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<i><b>Case Study:</b></i> Managing e-Discovery In-House with Discovery Attender
Babst, Calland, Clements & Zomnir, P.C. (Babst Calland) was founded in 1986 as a boutique firm focusing on environmental regulatory law. Today, the firm has grown to become an integral part of the environmental, corporate and construction industries. We now employ more than 80 lawyers at offices in Pittsburgh, PA, Sewell, NJ, and State College, PA.
As the person at Babst Calland responsible for the technical aspects of electronic discovery, I recognized early on that our mid-sized law firm was facing an ever-increasing amount of electronically stored information (ESI). This required us to review and improve our e-discovery tools and processes to address the challenges associated with collecting, searching and processing the growing volume of client data.
e-Discovery Challenges, Evaluating Alternatives
Regardless of the size of a case, e-discovery has specific compliance and auditing mandates that apply. Traditional e-discovery tools often require time-consuming procedures with many complicated steps and limited search capabilities that require additional processing time before data can be reviewed. We realized early on that the tools we used for searching and processing loose files ' such as the contents of a “My Documents” folder ' were unsatisfactory for dealing with Microsoft Outlook PSTs (Outlook personal folder files). But the software for handling e-discovery is evolving rapidly, and so the task fell to me to evaluate technology alternatives to better suit our expanding needs.
As I began to explore our options, an early need was to find a tool with the ability to search Microsoft PST files. PST files ' which store information such as e-mail messages, attachments of all types, contacts, calendar items, and more ' can be very complex. In fact, they're not really “files” at all, but a consolidated archive of files. E-mails formed a large part of the ESI being fielded by my department, and finding a reliable tool to efficiently and effectively search, process and review PST files became a priority.
Initially, we used a file-processing tool on PSTs. While it had served us well for loose files, it was unable to handle the increasingly complex searches we needed, and it required far too much time to process and convert the PSTs. We needed a fast tool with flexible search capabilities able to deliver culled PSTs or .msgs (individual Outlook e-mail files) quickly. Speed was extremely important ' the less time required to deliver accurately culled data to our reviewers, the better the results and experience for our clients. As with all e-discovery tools, it's important to have the ability to use the software for multiple requests and cases without incurring extra charges that would have to be passed on to the client.
Once we identified our needs, it made sense to reach out to peers in our industry to see what they were using for e-discovery purposes. One of my most-respected contacts in the computer forensics end of the electronic discovery business recommended a cost-effective tool from Sherpa Software called Discovery Attender. I downloaded a free trial and was delighted at what it could do. My initial PST test search ran so quickly that I was sure the software had malfunctioned, but when I checked, I found my search results. The accuracy was excellent, and I was sold.
Implementing a New e-Discovery Solution
Implementing a new software solution is never simple, but Discovery Attender was easy to use, more than satisfactory for our needs, and took me only two hours to get up and running. It can search multiple PST files simultaneously, significantly speeding up the searching process. The variety of settings available and rich criteria options help pinpoint relevant documents to match exactly what our attorneys are seeking. The deduplication functionality greatly streamlines the discovery process by eliminating duplicate copies of the same data from multiple sources.
As I became more familiar with the tool, I found value in some unexpected features that were included as well. I knew that Discovery Attender could search PST files, but was very pleased to find it could also search, organize, and deduplicate loose files, allowing us to more quickly and thoroughly search office documents, PDF files and the like. Discovery Attender can also move, copy, and rename e-mails or loose files (including sequential numbering). The integrated MD5 hashing allows us to verify data integrity. Combined with reporting, this validation enables our firm to track chain of custody on our data from source to production.
Along with Discovery Attender, we use a number of other applications to complete our e-discovery process. We use IPRO eScan-IT and IPRO View for metadata extraction and conversion to other document formats (TIFF, PDF), and some data processing. Our attorneys use the Westlaw CaseLogistix document review tool, and we use its CaseProduction software (as well as Adobe 9) for final production.
Results and Benefits
The initial requirement that led us to Sherpa Software was our need to search PST files, and Discovery Attender went beyond my expectations. It became the Swiss Army knife in my toolbox in terms of managing the technical aspects of searching, deduplicating, and converting data for e-discovery. Its ability to smoothly process Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes files, as well as loose files and extract basic metadata (including the all-important MD5 Hash) add to its overall effectiveness.
Sherpa Software's tools vastly increased our search and export capabilities. The integrated deduplication features significantly decreased the amount of data sent for review. All in all, the amount of time required to search PST files was reduced by about 90% over more traditional methods, making our clients and attorneys very happy. As I mentioned, Discovery Attender is just one of the many e-discovery tools we use, but it's one of the most often used and most valuable. Sherpa's products are a big part of the reason we rarely need to outsource e-discovery.
Looking Ahead
e-Discovery rules affect companies of all sizes and budgets. Our firm has handled an increasing number of cases over the past several years, as well as an increase in the amount of electronically stored data we receive for each case. Even smaller cases now typically involve electronically stored information, and I expect these trends to continue. To better support these developments, I think the price of e-discovery solutions will have to come down; it's an ever-growing market, and competition is the key.
Diane Pittman is the e-Discovery Coordinator at Babst, Calland, Clements & Zomnir, P.C. She can be reached at [email protected].
As the person at
e-Discovery Challenges, Evaluating Alternatives
Regardless of the size of a case, e-discovery has specific compliance and auditing mandates that apply. Traditional e-discovery tools often require time-consuming procedures with many complicated steps and limited search capabilities that require additional processing time before data can be reviewed. We realized early on that the tools we used for searching and processing loose files ' such as the contents of a “My Documents” folder ' were unsatisfactory for dealing with
As I began to explore our options, an early need was to find a tool with the ability to search
Initially, we used a file-processing tool on PSTs. While it had served us well for loose files, it was unable to handle the increasingly complex searches we needed, and it required far too much time to process and convert the PSTs. We needed a fast tool with flexible search capabilities able to deliver culled PSTs or .msgs (individual Outlook e-mail files) quickly. Speed was extremely important ' the less time required to deliver accurately culled data to our reviewers, the better the results and experience for our clients. As with all e-discovery tools, it's important to have the ability to use the software for multiple requests and cases without incurring extra charges that would have to be passed on to the client.
Once we identified our needs, it made sense to reach out to peers in our industry to see what they were using for e-discovery purposes. One of my most-respected contacts in the computer forensics end of the electronic discovery business recommended a cost-effective tool from Sherpa Software called Discovery Attender. I downloaded a free trial and was delighted at what it could do. My initial PST test search ran so quickly that I was sure the software had malfunctioned, but when I checked, I found my search results. The accuracy was excellent, and I was sold.
Implementing a New e-Discovery Solution
Implementing a new software solution is never simple, but Discovery Attender was easy to use, more than satisfactory for our needs, and took me only two hours to get up and running. It can search multiple PST files simultaneously, significantly speeding up the searching process. The variety of settings available and rich criteria options help pinpoint relevant documents to match exactly what our attorneys are seeking. The deduplication functionality greatly streamlines the discovery process by eliminating duplicate copies of the same data from multiple sources.
As I became more familiar with the tool, I found value in some unexpected features that were included as well. I knew that Discovery Attender could search PST files, but was very pleased to find it could also search, organize, and deduplicate loose files, allowing us to more quickly and thoroughly search office documents, PDF files and the like. Discovery Attender can also move, copy, and rename e-mails or loose files (including sequential numbering). The integrated MD5 hashing allows us to verify data integrity. Combined with reporting, this validation enables our firm to track chain of custody on our data from source to production.
Along with Discovery Attender, we use a number of other applications to complete our e-discovery process. We use IPRO eScan-IT and IPRO View for metadata extraction and conversion to other document formats (TIFF, PDF), and some data processing. Our attorneys use the Westlaw CaseLogistix document review tool, and we use its CaseProduction software (as well as Adobe 9) for final production.
Results and Benefits
The initial requirement that led us to Sherpa Software was our need to search PST files, and Discovery Attender went beyond my expectations. It became the Swiss Army knife in my toolbox in terms of managing the technical aspects of searching, deduplicating, and converting data for e-discovery. Its ability to smoothly process
Sherpa Software's tools vastly increased our search and export capabilities. The integrated deduplication features significantly decreased the amount of data sent for review. All in all, the amount of time required to search PST files was reduced by about 90% over more traditional methods, making our clients and attorneys very happy. As I mentioned, Discovery Attender is just one of the many e-discovery tools we use, but it's one of the most often used and most valuable. Sherpa's products are a big part of the reason we rarely need to outsource e-discovery.
Looking Ahead
e-Discovery rules affect companies of all sizes and budgets. Our firm has handled an increasing number of cases over the past several years, as well as an increase in the amount of electronically stored data we receive for each case. Even smaller cases now typically involve electronically stored information, and I expect these trends to continue. To better support these developments, I think the price of e-discovery solutions will have to come down; it's an ever-growing market, and competition is the key.
Diane Pittman is the e-Discovery Coordinator at
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