A prior post (Keyword Searching – What is it? And How Do I Do It (Well)?) offered some tips for crafting effective search terms for use in the e-discovery process. Although those tips still hold true, today’s blog offers ways to utilize an ESI protocol to promote a more seamless electronic search process.*

An ESI protocol is
Continue Reading Cheat Sheet for Effective Search Terms

We have heard it many times before – document review in today’s e-ubiquitous world is expensive.  But imagine a client’s surprise when it learns an already expensive litigation task was plagued by associate over-billing.

According to a recent complaint filed with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (“IADRC”) (see In the Matter of Stephanie Alexandra Gerstetter), an
Continue Reading Big Law’s Internal Audit of Associate Billing Reveals Padded Bills Associated with Document Review

Technology-assisted review (“TAR”) is a powerful tool used to streamline document review.  Because data volume is constantly increasing, TAR was designed to leverage human categorization of documents (i.e., responsive/not responsive) to educate software, that would, in turn, categorize additional documents based upon what the computer had “learned.”

The original TAR (commonly known as TAR 1.0) was a welcomed advancement
Continue Reading TAR 1.0 vs TAR 2.0: Is the Newer Version the Better Version?

Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure calls upon courts and litigants to “secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding.” And so, it comes as no surprise that technology assisted review (“TAR”) is being widely embraced by the legal profession.

What is TAR?

TAR (also called predictive coding, computer assisted review, or supervised
Continue Reading Technology Assisted Review At a Glance

When tasked with a document review project, there are various analytic tools available to streamline the process in order to improve efficiency and accuracy.  We’ve already discussed certain of these tools (see April 26 post discussing predictive coding and May 16 post discussing email threading).  Today’s post focuses on another, interrelated tool: document clustering.

What is Document Clustering?

As you
Continue Reading Consider Document Clustering to Increase Efficiency and Accuracy in Review Projects

The April 26 blog post discussed predictive coding as one of many analytical tools available to empower attorneys to work smarter, thereby reducing discovery costs and allowing attorneys to focus sooner on the data most relevant to the litigation. Another tool in the litigator’s arsenal that can promote efficiency during document review is email threading.

According to The Radicati Group
Continue Reading Email Threading: Another Analytic Tool Available to Promote Efficiency In a Document Review Project

When one preserves and collects electronic data for a litigation, one typically casts a broad net.  This, in turn, can result in the preservation and collection of a significant volume of documents that are not relevant to the dispute at hand.  In an effort to identify the most likely relevant documents from the cache that has been broadly preserved and
Continue Reading Document Preservation: Why Precision and Recall Matter

You are involved in litigation and faced with a document review need, what now? Naturally you need to find attorneys to review these documents. To this end, depending on the volume of data at issue, many firms will either: (1) staff the document review with firm attorneys, or (2) work with a vendor to retain a review team comprised of
Continue Reading What is Predictive Coding and Should I Think About Using It?

Last year we wrote about the Lola v. Skadden Arp case wherein contract attorney, David Lola, brought suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) for overtime pay.  (See When Do Contract Attorneys “Practice Law”? and What Exactly is The Practice of Law). In or around December 16, 2015, the Lola case was settled and, on December 22, Judge

Continue Reading In Parallel Case to Lola v. Skadden Arps, 13-cv-05008, Quinn Emanuel Wins OT Challenge

On July 23, 2015, the Second Circuit, in Lola v. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Tower Legal Staffing, Inc., revived (see our earlier blog posts dated March 11, 2015) a putative collective action brought by David Lola, a contract attorney, against Skadden Arps and Tower Legal Staffing, Inc., alleging violations of the overtime provisions of

Continue Reading When Do Contract Attorneys “Practice Law”?