Synopsis Part 1: Legally, what’s a retention policy? How to educate IT? What’s a CIO to do?
Electronic
data discovery Interview – Michele Lange, Esq., is the director of legal technologies for Kroll Ontrack (Part 1 of 2)
Michele C.S. Lange serves as a Director in the Ontrack® Discovery and Ontrack® Forensics product lines for Kroll Ontrack. In this role, Ms. Lange is responsible for the evolution of the company’s legal technology product and service offerings, conducts legal and market research and analysis, and engages in industry relations. From e-document preservation to litigation tactics, she also helps clients integrate electronic discovery into their case strategy.
On the topics of electronic discovery, computer forensics, and technology’s role in the law, Ms. Lange is among the nation’s most knowledgeable experts. Most notably, she authored, along with her colleague, Kristin M. Nimsger, the American Bar Association book, entitled Electronic Evidence and Discovery: What Every Lawyer Should Know. Further, her articles have appeared in the National Law Journal, New York Law Journal, Law.com, and Digital Discovery & E-Evidence, as well as numerous other publications. Ms. Lange is frequently called upon by journalists to comment on cutting-edge law and technology developments, and she also routinely shares her expertise and knowledge as a guest speaker for legal associations, CLE programs and law school courses.
Ms. Lange graduated from the University of Wisconsin — La Crosse with highest honors and the University of Minnesota Law School, cum laude.
By Joshua Konkle writing for dcig.com
www.dcig.com
Joshua Konkle: There seems to be a disconnect between retention policies as written by legal counsel and technology capability. What is your experience as a technology provider?
Michele Lange: Legal and IT operate in different universes, with separate terminology, processes and senses of urgency. In some corporations where IT and Legal are not working hand in hand, the policies crafted by Legal are not technical enough and are unable to be implemented by IT. Bottom line: Legal and IT should communicate clearly and understand precisely what ESI data should be preserved, can be preserved, and is preserved.
Joshua Konkle: How do you educate the IT people on important legal concepts?
Michele Lange: One of the best ways to bridge the gap between the IT and Legal staff within a corporation is to bring everyone involved to the table for a session of planning and hypothetical exercises. Here, each of the teams can raise issues, identify weaknesses, and suggest areas where they perhaps do not understand one another. This occurs best when both teams feel as if the environment is “safe” and non-judgmental. Most times, an external third party, such as an Electronically Stored Information (ESI) Consultant, can facilitate these exercises to ensure solid dialogue and a successful outcome. One good exercise to jointly work on as a cross-functional group is to conduct a thorough assessment of the corporation’s data and applications and create a Data Map and Application Inventory. Another good exercise is to conduct a data accessibility assessment for each type of data.
Joshua Konkle: One of the most frequently asked questions by CIO’s and others worried about the cost of data management is “how long do I have to keep my data, really?” What do you say when you get asked that question?
Michele Lange: Unfortunately it varies location by location, industry by industry, document type by document type. In unregulated industries, most informal documents and email can be disposed of very quickly (assuming no preservation duty is in place), while tax and human resources documents, for example, should be retained for longer periods of time. Document management experts can assist with more detailed planning when it comes to the details for a specific corporation.
Part 2 of DCIGs interview with Mrs. Michele Lange will appear later this month.
If
you would like to communicate with her directly, she can be reached at www.krollontrack.com or by calling Kroll Ontrack’s office at 1-800-347-6105.
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