Note from Joshua: Due to my attendance at LegalTech, this will be the last interview posted this week.
Synopsis Part 2: Evidence Lifecycle Management (ELM) and Educating Legal and IT
Synopsis Part 1: Don’t be intimidated by legal technology
Electronic
data discovery interview – Steve Lilley, CEO of WorkProducts, (Part 1 of 2) (Part 2 of 2)
Steve Lilley is the founder and CEO of WorkProducts,
the creator of MatterSpace®, a market-leading Evidence Life Cycle
Management solution. Steve has more than 20 years of experience in
founding/building leading companies in the litigation and electronic
discovery space, including serving as SVP for iLumin (acquired by CA)
and founding Data Imaging, Inc. (acquired by Document Technologies).
WorkProducts will be at LegalTech – Booth 3610
By Joshua Konkle writing for dcig.com
www.dcig.com
Joshua Konkle: How do you educate the IT people on important legal concepts?
Steve Lilley: Give them the initiative, such as being part of an eDiscovery working group (IT, InfoSec, and Legal), that helps solve their reactive litigation/investigation problem that is created when legal asks for them to take unallocated resources to handle legal identification, preservation, and collection in an episodic nature. As part of this initiative, they will identify and implement process-driven software and services to alleviate their burdens.
Joshua Konkle: How do you educate legal counsel on IT?
Steve Lilley: The amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) are the starting point to gaining legal counsel’s attention. Lawyers have an ethical obligation to the legal system that extends beyond the corporation, and these amendments mandate that in order to be compliant to certain rules, information must be shared and produced in a specific way and within a defined timeframe. Automation through process-driven technology drives a more compliant behavior, reduces exposure, and enables legal counsel to become a more productive group within the company–one that saves money by reducing the amount of data sent to outside counsel for legal review, preserves data that might otherwise have been deleted or backed up, etc.
Joshua Konkle: What is causing the need for intelligent preservation/collection by the corporation?
Steve Lilley: Compliance with the new FRCP amendments is a major driver. As a result of these amendments, an enormous amount of work has to be completed in order to be prepared for the Meet & Confer conference within 99 days of the start of a litigation.
In addition, companies are rapidly realizing that their retention policies and content management systems do not encompass all potentially relevant data.
Joshua Konkle: There appears to be some gap between what legal teams require to support eDiscovery and the capabilities available today in data management technology. What advice do you have as a vendor trying to assist their clients in addressing litigation readiness challenges?
Steve Lilley: There is no all-encompassing, enterprise-level, data- and records-management solution that supports the eDiscovery process. An enterprise is going to have many different types of solutions spread throughout the company due to differing requirements of the various divisions, M&A activity, etc. Hence, the end-goal of enterprise-wide, proactive litigation readiness is far from a reality. Instead, companies should implement solutions that integrate well with existing systems and resources and help respond to litigation requests in a more efficient, process- and technology-driven manner, thereby significantly reducing both the costs and risks of eDiscovery.
This is what ELM is all about. WorkProducts’ ELM solution, MatterSpace, is a secure, plug-and-play hardware and software appliance that can be quickly incorporated into a customer’s network environment, integrating their eRecords systems with downstream eDiscovery products and services. MatterSpace is unique in automating the identification, preservation and collection of all matter-specific ESI from disparate data sources, while also facilitating collaboration between all concerned parties and monitoring and tracking all ESI communications and events, including litigation holds. MatterSpace provides a comprehensive, automated, and auditable Evidence Lifecycle Management solution that speeds up matter-specific ESI delivery by a factor of ten while reducing the costs of ESI processing and legal review by a factor of 2-3.
If
you would like to communicate with him directly, he can be reached at
www.workproducts.com or by calling WorkProducts at 1 703 203 2868.
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