Three Keys to a Successful E-Discovery Solution Implementation: Interview with an E-Discovery Expert

If asked to name the “star players” in the world of e-discovery, you could be forgiven if the first people who popped into mind were the judges. After all, they’re the ones interpreting the Rules by which the practice of e-discovery is governed. Or perhaps you’d think of the visionaries and technologists, the star names that appear at all the conferences with predictions for the future, defining (and helping create) the trends.

But both judges and visionaries work as much in the theoretical realm of e-discovery, rather than in the trenches, where the day-to-day work happens. In that space, you need a team to accomplish the work, whether that’s conducting e-discovery or implementing the technology and processes that enable it to happen. There, the composition and cohesion of the team matter as much (or more) than anything else in determining success. One professional with a wealth of experience and expertise in the trenches is Hal Faden, Senior eDiscovery Implementation Project Manager at the nation’s oldest workers compensation insurance company (104 years old) located in Pleasanton, California.

After operating in the world of e-discovery for more than a decade, Hal has the experience and perspective to understand the landscape. “The 2006 FRCP Amendments really kicked off the e-discovery process,” he explains, “but companies are still struggling to maintain compliance and implement e-discovery solutions. They feel like they need to go outside their organization to bring in a subject matter expert, someone who can take ownership from initial concept through implementation, a visionary who can define the road map.”

1. The E-Discovery Project Manager

While the title itself may differ, the project manager role is where the team building begins, with a project manager who has a vision for the organization’s e-discovery workflows and can manage relationships with vendors and the internal IT team. Beyond experience and vision, though, an e-discovery project manager has to have strong communication and organizational skills. Hal explains, “You have to be able to talk up and down the hierarchy, depending on your audience. At times, it’s like a circus act, balancing multiple spinning saucers on sticks.”

2. Assembling an E-Discovery Team

The first tasks of the e-discovery project manager, once the project plan is in place, is to build base support for the project with leadership and to put together the team that will implement the e-discovery solution. “If you’re going to succeed as an e-discovery project manager,” Hal explains, “you need to be empowered. In practical terms, that means reporting directly to someone high up in the legal management organization, as close to the General Counsel or Chief Counsel as possible. It paves over potential potholes. You can run into pushback from IT. You might get challenged on the ability to access and collect from desktops and laptops, network shares, hard drives, or and other data sources such as SharePoint. You need to get formal documents in place: privacy assessments from the Privacy and Compliance Office and risk assessments from Enterprise Security and IT. You need to get the blessing from different departments.”

But a e-discovery implementation team is more than one person with authority from an executive sponsor; it’s also more than just an internal team. “You need to assemble the external team, as well,” he continues. “You might meet a great project manager from your vendor at a conference or somewhere else. You can’t be afraid to ask to work with the people you want, because you have to be in lockstep with the vendor’s project manager as well. You need to have a solid relationship with your core team, both internal and external, because you’re going to be collaborating with them every day.”

3. Teambuilding After E-Discovery Implementation

The need to continue managing and building a coherent team lasts well past the go-live date. “Adoption takes a long time. That’s why you start with a legal hold solution, then slowly roll out more technology—data management solutions, an e-discovery review tool,” he explains. “The General Counsel will have a litigation team. They will have different duties to meet litigation requests—issuing legal holds; preserving, collecting, and reviewing documents; analyzing, exporting, and producing documents. It takes a full year or more to get a legal team running at top efficiency.”

When asked why it takes so long, Hal has an answer that resonates with the culture of the legal industry. “Attorneys can be conservative. It may take a while for them to grasp and trust new technology,” he says, echoing what a popular stereotype about lawyers. (The data does back him up on this, though, with Exterro’s 4th Annual Federal Judges Survey showing that judges view outdated mindsets as the source of most e-discovery problems—not technology.)

But Hal has hope for the future. “Newer, younger attorneys who are more familiar with technology are coming in and becoming early adopters. They have done litigation support and have the technical background to support new users. Hiring paralegals who are familiar with the technology platforms also helps.”

Building a base of users is a critical component of a successful e-discovery technology launch, and vendors can assist in that process. “You can’t be shy about spending resources on professional services, including training. Users will have that ‘lightbulb moment’ at different times, and that’s when they start adopting the platform and becoming more and more productive.”

Adoption is critical, because, after all, it drives the bottom line results that prompt organizations to move e-discovery in-house. “With the push to be less reliant on outside counsel and outside vendors, organizations are making the investment [in e-discovery technology] in order to earn a huge ROI over time. Once you have these tools in place, you can be truly proactive and meet litigation head on, rather than having that reactive, fire-drill mindset.” That return on investment is, after all, the ultimate measurement of a successful e-discovery implementation project.

For more insight into managing an e-discovery implementation projects, check out Exterro’s white paper, 6 Tips for Successfully Adopting E-Discovery Technology.