Ediscovery Trends

Here’s an interesting interview with Alice Burns regarding legal project management.  Litigation support jobs are certainly going to take on more of a project management role moving forward, as lawyers are willing to sacrifice a bit of control in order to practice law (and leave the details to legal support staff).

Alice Burns discusses her clinic entitled “Project Management for Litigation”, ediscovery and litigation support certifications, PMP credentials, the use of a Six Sigma framework in litigation management.  There’s also an interesting chart demonstrating the different roles that a project manager needs to play in the litigation support industry.  The chart also lays out different responsibilities for different roles on your team – what paralegals should be doing, what internal lit support should be doing, what should be outsourced to vendors, etc.

While the post doesn’t mention ediscovery specifically, it’s a good primer if you’re looking for some insight into the complexity of litigation in today’s world.

Ajilon and Fios are teaming up to create a new ediscovery services partnership.  They are to be a start to finish solution, though according to the EDRM, it looks like they don’t address digital forensic collection.  That’s the only complaint from me – litigation support costs can be reduced by combining document review services with more traditional litigation support services.

Forensic collection still needs to be addressed in this scenario.    While some litigants don’t have the need for a permanent solution and can address this on a case-by-case basis, in the long term a dedicated document management system will prove to save money.

Project management will be another important piece to the Ajilon/Fios offering.  Overall, this is smart play in this market and I expect to see more mergers of complementary services in the coming months.