eTera consulting

In July of 2011, I had the opportunity to be a panel speaker on the topic of Key Strategies for Managing Legal Projects. In preparing my remarks for the panel, I kept asking the question as to why legal project management is getting so much attention these days. Yes, technology has forever changed the legal industry. And yes, the growth and complexity of electronically stored information continues with no end in sight.

Data is plentiful, and growing.
Technology is affordable, and improving.
The ability to apply technology to gain meaning out of the data and reduce ediscovery costs takes talent.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." –
A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.

The importance of transparent pricing and reporting in eDiscovery is not only critical but essential in gaining both a strategic and competitive advantage in litigation matters. Given the nature of eDiscovery pricing and reporting it is extremely difficult to compare apples to apples because of various components and options.

The theme of the upcoming ALSP national conference in New Orleans on March 12-13 is There is No Easy Button. While there may not be any magical buttons in litigation support, there must be a positive litigation support work culture to make everyday life easier.

At some point during your legal career, you have already worked with or will utilize the services and products of outside consultants and vendors to help you achieve certain business goals and objectives. This fact is simply the business norm in several industries.

Steve Jobs typically used three main points to support his presentation topic. In his book, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs – How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience,” Steve Jobs referred to this as “The Rule of Three.” It is well established that we can only hold small amounts of information in our short-term memory, so many great speakers utilize only three main points since it is much easier for their audience to grasp the content. So, how does the rule of three apply to the world of litigation support? Let me explain.

“Remember that time is money.” – Benjamin Franklin

In 1748, Benjamin Franklin stated this simple phrase in an essay, entitled Advice to a Young Tradesmen.  In the world of electronic discovery web review, this phrase is especially true.  Gone are the days when lawyers could review every single document and still make their court-imposed deadlines.  So how do you get through a large amount of documents in the shortest amount of time?

In my previous blog post, I provided an overview of how SharePoint is being utilized today and why it is becoming so popular. In addition, I addressed some of the SharePoint eDiscovery challenges.

In our recent survey asking contract attorneys to select their favorite document review tools, several respondents asked the question – what does the future hold for contract attorneys?