5 E-Discovery and Compliance Lessons from across the Globe

The trends in data privacy, security, and litigation over the past several years are clear and unmistakable. Data volumes and sources are growing exponentially. Governments and regulators are imposing restrictions on how organizations collect, manage, and process the data they hold. To meet their obligations and minimize their risks, organisations must invest in people, processes, and technology to understand what data they hold, where they hold it, and why. And, upon demand, they must be able to find, review, and produce relevant documents out of their vast stores of data on tight timelines.

But while the larger trends are global, they take different shapes in different regions across the globe. But one thing is certain–we can all learn lessons from other countries and apply them to our own e-discovery practices to improve them for the future. Exterro recently published a white paper looking at eight regions around the world, from the UK to Oceania, citing expert analysis of trends and providing practical advice for legal professionals. Download the whitepaper today or read on for five key takeaways to help you improve your e-discovery practices.

Lesson #1: Involve multiple stakeholders in your legal technology purchasing process.

Don’t make a knee-jerk reaction and bring in a technology solution without sitting down with the subject matter experts within your organization and having a conversation about what your challenge is and what the technology can do to help solve that problem. Include legal, records management, data privacy, your CSO, and your CIO.

• Bryant Isbell, Managing Director, Global eDiscovery & Data Advisory, Baker McKenzie

Lesson #2: Plan ahead for upcoming regulatory changes.

Develop playbooks to address new regulatory requirements, so you’re not caught unprepared. Treat these playbooks like business processes. Track performance over time and implement measures to improve results and reduce risk. Leverage technology for increased visibility into your data sources, so you can find the data you need quickly when you need it.

- Cody Greenwaldt, Director, Case Management Services, Exterro

Lesson #3: An actionable data inventory is the foundation for success.

Preparation is better than reaction in terms of both cyber-incidents and complying with regulations like GDPR. The best preparation is to know where your data are stored, how long they are retained, what regulations apply, who has access to it, and who is responsible for it in an intelligent, unified data inventory.

- Jens Reumschüssel, Director for Public Sector, DACH, Exterro

Lesson #4: Make sure you keep your technology up-to-date with your needs.

E-Discovery professionals rely heavily on process and technology to do their jobs, but technology is always evolving. Organisations are generating more and more data from more and more sources on a daily basis, and the tools professionals use to find the story behind the data must continue to change to keep pace.

- Badar Nadeem, Senior Director, FTI Consulting

Lesson #5: Make sure your legal technology is integrated with your data sources.

Identify and implement a tool that can connect simultaneously to different data servers, housed on different frameworks, and that can deal with wide variety of data formats. Make sure it’s useful to all stakeholders, from legal teams and operations professionals to document reviewers and litigation attorneys—not just one party.

- Ravi Rajiv Upadhyay, Head of Legal and Compliance operations, Ameriprise Financial