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| Ozzy Jimenez, Wynter Grant & Tara Emory of Driven, Inc., a service provider at the marcus evans Chief Litigation Officer Summit Spring 2015, discuss litigation cost control in an environment of growing data stores. |
NEW YORK, N.Y., Mar 12, 2015 - (ACN Newswire) - "The greatest problem facing corporate counsel right now is cost control," according to Ozzy Jimenez, Chief Executive Officer, Driven, Inc. "The average discovery spend for Fortune 1000 companies is over USD 3 million per litigation. That spend will only increase over the next decade, as data is expected to grow at 44 percent per year over the next ten years," he projects.
Driven, Inc. is a data management and discovery service provider at the marcus evans Chief Litigation Officer Summit Spring 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada, 12-14 March. Ahead of the Summit, Jimenez, Wynter Grant, Chief Revenue Officer, and Tara Emory, Director of Consulting, discuss how Chief Litigation Officers (CLOs) can manage the growing volume of data, and the cost of litigation.
- How can CLOs reduce the costs associated with litigation in an environment of growing data stores?
Jimenez: They can best manage these costs by establishing repeatable processes that allow them to manage the amount of data before litigation arises. These processes should involve collaboration with all of the company's data stakeholders and departments, including Legal, Records, Information Management, and business units.
Secondly, they need a process that allows them to delete stale data on a regular basis. About 70 percent of the data inside the enterprise is not needed, 24 percent is actually useful to the business, five percent is required for compliance, and one percent may be under legal hold. When you are responding to a litigation request and 70 percent of the data collected was dead weight to the business, that creates excessive costs that could have been avoided.
Finally, you should be organized so you know what and where the company's data is, and have a litigation readiness plan in place. Your discovery protocols should be well developed and then communicated to outside counsel and vendors, to ensure efficiency in handling requests.
- What should CLOs prioritize?
Emory: To realize all these benefits and create true litigation readiness, the first priority is often data mapping (documenting what data exists and where) and organization. Only after a company understands its data can it then take steps to remediate stale data, ensure information governance policies fit business data and needs, establish appropriate discovery processes for each data source, and effectively respond to discovery requests. Because data mapping can involve many, many data sources in a large organization, sometimes the best approach to get started is to focus on a particular department or group with the highest need.
- When the scope of discovery is already defined, what solutions can CLOs employ to control costs?
Grant: I would suggest creating discovery protocols, also called a discovery playbook, so every time they go through litigation, their process is consistent. Also, fixed cost pricing better predicts and controls total spend as compared to hourly pricing, particularly for attorney review of documents for discovery.
- In what way has Driven improved its process to address the growing data volumes?
Grant: We encourage clients to be proactive in how they generate data. Driven has brought in a lot of human capital to help our clients identify data earlier and earlier in the data lifecycle. And, complementing human capital, we have developed the technology that helps control data volumes before and during discovery.
- What is your long-term vision for the industry?
Jimenez: It is going to be more and more about data management. Burdensome discovery is a symptom of inefficient data management. There must be a repeatable, transparent process to mitigate the growth of the organization's IT infrastructure footprint. Service and technology providers will have to find solutions that automate data reduction.
- Any final words of advice?
Jimenez: I advise CLOs to try to understand the process as much as possible. Far too often, corporate legal departments take a hands-off approach to discovery, and assume outside counsel will manage it effectively, but outside counsel may not be equipped to handle it.
Emory: Plan ahead. The process of organizing, understanding, and remediating data takes longer than most people expect. If you wait until litigation, you give up the possibility of deleting any data because then everything may be subject to hold. You are also going to pay a premium to get organized enough to identify relevant data in a condensed timeframe, and something could still be missed. That creates a lot of extra expenses and risk. But, if your data volumes are under control, if you already know how to find data you need, and if your team already has an established process to follow, discovery will be far, far less expensive.
About the Chief Litigation Officer Summit Spring 2015
The 15th Chief Litigation Officer Summit is the premium forum for bringing leading in-house litigation counsel across the nation together with service providers. The Summit offers a unique forum for service providers to interact with heads of litigation from the country's leading organizations in an intimate environment. Taking place at the Red Rock Resort & Spa, Las Vegas, Nevada, 12-14 March 2015, the Summit includes presentations on arbitration, privacy and data security, converting the legal department into a profit center, and bending the litigation cost curve.
For more information please send an email to press@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website www.chieflitigationofficersummit.com/OzzyJimenezWynterGrantTaraEmoryInterview2
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About Driven, Inc.
Driven demonstrates excellence to customers in three distinct areas: software engineering, consulting, and eDiscovery services. This enables customers to interface with one firm for all their discovery needs.
Driven, a technology company at its core, is able to engineer solutions to challenges not addressed by other commercially-available products. Driven focuses on maximizing efficiency, flexibility, scalability, and automation through its ONE eDiscoveryPlatform. Advantages of the platform include data volume reduction, efficient workflow management, more targeted document review, flexible cost structure, and centralized data security. www.driven-inc.com.
Contact:
Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian
Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits Division
Tel: +357 22 849 313
Email: press@marcusevanscy.com
Topic: Trade Show or Conference
Source: marcus evans Summits
Sectors: Daily Finance, Daily News
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From the Asia Corporate News Network
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