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The Corporate CounselorLJN NewslettersNewsSections

Creating the Office of Technology Counsel

By Dan Pelc and Mary Mack
July 30, 2007

It appears that the law and technology are conspiring to make life difficult for corporate counsel and IT departments. Invariably, the stresses of electronic discovery have been exacerbated by the increased demands placed on counsel through the promulgated amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). Specifically, the amended rules require exponentially more information about the technical framework of a corporation at the earliest stages of litigation. The more focused or litigious corporations are quickly recognizing the need to bridge the gap between law and technology to ensure compliance with these ever-changing legal requirements and advancing technologies. This pinpoint nexus between law and technology is creating the need for an Office of Technology Counsel (OTC).

In a legal sense, this new role will become accountable for managing the flow of documents beginning at the point of the litigation hold through production, recognizing the common efficiencies between different cases. On the technology side, the OTC will guide policies around document creation, preservation and destruction to ensure protocols are defensible and documented. The person or persons leading the OTC must be grounded in the law and clearly understand the technological make-up of their company. This department will help build the legal compliance roadmap and advance the efforts of both the general counsel and IT departments in identifying and building repeatable, defensible processes for managing the electronic discovery process.

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