Wednesday, October 12, 2011

E-Discovery 'Command' Culture Must Collapse



http://ow.ly/6VeOD

An article by Monica Bay, editor and chief of Law Technology News Magazine, posted on law.com on the LTN webpage.

This article touches on the concept that eDiscovery teams are a better model for dealing with litigation that involves electronically stored information, and the traditional Senior Partner structure within law firms is not as effective when it comes to dealing with eDiscovery issues.

The author states, "A dominant theme permeated Friday's fifth annual Colorado Association of Litigation Support Professionals' E-Discovery Summit: To succeed, litigants must embrace the concept of e-discovery teams and jettison the traditional vertical hierarchies where a senior partner or general counsel channels General George Patton.

"Command" models are doomed to failure, several panelists insisted. The time has come, they said, for true collaboration -- not only internally, but with opponents."

The article provides a detailed recap of the Colorado meeting, and also provides the following advice offered at the conference by William Hamilton, a partner at Quarles & Brady, "Have your litigation support professionals help you select vendors.

• Talk to IT. Provide context, help them understand what is being done. "Empower them and make them part of problem solving."

As for the non-lawyer professionals:

• "Stick your necks out! Don't be passive-aggressive. Get out there. Interact with the dialogue."
• Sometimes you have to conquer with small steps. if you do it right, you increase lawyers' wins.""

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