Corporate Ediscovery: An Inside Perspective

Proprietary 2

Discussion Overview

Introduction—What Drives Decision-Making?

Data Management

Regulatory Compliance

Social Media Control

IT and Legal Departments

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Introduction—What Drives Decision-Making?

While corporations, law firms and service or software providers have the same ultimate ediscovery objectives, specific strategies used to achieve ediscovery goals are often enormously divergent

» Today, we focus on what can be gleaned from the corporate perspective

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Introduction—What Drives Decision-Making?

As Big Data gets bigger, effective ediscovery practices are more important than ever

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Data Management

Important because:

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» Data is an asset that holds value for the organization, which has a duty to stakeholders to manage data effectively to maximize profit, control cost and ensure the vitality of the organization.

Electronic

information

must be

preserved

whenever

litigation is

reasonably

anticipated

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Keep tabs on data with a comprehensive list of potential data sources, including:

» Business and personal:

E-mail accounts

Computers, iPods, flash drives

Phone calls, voicemail, Skype

Databases, cloud services

Network servers, structured data systems

Social media sites

Text messages, instant messages

Document management tools

» Rule of thumb: anything with memory

Data Management

Data Management

Corporations balance legal and regulatory compliance with business efficiency

» Big Point: All organizations must find a way to retain required records, and also appropriately dispose of non-essential data to free storage space and prevent risks associated with over-retention

Retention Disposal

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Regulatory Compliance

Law firms should be aware that corporations must deal with strict government oversight on data

Various state and federal regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC 17a, Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and HIPAA, pose strict data retention requirements

» Organizations should adopt a records retention policy and retention schedules that establish governance and compliance with applicable regulations

» Legal cannot simply hand a records compliance policy to IT and business managers—the key is implementation

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Regulatory Compliance Personally Identifiable

Information (PII)

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» There are a number of state and federal laws that place tough regulations on organizations that store personal identifiable information (PII)

– Important to proactively approach data security breaches by implementing an incident response plan

– Stay up-to-date on applicable privacy laws

Regulatory Compliance We can anticipate a steady increase in regulatory

enforcement over the next few years

» SEC imposes new regulations—all organizations must keep watch

» Congress passes financial sector reforms in response to mortgage and credit crisis

» Government reacts to recent disasters in the energy industry and pressure for reform continues

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Social Media Control

In 2011, a global survey of companies found:

» A majority of companies surveyed plan to increase spending on social media

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» More than 80% of companies are using social media to communicate with potential clients and drive new business

Social media presents opportunity, but also risk

Source: Corporate Social Media Spent to Increase Among B2B Companies Globally According to Worldcom Survey, WORLDCOM (May 11, 2011), http://www.worldcomprgroupemea.com/category/social-media/.

Social Media Control Do social media the corporate way—

develop a social media policy that clearly identifies what is and is not acceptable

» No “one size fits all” approach

» Policy reflects both corporate culture and law

– Must understand:

• Your company’s brand

• Tolerance for dissent and risk

• Relationship with workforce

» Balance those factors with what the law requires/allows

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IT and Legal Departments

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

» Corporations strive to create repeatable ediscovery processes that streamlines the efforts of the IT and Legal Departments—translated for law firms, this means ditch the ad hoc approach!

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IT and Legal Departments

A meeting a month keeps the sanctions away

Law firms should similarly streamline their infrastructures to handle ediscovery issues

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» Update the organization’s data map

» Establish clear guidelines about litigation holds

» Discuss pending and potential ediscovery projects

» Communicate about data custodians, locations, data retention policies, and litigation hold procedures