June/July 2010 / E-Discovery
Information Tech and Legal Need to Function as a Team
Now that virtually all corporate information is electronically stored information (ESI) and subject to new discovery rules, and a sophisticated judiciary has become less tolerant of ESI “discovery indiscretions,” the roles of both IT and in-house legal has changed too. According to the authors, legal departments and IT should be working together as a team. This will have the effect of reducing spending for both routine information management and litigation response.
This article, in part through reporting on a survey commissioned by the authors’ firm, discusses how companies perceive the IT-legal partnership. Thirty-five percent of responding companies reported that ESI discovery policy is now a joint IT-in-house legal counsel responsibility, in contrast to two years ago when most companies considered it solely an attorney responsibility. Most companies say the partnership is working and that their discovery readiness tactics are “repeatable and defensible.” Almost all respondents reported having a document retention policy, although most did not think they had an “ESI discovery-readiness strategy” in place.
The authors note there often are problems within the IT-legal alliance, including conflicting priorities, role confusion and communication problems. Case law, the authors write, is peppered with examples of the kinds of ESI-related failures that can result.
