Category: Merits Counsel

3 Risks to Consider When Spreading Data Across Multiple Vendors

The old saying goes – “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” but what about in the case of consolidating your data? 

When working with my clients, it’s important for me to debunk this ever so common myth that moving their data to one vendor is “too risky.” Often, moving a project to one vendor can come with many benefits, especially if it is a vendor who is knowledgeable, certified, and secure.  

If you find yourself in a situation where your data is scattered among several places, in today’s day and age, it is important to have information governance practices in place to keep your data safe. Many of the frequent data security issues can be avoided by consolidating your data with a vendor that has trusted project managers who are certified in their technology. Some of the risks you may face with consolidating your data among multiple vendors include: 

1. Increased chance of working with a team who is not as experienced or certified.  

As the amount of data businesses generate continues to grow exponentially, managing and accessing it effectively has become increasingly challenging. With so many different eDiscovery vendors available, it can be tempting to spread your data across multiple platforms to avoid vendor lock-in. However, this can unfortunately increase the risk of lost data. 

By choosing one, certified and experienced vendor to consolidate your data to, you can keep all your data organized in a central place with a single point of contact. An experienced vendor like Acorn will ensure that your data is safe every step of the process, and will manage communications, expectations, and training that align to your litigation needs. Smaller vendors may also have more niche expertise and focus within a particular industry or practice area, allowing them to provide a more targeted, specialized approach.  

Your vendor should also guarantee your data’s integrity so that data is consolidated as a whole, with all work-product retained, and immediate access granted. It is important to make sure you don’t simply choose a larger vendor due to their size as you’ll need to consider your relationship with the vendor. At Acorn, personal communication with our clients is essential so that they are informed throughout the process every step of the way. 

2. Downstream troubles associated with consolidating your data to more than one vendor.  

Consolidating all your data with one eDiscovery vendor can provide numerous benefits by helping to simplify your data management. First, having all your data in one place can help you more efficiently monitor your data and quickly turn around document productions. You’ll also gain greater visibility into your data, allowing you to develop a more comprehensive understanding of potential compliance risks or areas where improvements can be made. 

If your data is scattered amongst multiple vendors, there is a higher chance of downtime with your projects. It is important to work with one vendor who can work with stakeholders to determine optimal downtime scheduling, while working around your litigation needs and timeline. Choosing a smaller vendor like Acorn allows you to work with a team that is more agile and able to adapt to changing trends and advancements in technology more quickly than larger vendors, who may be burdened by legacy systems and bureaucracy. This can result in faster turnaround times, improved accuracy and efficiency of data processing, and better overall project management. 

3. Higher pricing structure involved with consolidating data between multiple vendors.  

Additionally, working with a single vendor can help you save on costs, as you’ll be able to negotiate a more favorable pricing structure for a larger volume of data. By providing the vendor with a larger volume of data to manage, you can increase the value you bring to the table and potentially negotiate more favorable rates. Choosing a smaller vendor that has a more personalized approach to customer service and more flexible pricing options can be particularly beneficial, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. 

Moreover, dealing with multiple vendors can be time-consuming and can lead to increased communication costs. Coordinating with different vendors, managing multiple contracts, and performing multiple quality assurance checks can take up valuable resources and incur additional expenses. By consolidating your data with a single vendor, you can streamline these processes and reduce costs associated with coordinating with multiple vendors. 

Finally, consolidating your data with a single vendor can help to reduce the risks associated with managing multiple vendors. With a single vendor, you can establish a closer working relationship and ensure that your data is being managed consistently and securely. This can result in cost savings associated with mitigating risks and ensuring your data’s integrity.  

Final Thoughts 

As a consultant to my clients, it is my responsibility to ensure they understand the risks associated with consolidating their data. Now more than ever, it is important to keep your data secure and ensure that you are working with a vendor that you trust. Spreading your data across multiple vendors may not only incur additional costs, but also increase data privacy risks and downstream troubles across teams. There is certainly an advantage of using a vendor with a high-powered technology like RelativityOne, which has less chances of a data breach as your data is kept in the cloud through Microsoft Azure.  I advise all my clients to consolidate their data to a vendor who is both certified in their eDiscovery software and reliable in terms of communication and costs so they can remain confident that their data is in a safe place. 

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About Acorn 

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com. 

Streamlining Contract Analysis and Management with Relativity Contract

Relativity Contract is a powerful tool designed to optimize contract review/analysis, extraction, and management processes for legal professionals. By harnessing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, this application empowers users to automate tasks, extract key information from contracts, and gain valuable insights for informed decision-making through the entire contract life cycle.  

One significant advantage of Relativity Contract is its integration within the Relativity ecosystem. As contracts are already hosted within Relativity, this tool streamlines the processes if the same client later becomes the subject of litigation or investigation. Users gain the pole position in handling production requests and effectively managing reviews, including simultaneous reviews related to different matters. 

Relativity Contract also integrates with external systems relevant to contract management processes through Custom Connectors. With custom connectors, users can seamlessly import and export data from external systems or establish a real-time connection for synchronization and data updates. Some of the external systems include Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics and other Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Document Management systems, such as SharePoint or Dropbox, can also be connected.  

Use Cases of Relativity Contract for Clients: 

  • Regulatory Compliance: For clients in highly regulated industries, particularly regarding data privacy compliance, this is a great tool. It allows compliance officers to manage and monitor contractual obligations related to data privacy regulations, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). By quickly identifying contracts containing specific language or provisions pertaining to data privacy compliance, the application facilitates privacy impact assessments and ensures adherence to regulatory requirements. The tool makes discussion of necessary actions and compliance remediation steps collaborative and seamless. Automated workflows and reminders track key dates and contract renewals, addressing potential compliance gaps proactively. 
  • Insurance: After a natural or man-created disaster, insurance companies face a surge of property insurance claims. Relativity Contract can assist in efficiently organizing and analyzing the relevant insurance contract associated with each claim. The tool enables quick searching and retrieval of specific policies based on policyholder information, property addresses, or policy provisions. It expedites claim resolution by identifying clauses and provisions, facilitating communication, and improving efficiency during the claim handling process.  
  • Mergers & Acquisitions: Relativity Contract proves instrumental in managing the complexities of mergers and acquisitions. With numerous contracts involved, ranging from supplier agreements to customer contracts and employment agreements, the tool establishes a centralized and automated contract management process. It extracts and organizes key metadata, expediting due diligence by allowing quick search and retrieval of specific contracts based on various criteria. Machine learning algorithms identify crucial clauses and provisions, aiding the review and analysis of risks and obligations tied to the M&A deal. 

Relativity Contract holds potential beyond these scenarios. For debt collections and credit card companies, it aids in identifying relevant provisions, ensuring compliance, tracking important dates, and maintaining an audit trail of communications and actions during the debt collection process. The application’s document management capabilities enable effective organization and tracking, facilitating comprehensive views of collection efforts. 

If you would like to see a demo of Relativity Contract, please feel free to reach out to me at Robin.LeDonne@AcornLS.com. I am also happy to discuss how this technology may work for your case, or exchange thoughts on what other technology in the market may fit.  

About Robin:  

Robin averages 16 years of eDiscovery experience and is a licensed attorney in the state of California. She plays a key role in the planning and implementation of eDiscovery projects, consulting with clients, and providing direction and support to Acorn’s operations. In 2003, Robin began her career in civil litigation, most notably representing victims of sexual abuse. Dealing with vast amount of paper discovery, during a time when many firms were transitioning to become paper free, she was interested in how data itself would be organized in the future. Soon thereafter, in 2008, Robin transitioned to the eDiscovery industry, starting first as a document reviewer, then as a project manager. 

About Acorn:  

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.  

Not a Miracle Worker: 3 Realistic Expectations to Set in a Document Review

For those who haven’t had the pleasure yet – most things are due yesterday if we are lucky and 2 weeks ago if we are doing things right. This is something that seems to hold especially true in document review. But let’s be honest with each other about this. We can craft a plan, budget, and assemble a team for you, but we can’t work miracles. Believe me, if I could, I would!  

If we have 100K documents, due last week, that need to be reviewed in 3 days through a holiday weekend, it just isn’t realistic. Sure, anything is possible with enough manpower and money, but throwing 100 reviewers at a project is probably unrealistic, and something I would never advise my clients attempting. So, assuming we aren’t working miracles, what we can do is proactively put a plan in place and create a road map to success that’ll give you real milestones, a set budget, and effectively hit deadlines.  

I’ve had the privilege of working closely with numerous law firms and attorneys, and over time I’ve discovered three aspects that make a real difference when it comes to maximizing the benefits of your review manager. First is setting honest expectations and timelines. Second is providing access to the project and review team metrics. Third is staying informed on budget targets and changes. 

So now that we are going to create a plan and understand the key aspects to address, let’s see why they matter and the impact they can make.  

A Strategic Approach: Setting Honest Expectations 

Just as in any phase of discovery, document review doesn’t lack surprises and something simple can become daunting quickly. But it doesn’t have to.  

The first step you can take to accomplish this is to ensure you set honest expectations with your review manager. For example, if the review was due ten days ago, let your review manager know so they can set realistic expectations. The same thing applies if the real deadline is six weeks away vs. four weeks. We can only plan around what we know.  

This allows us to strategically source the best-fit team for the job and allows us to advise if using artificial intelligence or prioritized review workflows could be beneficial too. AI and prioritized workflows don’t always make economic sense or create notable efficiency on smaller or faster reviews, but it should always be evaluated and discussed, as cost savings can be noticeable. Often, I see a cost reduction reach up to 15-30%, or tens of thousands of dollars.  

Technically, just throwing bodies at a review project and not taking a strategic approach can work. But this comes with its own risks, which are usually higher costs and uncertainty. With clear, real timelines, we can craft a team with proven performance that confidently can navigate us through our timeline. This will also allow us to focus on elevating the team’s individual performance and understand where we can train up or remove a member of the team if there is unsatisfactory performance.  

Along with transparency on deadlines, be clear and concise about what the review will actually entail, as these factors can significantly reduce and increase the timeline if not accounted for at the onset of the project. For example, a linear 1,000 single-page document review is very different from 1,000 PDFs that contain 10s of documents each, which may also require redactions.  

Keeping Tabs on Progress: Daily and Weekly Metric Reporting 

We owe it to our clients to keep them up to date on every step throughout their projects. You should set these expectations with your review manager at the onset so there is never a misunderstanding about where the project stands. What good is a plan, if you have no clue where we are at in it, right?  

Don’t just trust that everything is just running smoothly because documents are being tagged. You should have the facts and metrics to know that they are. I encourage clients to ask their review managers or partners for reports and statistics that clearly capture the review’s status and performance. Not only should your review manager already be leveraging these to optimize their role, but this can assist clients to make strategic decisions throughout the review process. For example, there can be trends that are emerging, a prevalence of key issues that they may want to examine, or key documents that can supplement their case strategy and communications with their end clients. Ultimately, we all put ourselves at a disadvantage by not leveraging the wealth of supplementary information that should be readily available throughout a project.  

At Acorn, we put a strong emphasis on analysis and leveraging these metrics at all stages as part of our review manager’s role, and ensuring our clients also have access to them through daily reports. What metrics should be tracked and focused on should also be discussed, as every client and case is different. Generally, these reports provide an overview of the project’s status and a granular look at each reviewer’s performance and decisions. At the very least, the reporting should include an overview of documents reviewed, remaining, percent complete, average project pace, and coding distribution. From there we then dive into the granular metrics on a per-reviewer level to see how each member of the team is performing. This could include their hours, document views, document edits, individual coding decisions, etc.   

These updates also allow our team to not only identify any potential risks and take action, but also opportunities to reduce time and costs. By maintaining and actively monitoring the metrics against the set goals and expectations, clients and their review managers can work together and find comfort in a successful and streamlined review.  

Stay in the Loop: Budget, Targets and Changes 

Once we have the timeline locked in, the other thing that will continually be top of mind is the budget, at least for me. In eDiscovery, no one wants to miss their budget targets, whether they’re set by their team or their client—but it is a possibility we all face from case to case. Fortunately, it is usually preventable and at the very least mitigable. 

Performance metrics are the northern star of the review. Specifically, the team’s average throughout. This ties back into expectations on what the review entails as complexities can take a throughput from 50+ docs/hour to 30-40 docs/hour. This can create a huge impact on the timeline of the project, which translates to impacts on the budget. By consistently reviewing the team’s throughout metrics, as well as coding metrics, this helps ensure the team remains on track. This also allows us to raise any concerns with our client immediately to set expectations and strategies on how we can adjust to bring the project back in line. 

Outside of this, I have developed a spreadsheet that allows me to understand and forecast how numerous factors, such as team size, throughput, rework, expansion of scope, etc. affect the timeline and budget. This allows me to confidently propose a team lineup and the resources needed. If a review’s timeline is 4 weeks, I won’t staff to hit 4 weeks as this provides us with little to no room to pivot or provide additional accommodation when needed.  

By looking at the review from various scenarios, I can get a sense of our worst and best case and find the sweet spot in the middle that allows us to mitigate any curveballs or unknowns. When these projects don’t have the luxury of pushing out a day or two, guaranteeing we can hit the mark regardless of any obstacles is essential. 

Conclusion  

A huge part of our success at Acorn is continuous communication between me and the review manager throughout the project. I’ll focus on the budget and timeline and escalate any news to the client, sharing my forecasts and projections with my review manager and incorporating their input. The review manager keeps a focus on efficiency, monitoring the team’s performance, coding consistencies, and fielding questions, as well as implementing, recommending, and monitoring analytics and automation that can create real value for the client. By combining our focuses and keeping continuous communication throughout, we can cover all facets of the project. 

Clients should also always feel comfortable sharing their feedback on review processes, communication methods, and any other concerns they may have. Ultimately, we are here to help you, and anyway we can do that more effectively is welcomed. This feedback is also essential in ensuring that the review manager meets the client’s expectations and can provide opportunities for improvements.  

One thing I think we can agree on is that data continues to grow at a rapid pace and review projects show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Personally, these 3 expectations have been extremely beneficial for me and my clients in helping them have an efficient, well-run review for matters they bring over to Acorn. 

Remember, these expectations should be the rule, not the exception.  

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About Acorn

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.

Access to Justice Amidst Injustice: Using Tech to Prove Accountability for Child Abuse

“Relativity’s Justice for Change program gives us an advantage in an industry where we are always fighting uphill. It gives us an edge to be able to use RelativityOne and find that one detail that saves our case. We are in the business of protecting children, so we need to get around any biases and save these kids and these mothers,” said Cynthia Cummings, a case manager at Child Justice.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit in the state of Maryland, Child Justice has a strong track record of advocating for children’s rights when the courts fail to protect them in cases of abuse and domestic violence. Recently, attorneys at Child Justice represented a complex family court matter involving child sexual abuse. Through Relativity’s Justice for Change program, they partnered with Acorn Legal Solutions to host and review case documents in RelativityOne.

Fighting Courts’ Biases to Protect Maryland’s Children

When claims of abuse are made, Child Justice steps in to protect Maryland’s children who are “lost in the system” after exposure to family violence, physical and/or sexual abuse, substance addictions, or neglect. Pro bono attorneys working with Child Justice provide abuse victims with highly skilled legal services for lower court and appellate court cases. These free legal services help keep children out of the hands of their abusers.

A substantial portion of Child Justice clients are mothers of color, many of whom are not proficient in English, who are trying to protect their children from abusive fathers. Utilizing RelativityOne makes a critical difference in a legal setting where racial and gender bias exists within courts: hard evidence is needed in these cases, as oral testimony is not often considered reliable.

Due to the allegations of abuse and common counter-allegations regarding mental health, Child Justice’s cases involve multiple expert witnesses for multiple-day trials. And since many of the allegations in these cases involve medical and mental health records, each expert has a voluminous document load for their testimony. As a result, one of their biggest challenges for trial is managing and organizing the volume of documents they’ll need to review and, potentially, present to the court. 

“This program is a huge advantage for us. It raises respect for the victims in these cases, who so often fall through the cracks because this is an area where legal services are really expensive, finding good advocacy is hard, and issues are often not seen. This is an enormous improvement,” said Eileen King, founder and executive director of Child Justice.

To support their most recent case, Child Justice had to review thousands of documents—many of them PDFs—to determine patterns within the evidence and create a chronological timeline of abuse.

The Truth Behind the Documents: Using Case Dynamics to Determine History of Abuse

“We don’t have the time or manpower to handle reviewing 4,000 documents 200 times for one specific issue. It’s just not possible. We’re never going to get 100 percent of everything, but Relativity makes it very close once you get to know what search terms to use,” said Ada Husten, a paralegal at Child Justice.

When taking on their case surrounding a high-conflict divorce involving child sexual abuse allegations, Child Justice urgently reached out to the Justice for Change program, which provides free use of Relativity’s cloud-based e-discovery product to organizations doing legal work on behalf of social justice and racial equity. They were paired with Chicago-based Justice for Change partner Acorn Legal Solutions, who could provide access to the e-discovery technology and expertise they needed.

“Acorn had a lot of experience and advanced knowledge of the functionality of Case Dynamics in RelativityOne. They gave us suggestions to automatically load or tag certain things, which saved us so much more time. We didn’t have to explain our litigation experience to Acorn because they already knew what we were talking about, and there wasn’t any misunderstanding or lack of being able to jump from litigation lingo to IT lingo,” said Cynthia.

Through the Justice for Change program, Child Justice was able to use Case Dynamics to get specific about the facts they needed to find in a document and give each fact a timeline. By identifying each fact individually, they were able to create a chronology within Relativity and search by a specific issue or a specific person. They then were able to take those facts and documents, and package them through the reporting function to hand over to the attorneys so they would have a succinct issue packet which they could then use to prepare questions for witnesses at trial.

They also sent the report to the experts who were going to testify, coding relevant documents that were specific to each particular expert and giving them a narrative on that particular issue and any sub-issues.

“Our facts weren’t ambiguous at all. It was one fact after another. We hit them hard because Relativity allowed us to get down into the weeds to find that last detail. Instead of just having one document or a text message supporting that statement, we had 300,” said Ada.

The Power of Partnership

This partnership highlights one of the most essential factors of the Justice for Change program: creating a partnership that allows non-profits like Child Justice to have access to an organizational, time-saving tool along with project managers who have advanced knowledge and expertise.

“We are proud to be a hosting partner of the Justice for Change program, as it fosters an opportunity for us to have a positive impact on racial and social justice in our communities,” said Lia Majid, CEO at Acorn Legal Solutions. “I am grateful that our team can make a difference by democratizing access to e-discovery technology and providing support for those organizations in need of it.”

In this situation, with help from Acorn and RelativityOne, Child Justice was not only able to find one broad issue within the evidence, but had proof to back it up with mass quantities of documentation in that particular category. “We were able to get into the weeds with no stone unturned. Issues were arising that we didn’t even know were there,” Ada remarked.

The breadth of RelativityOne’s capabilities, along with Acorn’s expertise creating time saved, allowed the Child Justice team to protect this child, and turn the tables on the biases of the court system and society. “Because of Relativity, this child was safe, and mom was able to breathe again,” said Eileen.

Justice for Change partners like Acorn Legal Solutions make it possible for non-profit organizations to have access to the technology they need, without having to manually review a large number of documents in a short amount of time.

“We are seeing organizations with the same data challenges our customers face who often can’t use technology because of the budget constraints of nonprofit work,” said Johnathan Hill, who leads Relativity’s Justice for Change program. “We’re proud to remove that barrier of technology and play a small role empowering organizations like Child Justice to pursue justice.”

These partnerships create access to justice for those who have been victims of abuse. We hope that stories like these will urge other law firms and non-profit organizations to take action, as there is always a way to create justice in the face of injustice.

How to Effectively Run a Review: Reduce Overall Costs by Up to 30% with Successful Project Ramp Up & Management

Continuing on the subject of review, the largest cost driver within the EDRM, we will consider how the factors of rework and throughput can often be hidden burdens to managing a review project.  

Last time, we focused on defining these infrequently discussed cost drivers of review. Today, we will hone in on how to reduce costs through an effective project ramp-up and successful review management. 

Establishing the Numbers 

Let’s recap the assumptions we will continue to work off of. In this scenario, we have 100,000 documents that need to be reviewed, with 15,000 documents needing to be re-reviewed (reworked) at a review throughput rate of 40 docs/hour, at a $42/hour rate. With these rework and throughput rates accounted for, this results in 115,000 effective documents reviewed. 

In today’s exercise, we will take a look at how optimizing your review team from the start and effectively managing your team throughout the project can have significant cost savings. 

Is a Large Review Team Worth It? 

In our previous Groundhog Day webinar, Senior Project Advisor Robin LeDonne discussed the importance of choosing a small efficient team of high-skilled, quality, trained reviewers, “Like a coach preparing for a game, you need to figure out who would be good on which review project and why,” Robin explained. 

By keeping track of your pool of reviewers who have a proven track record of good performance, along with being familiar with your processes, you can rest assured that your review will likely move in a positive direction. And just to be sure, let’s take a look at what the numbers say. 

In the example above, we see that having an efficient review team that has been properly trained results in the number of documents reviewed increasing by 6 additional documents/hour. Just by being strategic on who you pick on your review team, this will lower the number of documents that need to be reworked by 12%. This shows how small tweaks to your review project from the beginning can lower the overall cost of the budget by almost 20%! 

Does Reviewer Efficiency Factor into the Puzzle? 

Reducing review costs doesn’t stop at the beginning of the project. To consistently reduce review costs, you need to lower the amount of rework. So, monitoring your review team becomes increasingly important. Using reports and statistics to actively monitor your team will show you how many documents reviewers are coding per hour, as well as the overall pace of the project. 

Let’s say, for example, you have six reviewers on a project and the standard norm for reviewers is roughly 40-50 documents an hour. Like the example below, you may have one rockstar reviewer that is reviewing 90 docs/hour, have some reviewers who are reviewing in the 40-45 range, one reviewer that is a little bit below the bar, and two reviewers that are way below the average. 

Robin discussed, “So, if I was managing this team, I would coach reviewer 1, cut reviewer number 2 and 3 immediately since they are below average, and I would flag reviewer 6 to peek at later to make sure that their coding is consistent, and they aren’t just flying through without making informed decisions on each document.” 

Robin’s decision to cut reviewers 2 and 3 in this scenario shows that although the weeks to complete the review may increase by 1.3 weeks, the throughput of the reviewers is also increasing from 41 documents/hour up to 53 documents/hour. 

Even though this sample review project was extended for an additional week, it still allowed for a decrease in costs. By reducing the team, it increased documents reviewed to 53 from 40, aka 13 more documents an hour, and lowered rework by 6% which is a 30% reduction on total cost. 

How You Can Apply This 

You may fear cutting low-performing reviewers in order to meet deadlines on time, but this scenario shows that quality reviewers have a more significant effect on the budget than time to completion. Through strategic, incremental changes to your review team, you can see how using a small, efficient team reduces risks of inconsistencies that can affect the quality and costs of your review. 

Stay tuned for next month as we continue this exercise and examine how we can leverage advanced technologies to further streamline our review and further reduce our total costs. 

____________

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About Acorn

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.

Groundhog Day 2023 | How to Effectively Run a Review Project: Not Your Standard View

Every year, Acorn presents our Groundhog Day webinar to address changes and trends within the ever-changing and growing eDiscovery industry. With budgets and economic concerns currently at the forefront in every industry, Acorn’s CEO, Lia Majid, and Senior Project advisor, Robin LeDonne, approached the largest cost driver within the EDRM – review. Instead of explaining review in terms of line-item costs, they addressed the not-so-frequently discussed cost drivers that can secretly cause review budgets to escalate. 

Recently, our team presented with Lawline CLE to discuss the largest cost driver of the review cycle, which is the actual reviewing of the documents. However, pricing as a means to reduce the total cost of review has largely been pushed as far as it goes. We’ve found that for the most part, the prices for services have really been squeezed as much as they can, and there just isn’t any more juice to give. Where there is room, though, is with strategic workflows.  

So, what drives the costs of document review to the point that the document review process is the biggest cost driver? 

Cost Drivers of Document Review 

This leads us to two of the major cost drivers in review: rework and throughput. Lia defined review in terms of these Six Sigma techniques, relating them to Gordon Ramsey’s popular TV series Hell’s Kitchen.  

Throughput 

She described throughput as the total document views per hour, not the total unique document views per hour. Lia explained. “Let’s use Hell’s Kitchen as an example. There are two sources of throughput: the non-controllable factor (fish per hour made at the stove) and the controllable factor (fish going out to the customer). If 50 documents are each reviewed 2 times in an hour, or 100 documents are reviewed once in an hour, the throughput is going to be the same.”  

Rework 

The difference between the two throughput definitions is primarily how we’d define rework. For example, if the chef presents 1 raw fish for every 10 fish he completes, his rework would be 10%.  

For 50 dishes ordered in an hour, the Effective Ordering Rate is now cooking 55 fish every hour to deliver the 50 he needed. Similarly, a document review may have 100,000 documents to review, but 115,000 Effective Documents to review. 

What Matters More? 

 Since both rework, which evaluates the efficiency of the reviewer and throughput, the hourly rate of the reviewer matter a lot in terms of cost, how do we choose which one matters more?   

We know that we want efficient, knowledgeable reviewers that also have a high review rate. However, although they do exist, they are rare. Generally, we must make a choice, and a lot of times that choice is going to be based on the type of review – is it a basic responsive review, or is it going to be an issue driven review with several issues that will also need to be reviewed for privilege. With a basic review, the focus may be on just getting through a first pass on the documents, in which case the hourly rate matters. The latter, an issue driven review where there are tons of issues and privilege calls to be made, efficiency may matter more. ​ 

But what if there is a way to always know what should matter more?  

In our upcoming series, we will be addressing the improvements that need to be made throughout a review project in order to improve standard review operations and significantly cut costs. Using a typical review framework, we will show how an effective project ramp up, successful review management, reviewer optimization, and coding consistencies can lead to a predictable, stress-free review. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming blog series to stay informed of these actionable strategies that can immediately combat significant cost drivers of review! To view the full 2023 Groundhog Day session, click here. 

About Acorn

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.

Lawline CLE Recap | Managing the Total Cost of Review: A Step-by-Step View

Our CEO Lia Majid and Senior Project Advisor Robin LeDonne recently presented with Lawline CLE on actionable strategies to improve your workflow leading up to review. Within their CLE, Lia and Robin walked through a series of scenarios to demonstrate how your choices prior to review affect the total cost of review. 

Reduce Costs with Strategic Workflow 

Robin and Lia identified one scenario that showed how targeting and narrowing the scope of collections reduces review costs by up to approximately 30%. Secondly, Robin and Lia identified how an early investment in Early Case Assessment to reduce your cull rate by a few percent leads to cost reductions of up to approximately 15%. Lastly, they identified how investing in advanced analytics, such as active learning, can lead to significant cost reductions of up to approximately 30%. 

Talking through these scenarios, Lia and Robin explained how strategic workflows can provide a significant amount of budget efficiency beyond just line-item reductions. By identifying strategic opportunities throughout the life of your project, you can continue to seize all possible cost savings. Lia and Robin identified these 3 effective ways to do so and stressed that they all don’t need to be utilized, but by adopting just one of these approaches you are going to see significant results pretty quickly.   

Court Decisions Supporting TAR Workflows 

Next, Robin discussed how courts have increasingly accepted technology assisted review (TAR) tools and workflows to assist parties in meeting their discovery obligations, and specifically covered the Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe & MSL Grp. case which was the first case to approve the use of TAR. Robin also mentioned the Rio Tinto PLC v. Vale, S.A., et al. case which highlighted how case law has developed to the point that it is “now black letter law that if the producing party wants to utilize TAR for document review, courts will permit it.” 

Recent Case Law Supporting Analytics 

Robin then went on to explain two recent cases supporting TAR and Analytics, which were the Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation and the City of Rockford v. Mallinckrodt. Within these two cases, the court established a detailed TAR Review Protocol that included document culling, repetitive keyword searching that accounts for synonyms and misspellings, and emailing threading to cull out duplicative emails. The court also established a validation or QC process that satisfies the FRCP 26(g)(1) requirement that “made a reasonable effort to assure that the client had provided all the information and documents available that are responsive to the discovery demand.” 

Information Governance 

Another big cost driver Robin and Lia discussed that is specific to corporations is information governance. Information governance refers to a strategic framework for managing information at an organizational level – in a digital context, as well as physical assets, such as devices and printed documents. There are many regional and international standards for managing information at scale, and the regulatory compliance landscape is evolving every year. 

Lia and Robin explained how changes to data privacy regulations have brought about changes to data security policies, including GDPR laws. Changes to regulation mean changes to information governance policies which will in turn drive the cost of information governance in total. 

Data Mapping  

They then explained how a good real-life example of the application of information governance is legal hold. A legal hold (also known as a litigation hold) is a notification sent from an organization’s legal team to employees instructing them not to delete electronically stored information (ESI) or discard paper documents that may be relevant to a new or imminent legal case. 

The most important step before even preserving the data is data mapping.  Data mapping is the process of creating a comprehensive inventory of an organization’s data. Data maps for eDiscovery generally include the following:  

  • Data Locations – where does the data live? How is it stored?  
  • What types of data is your company creating – such as with Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc.   
  • What kind of information is in the data?   
  • Custodian – Who creates the Data 
  • Who is responsible for keeping or deleting the data?   
  • Are the people responsible educated on their duties?  
  • Are there retention policies around the data?  
  • Who is responsible for retrieving the data if needed? 

Having this legal data audit provides you with information to proactively manage your data map, which ultimately manages costs, reduces risk associated with legal data, and creates a roadmap for managing legal data on an on-going basis. 

Throughout their course, Robin and Lia discussed how review has long been a huge expense in the eDiscovery process. However, it is now facing added pressures from new challenges with evolving data types and volumes, data privacy regulations, and considerations for managing remote review teams as well. Even with these new challenges, creating efficiency for your review can still be easily achievable through information governance, data mapping, and legal holds, which directly translates to reduced total costs. Since review is always the greatest cost driver, Lia and Robin mentioned, any opportunity you have to reduce its scope—and, in turn, its costs—should be seized. 

About Acorn

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.

Announcing Acorn’s Justice for Change Partnership with Child Justice

Acorn Legal Solutions Establishes Pro Bono Hosting Partnership through Relativity’s Justice for Change

Acorn will support Justice for Change grant recipients in their use of RelativityOne 

CHICAGO, IL – November 23, 2022 – Acorn Legal Solutions, a woman-led eDiscovery firm headquartered in Chicago, today announced its designation as a Hosting Partner with Relativity’s Justice for Change program. This partnership will enable Acorn to provide hosting, administrative and project management support to grant recipient organizations in their use of RelativityOne.

“We are proud to be a Hosting Partner of the Justice for Change program as it fosters an opportunity for us to have a positive impact on racial and social justice in our communities,” said Lia Majid, CEO at Acorn Legal Solutions. “I am grateful that our team can make a difference by democratizing access to eDiscovery technology and providing support for those organizations in need of it.”

Acorn will be partnering with Maryland-based non-profit Child Justice to provide hosting and production of documents related to a case of child abuse. Child Justice’s cases are often highly document intensive as allegations of abuse often involve multiple expert witnesses as well as medical and mental health records. Acorn will help Child Justice manage and organize this large volume of documents using RelativityOne to present as evidence to the court.

Relativity’s Justice for Change program focuses on increasing access to justice by providing free use of its cloud-based e-discovery product RelativityOne to organizations tackling legal cases and academic and policy research related to racial and social justice. Specifically, Justice for Change has allocated 100TB of RelativityOne data to be used on pro bono projects led by customers or nonprofit organizations. Through the Justice for Change hosting partnership, Acorn is committed to the continuous pursuit of justice through great pro bono work and building important connections with Child Justice.

“We are grateful that Acorn is providing access to RelativityOne in order to defend our client’s case and shed light on other horrific cases of child abuse,” said Eileen King, Founder & Program Director at Child Justice. “The ability to use this technology will not only help our current client but can show other parents in similar situations that limited resources should not prevent them from accessing the justice they deserve.”

Child Justice’s cases often contain thousands of documents, making them quite complex for family court matters. Utilizing RelativityOne will provide the Child Justice team the tools to tag and search documents for multiple issues, utilize Case Dynamics for timelines and chronologies, prepare witnesses and experts for testimony, fulfill discovery requirements, and identify all issues in their case.

“We are thrilled to welcome Acorn as a Justice for Change Hosting Partner. Lia and the team are incredibly supportive of the program’s mission, and it is clear they are dedicated and determined to help organizations like Child Justice succeed in their fight for justice,” said Jaclyn Sattler, Manager for Strategy and Business Operations at Relativity. “Watching organizations like Acorn commit to the program is so inspiring and we can’t wait to see how they continue to leverage their resources for those seeking justice.”

Organizations, including current Relativity customers, doing legal work on behalf of racial justice that would benefit from software to help them organize and search documents and build out a case narrative can apply for free use of our cloud-based e-discovery product, RelativityOne. To learn more, visit: https://www.relativity.com/company/giving-back/justice-for-change/

About Acorn 

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Although capable of serving AmLaw 100 Law Firms and Corporate Legal departments, Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications.

About Child Justice

Child Justice is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that advocates for children’s rights when the courts fail to protect them in cases of abuse and domestic violence. Child Justice is dedicated to ensuring a child’s right to be legally protected from an abusive parent. Working with well-respected law firms, Child Justice provides legal services that protect Maryland children “lost in the system” after exposure to family violence, physical and/or sexual abuse, substance addictions or neglect. Pro Bono attorneys working with Child Justice provide abuse victims with highly skilled legal services for lower court and appellate court cases. These free legal services help to keep children out of the hands of their abusers.

About Relativity

Relativity makes software to help users organize data, discover the truth and act on it. Its SaaS product RelativityOne manages large volumes of data and quickly identifies key issues during litigation and internal investigations. The AI-powered communication surveillance product, Relativity Trace proactively detects regulatory misconduct like insider trading, collusion and other non-compliant behavior. Relativity has more than 300,000 users in approximately 40 countries serving thousands of organizations globally primarily in legal, financial services and government sectors, including the U.S. Department of Justice and 199 of the Am Law 200. Relativity has been named one of Chicago’s Top Workplaces by the Chicago Tribune for 12 consecutive years. Please contact Relativity at sales@relativity.com or visit http://www.relativity.com for more information.

Relativity Fest Roundup: Data Management Strategies, Innovation Award Lightning Round Session, and More!

The Acorn team was delighted to join everyone at this year’s Relativity Fest in-person to reconnect and stay informed of the latest developments and innovations in the industry and RelativityOne.  

With informative sessions covering everything from managing and protecting modern data, navigating data privacy risks in the current digital landscape, and using RelativityOne integrations to solve these challenges, this year’s event was filled with pertinent information regarding the current state of the industry and its dynamic changes to come.  

1. FTI-Relativity General Counsel Report 

Ari Kaplan, Principal, Ari Kaplan Advisors 
David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity 
Wendy King, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting 
Celia Perez, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, FreightCar America 

Ari Kaplan discussed that data protection and privacy were the top two concerns of legal risks for business today due to remote work, changes in technology, GDPR requirements, data breaches, and ransomware attacks. Regulatory compliance was also listed as a major concern, “There is a lot of uncertainty since there are so many different avenues in which the regulations can change in fundamental ways, and I think this is amplified from administration changeovers when you have different focuses from presidential administration which impacts the way the FDA will inspect. Overall, this affects the thread of class action litigation which is tied to regulatory lapses based on false advertising or failure to disclose” Kaplan observed. 

The report found that legal departments are also being greatly impacted by demands in capacity, resources, and budgets, as many law departments mentioned experiencing some level of strain surrounding growth, talent retention, and inability to hire talent with specialized skillsets. It came as no surprise that 67% of respondents are considering the role of AI to alleviate these capacity demands. With greater concern surrounding data privacy, using high-powered technology and AI can help to relieve the burden on legal teams who are experiencing strains on capacity and resources.  

From our point of view, the growing concerns regarding data privacy risks as well as the current lack of eDiscovery talent and expertise all point to a need for corporate teams to more pro-actively partner with providers to manage their data.  

2. How Modern Corporations Should Approach Owning Their Data

Michallynn Demiter, eDiscovery Expert, Bayer 
Rishi Chhatwal, Director & Associate General Counsel, Coinbase 
Kristin Sunderman, Litigation Support Director, Freddie Mac 
Eduardo Martinez Jr., Senior Counsel, Litigation & Investigations, UPS 
Charles McCloughan, Sales Engineer, Relativity 

This session revealed that data volumes are expected to experience significant growth in the next three years. eDiscovery teams can ensure their data is being managed appropriately by completing a full assessment to determine where data is located. Speakers also mentioned the importance of limiting the amount of data that leaves your company, minimizing data transfers, and creating data retention policies for each platform in your organization.  

Migrating data into RelativityOne can be an effective solution for data management. Rishi Chhatwal, Director & Associate General Counsel at Coinbase discussed how “technology allows us to consolidate our data. If you pick the right partner for your solution, you can consolidate where your data lives, and how much it costs to host it, which creates lasting efficiencies to pull, collect, search, and view that data.” 

As we continue to see the increasing need for data management strategies, this session furthered our view that utilizing highly secure technology can be beneficial for keeping data safe. 

3. What to Expect in the New Frontier of Corporate e-Discovery

Jason Pickens, VP Cybersecurity, JP Morgan Chase & Co 
Henry Link, Associate General Counsel – eDiscovery & Information Governance, Meta Platforms 
Andrew Watts, Chief Customer Officer, Relativity 
Nirav Shah, eDiscovery Manager, The Home Depot 
Mrs. Jessica Abud, Manager, Legal Operations, Kyndryl 

In this session, corporate speakers emphasized the common challenge of collecting and preserving new data types that have emerged in recent years. Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams have posed many challenges, as Henry Link at Meta discussed, “There is no longer just a communication tool where you can collect linear ESI. The sad thing with Teams and these modern communication platforms is that you can go back and reply to previous messages, which can lead to issues with discovery.” 

As modern data becomes more of an interconnected web between different platforms, legal departments are working with eDiscovery partners to understand the scope of these new challenges. Completing discovery for new collaboration software often requires more attention to content sentiment, context, and collection of less structured data. Utilizing AI can solve some of these challenges but can also pose issues around bias and missing the nuances of human thought and communication. 

With these upcoming challenges in mind for the future of eDiscovery, our project managers continue to use RelativityOne’s integrations with collaboration platforms to gain an accurate representation of the data collected.  

4. Lightning Round: Innovation Award Tech Finalists

Not only did we have a chance to learn more about how to effectively use Relativity technology at Relativity Fest, we were also proud to be nominated in both the Customer Experience and Solution Provider categories of the Innovation Awards this year. Our Director of eDiscovery Tracey Oldenburg presented in the Innovation Award Lightning Round Session with information about Acorn’s eDiscovery BackOffice™ Mass Export Natives application. 

We were eager to share our app development within RelativityOne, as well as stay informed of the continual enhancements to RelativityOne technology at this year’s event. Despite the exciting changes and advancements regarding eDiscovery data and technology, we found that law firms and corporations are aware that these developments can also come with risks. This year’s Relativity Fest was an important opportunity for our team to better understand the eDiscovery concerns our clients currently face, and to learn how RelativityOne is working to combat security risks and provide safe data management options.  

We are grateful that the information from this year’s Relativity Fest will help us to be a better guide for our clients as we take on the challenges of the dynamic eDiscovery landscape. 

About Acorn

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.

5 Tips for Selecting an eDiscovery Partner

eDiscovery is an essential component of litigation, but this phase of discovery has become increasingly complicated as the amount of electronic data and data sources continues to skyrocket in growth year over year. Often, firms may not have the bandwidth or the expertise to handle eDiscovery in-house. Due to these factors, eDiscovery partners have become very common and can be relied upon to handle the large amounts of data needed for litigation.

eDiscovery partners can provide crucial support through the different phases of the discovery process, starting at collection through review, production, and case completion. An eDiscovery partner will also be able to assist you at the beginning of the matter to develop a targeted strategy and workflow with defined goals and budget. This creates not only a seamless, defined, and understood process allowing your case team to work collaboratively with your eDiscovery partner.

It may be overwhelming to choose between an eDiscovery partner out of the many options available today, and there are a few important metrics to take into account when evaluating and deciding on which partner works best for you. The choice of an eDiscovery partner can have a significant impact on the success (and cost) of your case, so it is essential to hire someone you can trust, particularly since you are dealing with sensitive client data.

1) Level of Customer Support

eDiscovery isn’t always simple and clear-cut, which is why it’s necessary to work with a Project Manager who provides dedicated support from the beginning to the end of your case. When looking for an eDiscovery partner, find out whether you will have a direct and consistent point of contact throughout your case. Does the partner pride themselves on being customer-focused? Do they not only provide technical eDiscovery services but also provide insights and consulting?

The technical experience of a project manager is just one piece of finding the right eDiscovery partner. Ensure that you will be working with a dedicated project manager who is available to you and understands the overarching goals of the case and works in collaboration with your team to develop the most efficient and cost-effective workflows for each matter.

2) Capabilities & Expertise

There is a tremendous level of experience required to understand complex eDiscovery software and workflows. When you are searching for an eDiscovery partner, check the years of experience the current project managers on the team possess. Do they have the technical acumen required to successfully handle all the phases of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM)? Has the team attained certifications as an expert or master in their current technology platform and do they hold related eDiscovery certifications? For example, if the provider uses RelativityOne, are their project managers Relativity Experts or Relativity Masters?

The technical knowledge of a project manager will likely determine the quality of work with a chosen eDiscovery partner. Not only should your eDiscovery partner have the technical capabilities to complete the phases of eDiscovery, but it’s also important they have the expertise to produce superior outcomes for your case.

3) Service Offerings

Before choosing an eDiscovery partner, you must determine their scope of services and if the services they offer meet your needs. Whether you require assistance with litigation support, consulting, collection, hosting, review, production, or managed review, doing some research into the partner’s service lines is a simple and quick step to ensure the partner has an understanding of your needs and can successfully execute a plan.

4) Technology Offerings

Now that you have determined whether an eDiscovery partner is both capable in the field and provides the services you need, it is imperative to understand the technology they offer. With cyber-attacks becoming increasingly common and the expansion of data privacy laws, data security concerns are at the forefront of many firms’ and corporations’ minds. Evaluating partners and their technology solutions to meet or exceed industry security standards is essential. 

Once you understand the technology the company uses, determine whether it is reliable, secure, and exceeds industry standards.

5) Agile and Scalable

Your project manager should be closely involved in your case so that if your case grows, they can adjust your workflow accordingly. For example, Acorn developed our Small Case Solution for this exact reason. In RelativityOne we created a solution that is designed for cases with small data volumes. Our Small Case Solution allows our clients to have a fixed price for cases that are on the smaller side.

Using the Small Case Solution has allowed our clients to have a very cost-effective option to preemptively evaluate and work on their cases. If the case increases in scope, all of that initial work product is retained and we can easily scale to a larger case without any loss of work product. A case’s scope can abruptly change and there really isn’t a “one size fits all” scenario. It’s important to ensure your eDiscovery partner has solutions customized to your specific case needs.

Find the Right Partner for You

Since eDiscovery is such an important aspect of litigation, taking the time to evaluate potential eDiscovery partners can ensure that your unique needs are met and successful outcomes achieved. Determining the capabilities of the software and services and the level of expertise of your potential eDiscovery partner can start you off on the right foot toward a successful resolution of your cases. Clearly articulating your goals, expectations, and the services you need will help you find an eDiscovery partner that is the right fit.

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About Acorn

Acorn is a legal data consulting firm that specializes in AI and Advanced Analytics for litigation applications, while providing rigorous customer service to the eDiscovery industry. Acorn primarily works with large regional, midsize national and boutique litigation firms. Acorn provides a high-touch, customized litigation support services with a heavy emphasis on seamless communications. For more information, please visit www.acornls.com.