Ron Friedmann has a great post on the nascent trend of law firms designating lawyers as “EDD special counsels” to help oversee and manage electronic discovery efforts.
He points to an article in Legal Technology News (free registration required)that discusses the idea in detail and talks about some examples of firms who are taking or considering the approach.
I wholeheartedly agree with Ron when he says, “In my view, this is a good trend. Firms would be well-served if the lawyers in these roles had not only EDD expertise, but also project management expertise. It’s not enough to know the rules of discovery and the technology – succeeding in large EDD matters also requires project management discipline.”
I highlight the project management issue whenever I speak about electronic discovery. George Socha and I discuss the issue in some detail in our Electronic Discoverers column called “Looking into the Electronic Discovery Crystal Ball for 2005—Predictions, Observations and Opinions”. You can also hear us talk about the topic in the archived version of our webcast called the EDD Grande Process at the DiscoveryResources.Org site.
By all means, however, if you are involved in electronic discovery, especially as a client, you will want to take the trouble of filling out the registration form for the Law Technology News article and reading the article. I guarantee it will be an eye-opener.
It may not be the money quote, but the most amazing quote in the LTN article is:
“Production goes much smoother after EDD, if not the review process,” he says. “But I think [attorneys] can review faster on paper than online.” (emphasis mine)
I simply don’t know what to say about that last sentence.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]