Lawyers May Be Required to be Knowledgeable on Technology

Posted on May 17, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

A recent article on Law.com covered an emerging topic, a possible amendment to the ABA Rules of Professional Conduct. This proposed addition would require lawyers to have a certain level of knowledge concerning technology. “In the last 15 years, law has been overridden with technological changes.” Progression in data processing, on-line research, and the frequent use of email communications have led to an expedited and more efficient approach to the practice of law. Some of the advantages of technology advancements in everyday practice include:

  • With the development of on-line research tools, we no longer need “to run to the law libraries” to conduct/complete research.
  • On-line research has also cut down on the need for expensive research materials/books and the space to house them.
  • Instantaneous communication “by email or other forms of computer communication” has provided continuity in litigation and legal matters, and cut down on time and costs associated with in-person meetings and telephone communications.
  • With more lawyers having the ability to type and use computers, law firms have cut down on secretarial/administrative costs.
  • PowerPoint presentations and other electronic exhibits are being used frequently in the courtroom, allowing a more sophisticated and thorough presentation of evidence.

Though technology improvements cannot replace the need for basic legal skills, this growth comes with the need for change in every lawyer’s skill-set. The rising need for lawyers to develop technical knowledge is clear from some of the daily challenges faced in legal practice, connected to technology advancements:

  • While instant communication is invaluable, lawyers are now confronted with voluminous amounts of email to get through and keep up with on a constant basis.
  •  Due to rapid communication, the amount of material provided during discovery can often be overwhelming, and now sometimes ends up hurting a lawyer’s ability to try a case.
  • With this world of modern technology, the enormous amount of discovery has led to higher costs in civil litigation than ever before.
  • The training, and cost, of many modern computer programs is overwhelming for lawyers that have not spent their careers exposed to computers from the start.

Momentous additions in technology have led to strategic changes in how cases are prepared, both during discovery and for trial. One of the workarounds for lawyers that do not possess a strong background and level of competence with computers is relying on technologically savvy consultants to assist them in constructing their cases. This is an effective method to bridge the gap for legal professionals that have not spent their careers exposed to computers from the start, and that may lack the technical know-how to manage complex litigation. Even with carefully selected, reliable consultants available to assist in your case, the critical need for legal professionals to advance their skills and understanding of technology is apparent.

Read the full article:  Changing Times Mean Changing Ethics Issues for Lawyers

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Digital Record Keeping for Law Firms

Posted on May 3, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

With all of the technology and resources available is your firm still keeping paper records of your case files? Are you wasting significant time sifting through paper or retrieving files from offsite storagDigital Record Keepinge facilities? While discovery, in most instances, has moved towards electronic review and production, some firms and corporations have not taken the leap to digitizing their case files and management records.

Law.com published an article this week written by a law firm administrator and senior paralegal, Judy Stouffer of Berner Klaw & Watson, discussing her firm’s move to having all files readily accessible and ridding themselves of the need for offsite storage. So how can your firm accomplish this big project?

  • Scan all incoming and outgoing mail on a regular basis.
  • Choose a time when things are quiet (or slow) around the office to tackle this project. Enlist a team to help- paralegals, law clerks, etc…delegating work/assignments.
  • Create an archiving and retention policy that explains what to save, naming convention, and how/where files will be stored on your system. (Be sure to check rules of professional conduct for your firm’s obligation to preserve data and records for clients.)
  • Realize that it will not get accomplished overnight, but this project will pay off in the end.

What are some of the advantages to digital record keeping?

  • The information is available immediately, and avoids expensive retrieval costs, “especially if the file is needed urgently.”
  • Better use of your office resources. There are many instances where clients cannot wait for retrieval of offsite storage, and paralegals/clerks are sent to the courthouse for the tedious task of retrieving copies of filings/pleadings.

Considerations when converting your firms records to digital storage:

  • Assess your firm’s storage capabilities before trying to convert to digital storage. “Make sure your current file server(s) can handle the extra storage and to be sure you have appropriate electronic backup procedures in place.”
  • Be sure to check rules of professional conduct for your firm’s obligation to preserve data and records for clients.
  • “Consider the cost savings with cloud storage.” Firms using third parties to host email off-site are “already using a hybrid approach to cloud technology.”

Read the full article on tips to successfully complete your firm’s move towards digital storage, The Time Has Come to Consider Digitizing Law Firm Case Files.

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Preparation for E-Discovery Supplementation Obligations

Posted on April 26, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

E-Discovery Supplementation Despite all the gains that lawyers have made in the e-Discovery arena, many are still forgetting that parties have an ongoing duty, under the Federal Rules, to supplement discovery responses. “A failure to supplement can mean missing out on key evidence–or even the imposition of sanctions.”

So what is the best way to avoid “falling short of the supplementation obligations in e-discovery?” This article suggests seven carefully crafted steps, which form the acronym “PREPARE,” which stands for:

  • Preserve: Complete records should be kept of when the litigation hold was sent and to whom. Follow-ups need to occur consistently in order to ensure continued compliance. (This is where use of a litigation hold software or tool can be invaluable.)
  • Research: “This means lawyers must know the case, know the client, know its IT infrastructure and know the players… A lawyer who knows the case will know how to draft the e-discovery plan.”
  • Execute: You not only need to draft an e-discovery plan, you must implement and follow it! Meet with the client at the start of the case to determine a list of ESI sources, and potential custodians. Ensure proper forensic collection of files, perhaps through use of a third party vendor. Document what is collected and searched in the initial ESI to help guide supplemental searches.
  • Proactive: The key to staying ahead is creating an e-Discovery strategy. It is also critical to educate your client about the plan, the efforts and expenses, and “the adverse consequences–monetary sanctions, adverse instructions…–for failure to comply.”
  • Ally: Work with trusted e-discovery specialists from the initial e-Discovery plan and ESI collection. Talk with them up front about expectations for supplemental production(s). This will help predict costs/expenses for your client, and ensure that your vendor can meet your case deadlines.
  • Recalibrate: When you meet unforeseen events or situations, work to revise the protocol. Courts will look more favorably on those with a plan in place, and who reach an “unforeseen glitch” versus those that “have haphazardly searched for and produced information.”
  • Expectations: During the initial discovery conference in the case, work together with opposing counsel to determine if there will be discoverable information that is created over the course of discovery. Discuss sources for ESI, identification of custodians, search methodology, and how frequently each side will conduct supplemental searches. Commit to a written schedule, and stick with it.

Read the full article on tips to successfully complete your supplemental obligations, How to Prepare for E-Discovery Supplementation Obligations.

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Case Study: Under Budget and On Time

Posted on April 23, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

BLUESTAR CLIENT SAVINGS: $1,085,034

The Challenges
In response to a Second Request related to a proposed merger,Attorney Review an international corporation was presented with a daunting task – review and produce millions of pages of documents to ensure the government approval of the merger in a six week time-frame. Through outside counsel, the corporation reached out to BlueStar for help.

BlueStar managed to take their 2,751,000 documents of raw data (1.3 terabytes) and cull it down to 1,031,000 documents (550 gigabytes) for review. From this review set, 1,389,000 pages were produced from the 1,031,000 documents reviewed in 9894 hours by BlueStar’s quick, thorough and experienced US-barred attorneys – an impressive rate of 104 documents per hour per attorney reviewer.

The Solution
Working in conjunction with outside counsel, BlueStar’s attorney reviewers helped save the client 50-75% over the cost of using another staffing agency for the electronic document review. For this client, the BlueStar optimized review process brought the per document cost down to $.47 per document, while a typical the industry wide average cost for review is $1.00 – 1.75 per document. This helped the client realize a savings of $546,182 – 1,319,432 compared with other staffing agencies.

Also, BlueStar offered the client a 30% discount on processing per gigabyte for a native review. Hosting the data during the review was discounted 60%, saving the client an additional $20,635. Most importantly, the review and production were all performed under the six week deadline.

The Benefit
Because we offer a full suite of services, we have the opportunity to save our clients more in other areas as well. BlueStar also saved on our client’s litigation spend with ESI processing, hosting and production. For the review, we implemented a process that enabled a native review at a TIFF image rate of productivity, providing a 20% more efficient review. This saved the client $96,963.00 in review costs. Also, BlueStar offered the client a 30% discount on processing per gigabyte for the native document review. Hosting of the data during the review was discounted 60%, saving the client an additional $20,635.

Download a PDF of BlueStar’s Under Budget and On Time Case Study

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How to Protect Confidential Company Information

Posted on April 18, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

Last week on Law.com an article was featured discussing ways to protect confidential company information. The emphasis was on the need for in-house counsel to implement policies, concerning confidential company information, geared towards preventing misconduct often occurring by departing or retiring employees. Listed below are some suggestions on how to help protect company information and data:

  • Employees need to sign confidentiality agreements on the first day of work. Frequently these essential agreements are/can be overlooked.
  • Provide intellectual property and confidentiality training. Legal rules concerning these topics are complex and can be confusing to even the best-intentioned employees.
  • Oversee remote-access and implement data-protection policies. “Unmonitored access to all company systems can result in unintended information leakage, make it easy for employees to download key company documents and facilitate accidental exposure of the company’s trade secrets via the mobile working environment.” Help control exposure with written policies, electronic firewalls, and monitoring downloading/remote usage.
  • Data protection and employee-mobility restrictions affect incoming and outgoing employees. “When an employee is leaving the company, enforcing a search-and-purge requirement for departing employees will help protect company property and information.” H.R. exit interviews are a good opportunity to remind departing employees about their confidentiality agreement obligations, and inquire about confidential information that may exist on the departing employee’s home computers or on external drives.
  • Consider a proactive forensic review or imaging of employee’s hard drive upon departure. “In the event of a high-level or potentially controversial departure, the legal department may want to consider a proactive forensic review even in the absence of a specific claim. If that’s not possible, imaging the employee’s hard drive can mitigate losses.”
  • Use, but do not rely solely on non-compete covenants to protect company information. Laws concerning non-compete agreements and other restrictive covenants are constantly changing, and vary from one jurisdiction to the next. These covenants alone are not a reasonable way to protect intellectual property. However, when a well-drafted restrictive covenant is enforceable having this provision in place for key positions can be a helpful preventative strategy, and may deter departing employees, who are starting a business or joining a competitive business, from doing so without seeking the company’s blessing.

Read the full article, 6 Ways to Prevent Data From Walking Out the Office Door.

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BlueStar Case Solutions Continues to Develop Successful Attorney Review Division

Posted on April 3, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

Dedicated teams, advanced technologies and seamless, efficient workflow yield continued growth and success of company’s contract attorney review services.

BlueStar Attorney Review ServicesCHICAGO – April 3, 2012 – BlueStar Case Solutions, Inc. (BlueStar), an electronic discovery consultant and litigation support services provider to top corporations and law firms worldwide, announced today that the company’s attorney review and staffing division has seen great success and growth since its launch in July of 2009. BlueStar’s dedicated team of attorneys works seamlessly with BlueStar’s eDiscovery division. The result is two specialized groups under one roof, both committed to delivering maximum cost savings to clients—a proven formula for success. BlueStar’s clients have experienced the reliability and cost-effectiveness that the division has strived to deliver, and a loyal client following has allowed the company to further expand its resources.

Dedicated Review Teams
BlueStar’s Attorney Review division is helmed by Matthew Minor, General Counsel and Vice President of Staffing, who implemented a hiring approach characterized by a no-recruitment policy, a minimum of two prior reviews for all candidates and a strict referral requirement. This selective hiring practice is part of what differentiates BlueStar from other attorney staffing services and necessitated company growth. In May of 2011, Aimee Rylko joined BlueStar as Assistant General Counsel to aid in consulting, project management and the company’s hiring process.

“We have developed a template approach for many of our clients,” said Mr. Minor, “We are able to offer consistent and reliable deliverables by assigning a dedicated team of project managers and exemplary reviewers to each client.”

BlueStar’s dedicated team approach increases efficiency because project managers and reviewers already have a knowledge-base with which to work; furthermore, repeated engagements allow BlueStar’s contract attorneys to become subject matter experts and act as an extension of the client’s firm or company.

Cutting-Edge Technology
In addition to retaining the most qualified contract attorneys, BlueStar continually seeks to stay on the cutting-edge of document review technology. The company has virtually unlimited hosting capabilities and has been partnered with premium eDiscovery platform providers Reveal Data and kCura (Relativity) since June of 2011 and December of 2010, respectively.

Various platform providers have requested that BlueStar beta-test their latest innovations with simulated cases. This allows the company to experiment without risk and find the best customized solutions for its clients.

“Recently, we have been looking into the use of assisted review to further maximize savings and efficiency for our clients,” said Jeremy Schaper, Partner and Co-Founder of BlueStar, “Carefully selected technologies are only the beginning,” he added, “Our clients know that they can rely on seamless communication between our processing, hosting and review departments, resulting in optimal time management and productivity.”

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The Future Use of Time and Billing Software in the Cloud

Posted on March 22, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

Legal Technology news featured an article last week discussing the latest trend in cloud computing- the future use of time and billing software in the cloud. Like other developments in cloud-computing, the idea of time and billing in the cloud is being driven by the desire for cost savings, and the need for efficiency. Some of the highlights of this article include:

  • “Many law firms have a monthly billing spike that can slow existing systems. Having accounting software in the cloud could reduce the cost and technical oversight of owning extra equipment for a process that’s only needed 12 days a year.”
  • Hosting time and billing software in the cloud is just one more example of the ability to outsource legal work. “As that starts happening, it transforms from more of a time-and-billing system to more of a legal project resource and management system, and skills management.”
  • Expect this cloud transition to come in the next one to two years. The major drawback to time management and billing in the cloud? Reliability. The fear of what happens if connections break down is likely to hold back firms. As they are predictably cautious, law firms are expected to take 3-5 years to get on board with these new time and billing cloud-computing methods.
  • Industry experts predict that over the next few years more packaged services will be available from law firms, helping drive an evolution from how firms currently see “billing, customer relationship management, and matter management as three different things.”
  • Software vendors will develop changes, as firms demand new types of integration,“with a focus on redesigning the navigation and workflow, and with new reporting services.”
  • Companies like Lexis, primarily known for its research services and e-discovery software, and secondarily for law firm accounting applications such as Juris, are not currently involved in many aspects of the accounting processes at firms, but are already working on new features that would “remind lawyers when billing may be necessary.” These types of virtual reminders “could appear whenever a file is created or closed without having been billed.”
  • There have been very few innovations in time and billing, but sophisticated firms and lawyers know that “getting time in quickly and in full starts the entire economic engine of the firm. So getting that right is central to any law firm making money.”

Read the complete article, Cloud, Systems Integration Due in Time and Billing Applications.

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Law Firms Benefit from Social Media

Posted on March 14, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

Recently, a short piece on the use of social-media in law firms appeared in The National Law Journal. This article was written in connection to the report released by the ALM Legal Intelligence at the end of February titled, “Fans, Followers and Connections: Social Media ROI for Law Firms.” This report was based on a survey, conducted in December 2011- January 2012, of approximately 180 law firm partners, marketing professionals and administrators. Here are a few highlights from this article and the ALM Legal Intelligence report:

  • Nearly 85 percent of law firms use some form of social media and networking tools, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
  • Sixty-one percent of the firms surveyed reported that using blogs helped them land speaking engagements.
  • Fifty-eight percent reported an increase in the number of calls from reporters.
  • Forty- nine percent of the firms surveyed received leads on new matters.
  • Forty- one percent of those surveyed brought in between $5,000 and $200,000 in new business by social media and blogging.
  • At large firms, lawyers typically receive up to 100 hits a month on their firm bio pages. While those that are active on a blog, have 200+ hits on their firm bio page each month.
  • While some firms acquire new matters, and others only gain greater visibility, in the vast majority of the cases “blogging and social media open the lawyers to new contacts and referral sources, and help them build high-value relationships that would not have been possible, but for their use of social media.”

For those firms that are seeing successful growth and developments from their use of social media, what activity is leading to gains of new business and an increased presence?

  • Over sixty percent of those surveyed said “their firms now maintain one or more blogs.”
  • Approximately seventy-five percent of the firms updated their blogs at least once per week; others indicated that they post only once a month or less.
  • Sixty-six percent of the firms surveyed reported publishing new posts either weekly or twice per week.

While over 20 percent reported that their firms have a “full-time social media specialist on staff,” more than half of those surveyed shared that their firms have plans to increase their budget for social media initiatives in 2012. Those lawyers dedicating time to the use of social media are seeing a difference in exposure, and showing the rewards that go with it.

Read the complete article, Are Social Media Worth Your Time?

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Judge Peck’s Opinion On Computer-Assisted Review

Posted on March 8, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

Recently on Law.com, a short piece was featured on Judge Peck’s opinion concerning computer-assisted review. This is a hot topic that is receiving much attention! The speed and reduced cost of working with a computer-assisted review is appealing to many, but has been tried by very few. Judge Peck’s opinion will likely continue the debate on this topic, keeping in-house and outside counsel focused on ways to expedite eDiscovery, and cut costs in cases with large volumes of data.

 

A few highlights that we thought you would be interested in:

  • Judge Peck endorsed the use of computer-assisted review in the case of In Monique Da Silva Moore, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Publicis Groupe & MSL Group, Defendents, 11 Civ. 1279 (ALC)(AJP), five women plaintiffs are suing “one of the world’s ‘big four advertising conglomerates,’ and its United States public relations subsidiary,” for gender discrimination.
  • Though the parties agreed to use computer-assisted review, “The Court recognizes that computer-assisted review is not a magic, Staples-Easy-Button, solution appropriate for all cases.”
  • The use of this technology is “not a case of machine replacing humans: it is the process used and the interaction of man and machine that the courts need to examine.”
  • Judge Peck endorsed the use of computer-assisted review in this gender discrimination matter. However, he believes that both the protocol he approved, as well as computer-assisted review in general may not be useful or appropriate in all cases.
  • “What the Bar should take away from this Opinion is that computer-assisted review is an available tool and should be seriously considered for use in large-data-volume cases where it may save the producing party (or both parties) significant amounts of legal fees in document review.”
  • Counsel must create and implement “an appropriate process, including use of available technology, with appropriate quality control testing…”

For more details from this article and for a link to Judge Peck’s full opinion, read Judge Peck Issues Opinion on Computer-Assisted Review.

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Upcoming BlueStar Case Solutions Speaking Engagements and CLE Presentations in Chicago

Posted on February 29, 2012 by BlueStar Blog Admin

Brent Gustafson, Senior Discovery Consultant for BlueStar Case Solutions will be a panel speaker tonight at Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Alternative Legal Careers Reception. Mr. Gustafson was asked to speak at his alma mater by the Director of the school’s Career Services Office.

Also, BlueStar’s General Counsel, Mattew Minor will be giving our Litigation Holds and Collection CLE presentation (with an added emphasis on technology) to the Chicago Bar Association’s eDiscovery Committee this Friday, March 2, 2012. The event will take place at the CBA Building, starting at 12:15 PM and is open to all Chicago Bar Association members.

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