allegations at issue. Your understanding of the case will certainly evolve as fact-finding progresses, but defining evidentiary targets in advance better enables you to assess later on whether you have diligently investigated all possible angles. Moreover, defining discrete targets for fact-finding allows you to articulate searches at a more granular level. Rather than leveraging one fully encompassing crude keyword search to hunt for key documents, creating a net of many targeted searches will lead to more comprehensive results in a more efficient manner.What tools should you use?Another key to efficient and successful fact-finding is selecting the right data analytics tools that will help reduce the noise and boost the signal. For example, threading email conversations and identifying near-duplicate sets of documents are two of the many approaches available to winnow down and prioritize the set of documents you perform targeted searches on. Techniques such as name normalization can also be especially helpful when your aim is to understand who is communicating with whom about which underlying facts. It might even be worth investigating how to best tailor the way the data is indexed for searching — for instance, emojis are often used in key conversations useful in investigations yet they are rarely indexed for search in review platforms unless you explicitly specify them to be.Understanding the data, articulating an evidentiary approach, and equipping yourself with the right data analytics helps ensure that critical facts do go undiscovered. Although it’s natural to want to get right into the thick of it, skilled counsel know that high-stakes fact-finding is a complex affair requiring forethought and preparation. And once in place, a well-informed search strategy can be quickly executed allowing your team to spend more time understanding the significance of key documents, and less time re-evaluating and tinkering with approaches for finding them.Want to know more? Watch “Winning the Race for the Facts: Case Studies on How to Leverage Technology and Search Expertise for Investigations and Case Preparation,” a joint webinar with H5 and Covington & Burling, for further tips on finding key documents for investigations.ediscovery-reviewblog, -key-document-identification, kdi, ediscovery-review,blog; key-document-identification; kdilighthouse

There is a common theme buzzing around the legal tech and eDiscovery industry – the Cloud and how in-house lawyers should be aware of the implications of their companies moving to the Cloud. Due to its regular appearance, there is an increasing focus on the legal implications of moving to the Cloud, rather than IT and operational considerations, within organisations.Setting the StageThe Cloud is familiar to most people thanks to the way we store photos and save emails. However, the impact of the Cloud in such a short space of time, even for personal users, is remarkable. Google now gives away cloud storage space worth around $15,000 per person at 1995 prices to its users (of which there are approximately 1 billion). In other words, what would have cost a combined $15 trillion just 24 years ago is now being offered for free (Goldin and Kutarna. Age of Discovery. 1990. Print.).The common response to the question of moving a companies' data to the Cloud is typically around perceived issues of both cost and security. Both of these topics are fundamental but are limited in scope when considering the wide-ranging potential of enterprise cloud technology from the perspective of data governance, compliance, and eDiscovery.Reducing or eliminating IT spend on building and maintaining infrastructure is a driving force for companies to move to the Cloud. Another is the need to provide employees with the tools they need to not only continue their everyday tasks but also to adapt and innovate. Microsoft recently quoted that, “97% of Fortune 500 and 95% of Fortune 1000 companies have Office 365 to benefit from streamlined infrastructure, data management, and collaborative technology opportunities.” They have discovered that cloud-based productivity has moved far beyond just standard applications like Word or Excel. Networked applications fuel employee innovation. According to a study by Vanson Bourne, “companies leveraging cloud services increased their time to market by 20.7%. At the same time, IT spending decreased by 15.1%, and, as for employees, productivity jumped 18.8%.”When compared to cost savings and data security, data governance, compliance, and eDiscovery often get less consideration. This is because a transition to the cloud is a core business decision, taken on at an enterprise-wide level to streamline the company and provide business-critical tools to employees. The legal capabilities of the technology may seem peripheral to the IT teams focusing on transitioning from on-premise infrastructure to cloud-based data centres. However, when you consider the variety of ways in which data is generated and the volume of this data, legal needs to lead the way in managing risk and adding value to how collaboration is managed across the company.Driving Home the PointIronically, cloud-based technologies like Office 365 make it even easier to generate ever-larger amounts of data. It is, therefore, no surprise that the same technology can (and should) be used to govern this data. Legal needs to consider how to take ownership of the companies' data for risk management purposes if nothing else.An example of this is persistent chat using Skype, Teams, Yammer, etc. Legal rather than IT needs to drive the key questions. Is this functionality available to everyone? How long is chat data stored? Does the company utilise more than one chat solution and do they interact with each other? Is the data discoverable if necessary and can it be searched? Can a legal hold be placed on this content? When deleted, does that fit with the overall data retention policy and is that consistent across multiple locations?Just one aspect of data governance that, of data retention and associated policies and logistics, can be overwhelming. Every organisation has many applications that employees use. A switch to a cloud-based environment doesn’t just mean the data is stored somewhere else. It means that tools are probably available for employees to work more intelligently and collaboratively. This is a positive thing for both efficiency and most likely profitability. It is also positive in terms of data governance and compliance. Policies such as data retention and categorisation can be refreshed so that they are not written and ignored. They can be hardwired into the very applications that generate the bulk of a company's data, from email and business documents to persistent chat applications, financial data, and internal social media.Cloud-based technology such as Office 365 can be utilised to manage contentious matters more effectively and proportionally (crucial for Subject Access Requests), without the need for large-scale intervention from third parties who deploy forensic data collection experts to ship large volumes of data elsewhere for eDiscovery purposes.Furthermore, failure to provide modern workplace technology often means that a shadow IT environment develops within a company, a phenomenon that makes governance and compliance even more difficult than it already is. Employees will use whatever technology they can to make their job easier, regardless of policy. Again, legal, not IT, can lead the way in aligning policies with the use of modern workplace tools.Fortunately, security concerns have done little to hold back the tide of progress to cloud-based infrastructure. Microsoft may be a company that has the most attempted external hacks, but it also has a budget of over $1 billion annually to ensure the data it holds is secure. Other cloud-based providers also understand the value of managing their clients’ data and have similar impressive ways and large budgets to protect it. Microsoft's share price demonstrates what shareholders think of their focus on the cloud over the last five years. Windows is not discussed as widely these days compared to Office 365.Looking Forward IT and security may be the departments responsible for a transition to the Cloud but legal and compliance are the departments that should take ownership of the generation and governance of the data. This should not be seen as a burden, but a welcome change in how to align a modern workplace with a comprehensive framework to manage risks inherent in big data.If you would like to discuss this topic further, please feel free to reach out to me at MBrown@lighthouseglobal.com.data-privacy; ediscovery-review; information-governance; microsoft-365cloud, information-governance, cloud-security, blog, data-privacy, ediscovery-review, information-governance, microsoft-365cloud; information-governance; cloud-security; blogmichael brown

Facing a second request can be painful, kind of like searching for a needle in a haystack exacerbated by a strict deadline looming above it all. And, as volumes of data continue to grow and types of data become increasingly complex, these matters are often inefficient and costly, while getting to the key documents (needles) quickly can feel like an insurmountable challenge.In the 2019 Antitrust Leadership Panel, I gathered together a group of top antitrust experts to discuss the grueling challenges, the role of technology and emerging trends, and a few concrete recommendations for progress to make second requests more efficient and less costly. The video series of the panel was very well received and I have since been asked by several viewers, “So, Bill, how do I apply these ideas to my current antitrust practice or process? How do I find the needles in the haystack?”In this blog, I will answer just that and distill the key takeaways from the panel to share with your team so that you can be better equipped to tackle a second request and find the critical needle in that giant, ever-evolving haystack of data.Lesson 1: Technology is a must, but so is trust.Our expert panelists all agreed that although the usage of technology can be challenging to negotiate with the DOJ and the FTC, its application is paramount in getting to key documents quickly. With that in mind, the first phase in preparing for your next second request and conquering the haystack of data is to leverage technology. Here are some simple steps to get you started:It’s critical to understand what technology is out there and what it can do (i.e. AI, predictive coding, email threading, deduplication, etc.). Ensure you and your team stay on top of what each of these tools does and how you can leverage them in second requests. Understanding and educating yourself on all aspects of the technology is key to increasing the government’s trust and acceptance of new tools they may not be familiar with…more on that in the next step.Once you understand what technology options are available and have the best probability for success in your specific case, select the tool or tools that make the most sense for your team and secure them (i.e. by leveraging your vendor’s tools or procuring them in house). Work with your vendor or in-house team to develop sound evidence that will persuade the DOJ and FTC to accept technology so that it can be more broadly used and leveraged within your matters. This will allow you to save significant time and money and, who knows, if we all did it the DOJ and FTC may be more likely to accept itLesson 2: Proportionality can save you time and money, leverage it.The panel also discussed that although the DOJ and FTC sometimes don’t seem to make proportionality a priority in second requests and may intentionally request broader swaths of data to buy more time outside of the strict statutory guidelines, it’s clear that proportionality should be a primary focus for both parties to limit the burdensome amount of data that must be collected and reviewed. Consider this next set of steps as another way to potentially save time and money when trying to dig through the haystack of second request data.When faced with a second request, first discuss amongst your team what arguments for proportionality can be made.Ensure your arguments for proportionality are based on compelling evidence and bring them to the DOJ and FTC at the onset of the second request.If your argument is not accepted on one matter, work with your vendor to focus on building more evidence to get the DOJ and FTC on the side of proportionality in your next matter.Lesson 3: Privilege review tools can be a privilege in the long run.According to the panelists, having better and more user-friendly privilege review tools would result in a significantly improved second request process for everyone involved. So, how do you take concrete action on that? Here are a few additional steps to improve the privilege review process and break down one of the most burdensome parts of tackling the haystack.Reach out to your vendor and ask what tools and solutions they have around privilege review.Test out their privilege tools on your next matter and provide feedback for continuous process improvement.Work with your vendor to develop customized privilege tools using advanced analytics to find privileged documents more quickly and easily.When leveraging privilege tools, be sure to track solid metrics and develop new evidence to showcase to the DOJ and FTC why they can trust the advanced technology.Share these takeaways within your team and apply the steps that make sense for your practice so that the next time you’re faced with a daunting second request and a seemingly insurmountable amount of data, you’ll be well positioned to tackle the challenge and find the right needles in the haystack from the onset.Want to discuss this topic more? Feel free to reach out to me at BMariano@lighthouseglobal.com.To explore related content, click the links below:Antitrust Leadership Panel: Time and CostAntitrust Leadership Panel: The Role of TechnologyAntitrust Leadership Panel: Evolving for the Futureai-and-analytics; antitrustanalytics, hsr-second-requests, blog, ai-and-analytics, antitrustanalytics; hsr-second-requests; blogbill mariano

Are you a healthcare provider or payor with any of these concerns?Your company is trying to manage its budget for litigation and investigations but can’t find the most effective approachYou’re concerned that you may be missing critical insights because you can only review a small subset of your document population to stay within your budgetYou’re subject to an investigation and you want to quickly understand if the government or opposing party has any “gotcha” informationYou want to proactively perform a risk assessment to monitor for fraudulent activitiesIf so, you’re not alone. These are challenges that depend on finding pertinent facts, many of which are buried in the volumes of electronic information most companies now have, quickly and efficiently. In the healthcare industry especially, where litigation and investigation risks are common, complex data environments can pose confounding obstacles to finding key information quickly.In the case of any litigation or investigation, it pays to be able to hit the ground running. Early and effective fact-finding can provide valuable insights for both company and counsel, enabling cost-effective resource alignment based on the strength of the case and faster development of the narrative.Since most insight comes from an assessment of facts that lie within electronically-stored information (ESI), advance preparation for data preservation and collection is critical. So is having the right methodology, tools and expertise in place to find key information once you’ve identified the most important data to explore. Here’s how to optimize those efforts.It's all about data. Plan accordingly.In today’s complex healthcare data landscape, knowing (and finding) the key documents and other information located within massive data collections is no mean feat. Although many data repositories in an enterprise are contained and accessible, today’s myriad data sources, from mobile devices to billing systems to sensor data, are growing in size and complexity every day. Advance planning can speed up the process and enable straightforward and beneficial negotiations with the opposing counsel or regulatory agency.What to do? In advance of litigation or investigation, make sure the enterprise maintains an inventory of data systems that includes descriptions of business owners, users, locations, functionality, backups, data types, possible PII/PHI, and a potential preservation/collection approach. Counsel and in-house legal teams should work with IT to organize this information in a format that can be useful for eDiscovery to enable an expeditious and organized response to a matter.Then make sure that you have the right experts to preserve/collect data from the implicated sources. You may need forensic collections or different ways to extract relevant information from certain data stores. Databases and other structured data sources may require reporting rather than collection techniques, for example, and it’s best to know that early, when you can inform and negotiate with the requesting agency or other side, setting expectations and mitigating potential conflict.Finding key documents quickly is essential. Scrap an out-of-date workflow and explore new methods and tools. There are complex needs involved in a litigation or investigation response and a dizzying array of service providers, tools and technologies to choose from, with new ones being offered every day. The traditional workflow of finding key documents—developing keyword search terms to cull the documents then performing a manual review—is just not efficient. New data analytics and machine learning tools (not to mention the experts that provide them) have opened up a whole new fact-finding horizon. Imagine a team of linguists and search experts with experience in the healthcare domain attacking a complex data population with advanced search and analytics tools going after key documents right from the very start. Actually experiencing how experts leverage such tools to accelerate time to critical insights may be eye-opening for any legal teams who have had to spend weeks and months trying to piece the facts together.What to do? If you haven’t explored new ways to find key documents, you’re probably bogged down with an out-of-date workflow. Pairing advanced analytics tools with the right expertise can accelerate fact-finding and document review, but you may have to try it to believe it. You could discover that having the right expertise on hand in advance of the need will expedite response efforts, reduce cost and risk, and lead to the best possible outcome.Learn more about finding facts fast with Key Document Identification. ediscovery-reviewblog, -investigations, key-document-identification, fact-finding, healthcare-litigation, healthcare-investigations, ediscovery-review,blog; key-document-identification; fact-finding; healthcare-litigation; healthcare-investigationslighthouse

In honor of International Women’s Day 2019, Lighthouse highlighted a few female thought leaders who are changing the game in the eDiscovery, compliance, and information governance space. Check out our featured ladies below and discover what they are doing to lead change as well as some of their key tips for success: Take a look at our 2020 International Women's Day Campaign!diversity-equity-and-inclusionediscovery-process, blog, diversity-equity-and-inclusion,ediscovery-process; bloglighthouse

We often get questions from our clients about how best to select an electronic discovery vendor. Important considerations in this process are what questions to ask, how best to compare vendors and what are the important issues that are typically missed in the selection process. In particular, our clients often tell us that they sometimes struggle in the vendor selection phase to be able to best assess the quality and capabilities of a vendor. Given the challenges of choosing the right vendor, we often hear that law firms default to making their decision based almost exclusively on price considerations. Our list of questions can help you make the right decision based on more than just price.Top Questions To Ask When Choosing an eDiscovery VendorScope of ServicesWhat services does the vendor offer?If case parameters change, will the vendor be able to meet your needs and time frames?Are there volume benefits/discounts if you use multiple services (e.g. processing, hosting and production versus just hosting)?What services are sub-contracted out and does data ever leave the vendor’s site?What size or type of case is too big for the vendor?What have been vendor’s toughest cases?Expertise (Not all vendors are created equal; and it is not all about price)What is the vendor’s knowledge level of the technical issues?Are the vendor’s employees certified in the tools they use?What is the vendor’s level of understanding of the legal process?Are there legal professionals on staff?How does the vendor’s expertise compare to other vendors?Quality of ServicesIs this a vendor that you could see yourself establishing a longer term relationship?How does the vendor manage ensuring high quality service consistently: accurate and on-time?Are errors tracked? What are considered errors? How are errors addressed?What do the references say about the vendor?Customer ServiceWhat hours does the vendor operate?How available are the vendor’s employees during non-business hours?How much lead time is needed for processing and production?How are cases staffed?Who is the primary point of contact? Is it the same throughout the case?What is the nature of the vendor’s project management team and approach?How are issues escalated?Technical SpecificationsDoes the vendor use proprietary versus non-proprietary software and what are the benefits/trade-offs?If the data is not being processed locally, what is the vendor’s FTP connection speeds and how does this compare with the law firm’s FTP speeds?What is the vendor’s policy on backing up data?What is the vendor’s policy regarding storing data?ediscovery-reviewediscovery-process, blog, ediscovery-review,ediscovery-process; bloglighthouse