Lighthouse Blog

By Steven L. Clark, E-Discovery and Litigation Support Director, Dentons and John Del Piero, Vice President, LighthouseWhether your firm is just beginning to consider a move to a managed service eDiscovery model or you’re a managed service veteran, it is imperative to understand what makes this type of eDiscovery program model successful. After all, if you don’t know how to measure success, it will be difficult to know what to look for when selecting a provider, and equally as hard to monitor the quality of the services provided once you have selected one.However, measuring success can be complex. There are many different metrics that could be used to measure success and each may be of a varying level of importance to different firm stakeholders, as the priorities of these stakeholders will be determined by their particular role and focus. However, a successful managed service partnership can be based on a foundation of six core pillars. These pillars can be used as guideposts when evaluating whether a managed service partner will truly add value to a law firm’s eDiscovery process.Pillar 1: Access to Best-of-Breed Technology and Teams of Experts to Help Leverage ItA managed service partnership should always make a law firm (and its clients) feel like the best eDiscovery technology is right at their fingertips. But more than that, a successful managed service relationship should enable a law firm to stay technologically agile, while lowering technology costs.For example, if an eDiscovery tool or platform becomes obsolete or outdated, the firm’s managed service partner should be able to quickly move the firm to better technology, with little cost to the firm. In other words, in a successful managed service partnership, gone are the days where a litigation support team was stuck using an obsolete platform simply because the law firm purchased an enterprise license for that technology. Rather, the managed service partner should bear the cost burden of leveraging continuously evolving technology because the partner can easily spread that technological risk across its client base. In assuming this burden, the managed services partner ultimately provides law firms much greater flexibility in terms of leveraging the most appropriate technology to meet their clients’ needs.In addition to simply providing access to the best technology, a successful managed service partnership should also provide teams of experts who are wholly dedicated to helping law firms leverage that technology for optimal impact. These experts should be continuously vetting new applications and technology upgrades, enabling litigation support teams to stay up to date on evolving applications and tools. These teams will also be able to create and test customized workflows that enable law firms to handle how data flows through technically robust collaborative platforms like Microsoft Teams or Slack, as well as keep firms apprised of any updates to cloud-based platforms that may affect existing eDiscovery workflows.This type of devoted technological expertise and guidance can provide firms a significant competitive boost, as internal litigation support teams rarely have the resources available to devote staff solely to testing new technology and building customized workflows.Pillar 2: A Scalable and More Diversified eDiscovery Team In comparison to a traditional law firm litigation support team which, naturally, is somewhat static in size, a successful managed service relationship allows law firm teams to quickly and seamlessly scale up or down, depending on case needs. For example, when a large matter comes in, a managed service provider should have the ability to quickly pull a project manager in to help manage the case while the internal law firm team still retains day-to-day control of the matter. This alleviates the firm from having to choose between hiring additional staff (only to be faced with too big of a team once the larger matter ends) or outsourcing the case to an external, inflexible eDiscovery provider (where the firm may be unable to retain full control of the matter and will undoubtedly have to adapt to different processes and workflows).A managed service partner’s bench should also be deep, allowing a law firm to pull from a diverse pool of expertise. Whether the law firm needs a review workflow expert or a processing expert, an analytics expert or a migration and normalization expert, a quality managed service provider should be able to swiftly provide someone who knows the teams involved and has the qualifications and technological background to ensure that all stakeholders trust their expertise and guidance.Pillar 3: eDiscovery Expertise 24/7/365A managed service provider should not only provide law firms with top-notch eDiscovery expertise but also provide access to that expertise whenever it is needed. Unfortunately, most litigation support teams are all too familiar with the fact that eDiscovery is almost never a 9 to 5 job. The nature of litigation today means that a Monday production deadline involving a terabyte of data may be doled out by a judge on a Friday morning, or that data for a pressing production may arrive at 9:00 p.m. The list of eDiscovery off-hour emergencies is somewhat endless.Unfortunately, most internal litigation support teams at law firms are located in one geographic area (and therefore, one time zone), meaning that even when internal teams have the required expertise, they may not have those resources available when they’re needed.A quality managed service partner, however, will be able to provide resources whenever they are needed because it can structure its hiring and team assignments with team members located across multiple time zones. Access to full-time eDiscovery expertise and coverage enables law firms to swiftly handle any eDiscovery task with ease, with no permanent increase in staffing overhead.Pillar 4: Less Talent Acquisition RiskA successful managed service relationship should also significantly lower law firm risk related to talent acquisition and training. While hiring in today’s job climate may seem like a simple task, the cost of sufficiently vetting candidates and then providing the appropriate training can be incredibly time consuming and expensive.If law firm vetting misses a candidate red flag or even if a candidate just needs more training than expected, staffing costs and time expenses can skyrocket even further. For example, the task of having to substantially re-train a new hire from the ground up can take up the valuable time of other internal experts. In this way, even the most routine hire can often slow productivity and lower the morale of the entire internal team (at least in the short term) until the hire can be fully integrated into the department’s daily workflow.In a successful managed service relationship, however, the law firm can transfer those types of hiring and training risks directly to the provider. The managed service provider is already continuously evaluating, vetting, and training talent across different geographies in order to hire the best eDiscovery experts. Law firms can simply reap the benefit of this process by partnering with the service provider and leveraging that talent once the vetting and training process has been completed.Pillar 5: Lower Staffing Overhead To put it simply, all of the above means that moving to a managed service model should allow a law firm to significantly lower its overhead costs related to staffing and management. In addition to taking on the hiring risks, a managed service provider should also take on much of the overhead related to maintaining staff. From payroll, to benefits, to overtime costs, a quality managed service provider handles those costs and time expenses for their own on-staff experts, leaving the law firm free to reap the benefits of on-demand expertise without the staffing overhead costs.Pillar 6: Better Billing MechanicsMost law firms are not set up to bill eDiscovery services efficiently. eDiscovery billing has evolved over the last few years, and a quality managed service provider should be following suit and offering simplified, predictable cost models in order for law firms to pass that predictability on to their clients. This kind of simplified pricing enables all parties to understand exactly how much they are going to spend for the eDiscovery services provided. However, this billing structure differs significantly from the way traditional legal work is billed out, and most law firms’ billing infrastructures have not evolved to offer the same level of predictability or cost certainty. This is where a quality managed service provider can provide another benefit, by heavily investing its own resources into building out automated reporting, ticketing, and billing systems that can generate proformas and integrate into the firm’s existing billing systems.If a managed service provider can take care of these billing tasks, law firm teams can spend more time in furtherance of client work, rather than devoting resources into eDiscovery billing metrics and workarounds.SummaryAccess to and expertise in appropriate technology, flexible staffing models, lower overhead, and simplified pricing are the six pillars of a successful managed service partnership in a law firm setting. When all six of these pillars are in place, the managed service partnership will result in more satisfied internal and external law firm customers and an increasing caseload year after year. For more information or to discuss this topic, reach out to us at info@lighthouseglobal.com.legal-operations; ediscovery-reviewmanaged-services, blog, law-firm, legal-operations, ediscovery-reviewmanaged-services; blog; law-firmlighthouse

Most of you are pretty familiar with using website chatbots in your daily lives – whether to assist in your online banking or to help with a product issue. But what if you went to report sexual harassment at work and you were greeted by a chatbot? That may seem a little unusual, however, there are a couple of advantages to this approach, including a better customer service experience for internal customers and allowing the compliance professionals to take on more complex work. For several years the legal and compliance industry discussions around chatbots have focused on how law firms can use chatbots. In this blog, I will focus on three ways in-house legal and compliance departments should use them to their advantage.1. As a legal intake tool.A common challenge for legal departments is how to intake matters and manage the work in the legal department. Legal operations teams are always looking for ways to understand what people are doing and how to make the process more efficient. There is a lot of discussion on how forms and/or workflow tools can be leveraged to solve this issue – and they are very helpful – but you can take this one step further with a chatbot. When someone inside your organization comes to the legal team, you can have a chatbot gather basic, or even more detailed, information about what they need. You can train a chatbot to understand the category of their need – advice, contract, patent, litigation, eDiscovery – and then take them through a series of questions to better understand the need. You can then even have the request routed through your workflow tool so it gets assigned to the right person (e.g., assigned to an attorney, a paralegal, or an eDiscovery project manager). As your chatbot gets familiar with the questions, you can have it ask deeper questions and take the request even further.2. To answer common legal questions.Legal departments tend to run lean. As a former general counsel who still speaks with a lot of legal department leaders, I know these leaders are always looking for ways to do more with less (or the same). They want to ensure their teams are spending time on substantive legal issues and not answering common questions that come up and can be handled differently. For example, answering questions about where to find the sexual harassment training or how to send over or sign a standard NDA, are questions that come into the legal department and lawyers spend their time answering them. These questions could easily be answered by a chatbot trained with common questions. This would provide a better user experience because the information is shared instantaneously with the user and it also frees up time for legal resources to spend their time on more unique issues. Finally, legal team members also feel more productive and engaged because their time isn’t being spent on more administrative tasks!3. In place of a hotline.This is one of the more unique use cases I have heard recently but it makes a lot of sense. Compliance hotlines work well because of the anonymity available but there is not an opportunity to share information back with the person reporting. For example, the person reporting an incident may want to know what the next steps might be, where they can find a certain policy, or where they can find additional resources. None of that is available via a hotline or even a form. With a chatbot, however, you can keep the anonymity but mimic a more personal conversation where additional resources can be shared. As shared on the Women in Compliance podcast, one organization has trained chatbots to be their first line of intake and support on sexual harassment complaints. The internal response has been very positive.legal-operationscompliance-and-investigations, legal-ops, blog, legal, legal-operations,compliance-and-investigations; legal-ops; blog; legallighthouse

Whether it’s called DIY eDiscovery, SaaS eDiscovery, or self-service, spectra eDiscovery, one thing is clear—everyone in the legal world is interested in putting today’s technologies to work for them to get more done with less. It’s a smart move, given that many legal teams are facing an imbalance between needs and resources. As in-house legal budgets are being slashed, actual workloads are increasing.Now more than ever, legal teams need to ensure they’re choosing and using the right tools to effectively manage dynamic caseloads—a future-ready solution capable of supporting a broad range of case types at scale. Given the variety of options on the market, it’s understandable there’s some uncertainty about what to pursue, let alone what to avoid. Below, I have outlined guidance to help your legal team navigate the top three potential pitfalls encountered when seeking a self-service, spectra eDiscovery solution.1. Easy vs. PowerfulThere are a lot of eDiscovery solutions out there making bold promises, but many still force users to choose between ease of use and full functionality. While a platform may be simple to learn and navigate, it may fail to offer advanced features like AI-driven analysis and search, for example.Think of it like the early days of cell phones, when we were forced to choose between a classic brick-style device or a new-to-market smartphone. Older phones were easy to use, offering familiar capabilities like calling and text exchange, while newer smartphones provided impressive, previously unknown functionalities but came with a learning curve. With the advancement of technology, today’s device buyers can truly have it all at hand—a feature-rich mobile phone delivered in an intuitive user experience.The same is true for dynamic eDiscovery solutions. You shouldn’t have to choose between power and simplicity. Any solution your team considers should be capable of delivering best-in-class technology over one simple, single-pane interface.2. Short-Term Thinking vs. Long-Term Gains As organizations move to the seemingly unlimited data storage capacities of cloud-based platforms and tools, legal teams are facing a landslide of data. Even the smallest internal investigation may now involve hundreds of thousands of documents. And with remote working being the new global norm, this trend will only continue to grow. Legal teams require eDiscovery tools that are capable of scaling to meet any data demand at every stage of the eDiscovery process.When evaluating an eDiscovery solution, keep the future in mind. The solution you select should be capable of managing even the most complex case using AI and advanced analytics—intelligent functionality that will allow your team to efficiently cull data and gain insights across a wide variety of cases. Newer AI technology can aggregate data collected in the past and analyze its use and coding in previous matters—information that can help your team make data-driven decisions about which custodians and data sources contain relevant information before collection. It also offers the ability to re-use past attorney work product, allowing you to save valuable time by immediately identifying junk data, attorney-client privilege, and other sensitive information.3. Innovation vs. UpkeepThanks to the DIY eDiscovery revolution, your organization no longer has to devote budget and IT resources to upkeeping a myriad of hardware and software licenses or building a data security program to support that technology. Seek a trusted solution provider that can take on that burden with development and security programs (with the requisite certifications and attestations to prove it). This should include routine technology assessment and testing, as well as using an approach that doesn’t disrupt your ongoing work.As you’re asked to do more with less, the right cloud-based eDiscovery platform can ensure your team is able to meet the challenge. By avoiding the above pitfalls, you’ll end up with a solution that’s able to stand up against today’s most complex caseloads, with powerful features designed to improve workflow efficiency, provide valuable insights, and support more effective eDiscovery outcomes.If you’re interested in moving to a DIY eDiscovery solution, check out my previous blog series on self-service, spectra eDiscovery for corporations, including how to select a self-service, spectra eDiscovery platform, tips for self-service, spectra eDiscovery implementation, and how self-service, spectra eDiscovery can make in-house counsel life easier. ediscovery-review; ai-and-analyticsself-service, spectra, ediscovery-process, corporation, prism, blog, spectra, corporate, ediscovery-review, ai-and-analyticsself-service, spectra; ediscovery-process; corporation; prism; blog; spectra; corporatelighthouse

Ever since ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 [1] was modified in 2012 to include an ethical obligation for attorneys to “keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology [2]” (emphasis added), attorneys in almost every state have had a duty to stay abreast of how technology can both help and harm clients. In other words, most attorneys practicing law in the United States have an ethical obligation to not only understand the risks created by the technology we use in our practice (think data breaches, data security, etc.), but also to keep abreast of technology that may benefit our practice.Nowhere is this obligation more implicated than within the eDiscovery realm. We live in a digital world and our communications and workplaces reflect that. Almost any discovery request today will involve preserving, collecting, reviewing, and producing electronically stored information (ESI) – emails, text messages, video footage, Word documents, Excels, PowerPoints, social media posts, collaboration tool data – the list is endless. To respond to ESI discovery requests, attorneys need to use (or in many cases, hire someone who can use) technology for every step of the eDiscovery process – from preservation to production. Under Model Rule 1.1, that means that we must stay abreast of that technology, as well as any other technology that may be beneficial to completing those tasks more effectively for our clients (whether we are providing legal advice to an organization as in-house counsel or externally through a law firm).In this post, I posit that in the very near future, this ethical obligation should include a duty to understand and evaluate the benefits of leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) during almost any eDiscovery matter, for a variety of different use cases.AI in eDiscoveryFirst, let’s level set by defining the type of technology I’m referring to when I use the term “AI,” as well as take a brief look at how AI technology is currently being used within the eDiscovery space. Broadly speaking, AI refers to the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior. Within eDiscovery, the term is often also used broadly to refer to any technology that can perform document review tasks that would normally require human analysis and/or review.There is a wide range of AI technology that can help perform document review tasks. These include everything from older forms of machine learning technology that can analyze the text of a document and compare it to the decisions made about that document by a human to predict what the human decision would be on other documents to newer generations of analytics technology that can analyze metadata and language used within documents to identify complicated concepts, like the sentiment and tone of the author. This broad spectrum of technology can be incredibly beneficial in a number of important document review use cases – the most common of which I have outlined below: Culling Data - One of the most common use cases for AI technology within eDiscovery is leveraging it to identify documents that are relevant to the discovery request and need to be produced. Or, conversely, identify documents that are irrelevant to the matter at hand and do not need to be produced. AI technology is especially proficient at identifying documents that are highly unlikely to be responsive to the discovery request. In turn, this helps attorneys and legal technologists “cull” datasets, essentially eliminating the need to have a human review every document in the dataset. Newer AI technology is also better at identifying documents that would never be responsive to any document request (i.e., “junk” documents) so that these documents can be quickly removed from the review queue. More advanced AI technology can do this by aggregating previously collected data from within an organization as well as the attorney decisions made about that data, and then use advanced algorithms to analyze the language, text, metadata, and previous attorney decisions to identify objectively non-responsive junk documents that are pulled into discovery request collections time and time again. Prioritizing and Categorizing Data - Apart from culling data, AI can also be used to simply make human review more efficient. Advanced AI technology can be used to identify specific concepts and issues that attorneys are looking for within a dataset and group them to expedite and prioritize attorney review. For example, if a litigation involves an employee accused of stealing company information, advanced AI technology can analyze all the employee’s communications and digital activities and identify any anomalies, such as an activity that occurred during abnormal work hours or communications with other employees with whom they normally would not have reason to interact. The machine can then group those documents so that attorneys can review them first. This identification and prioritization can be critical in evaluating the matter as a whole, as well as helping attorneys make better strategic decisions about the matter. Review prioritization can also simply help meet court-imposed production deadlines on time by enabling human reviewers to focus on data that can go out the door quickly (i.e., documents that the machine identified as highly likely to be responsive but also highly unlikely to involve issues that would require more in-depth human review like privilege, confidentiality, etc.). Identifying Sensitive Information - On the same note, AI technology is now more adept at identifying issues that usually require more in-depth human review. Newer AI technology that uses advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) and analyzes both the metadata and text of a document is much better at identifying documents that contain sensitive information, like attorney-client privileged communications, company trade secrets, or personally identifiable information (PII). This is because more advanced NLP can take context into account and, therefore, more accurately identify when an internal attorney is chatting with other employees over email about the company fantasy football rankings vs. when they are providing actual legal advice about a work-related matter. It can do this by analyzing not only the language being used within the data, but also how attorneys are using that language and with whom. In turn, this helps attorneys conducting eDiscovery reviews prioritize documents for review, expedite productions, and protect privileged information.Attorneys’ Ethical Obligation to Consider the Benefits of AI in eDiscovery The benefits of AI in eDiscovery should now be clear. It is already infeasible to conduct a solely human linear review of terabytes of data without the help of AI technology to cull and/or prioritize data. A review of that amount of data (performed by humans reviewing one document at a time) can require months and even years, a virtual army of human reviewers (all being paid at an hourly rate), as well as the training, resources, and technology necessary for those reviewers to perform the work proficiently. Because of this, AI technology (via technology assisted review (TAR)) has been widely accepted by courts and used by counsel to cull and prioritize large sets for almost a decade.However, while big datasets involving terabytes of data were once the outliers in the eDiscovery world, they are now quickly becoming the norm for organizations and litigations of all sizes due to exploding data volumes. To put the growing size of organizational data in context, the total volume of data being generated and consumed has increased from 33 zettabytes worldwide in 2018 to a predicted 175 zettabytes in 2025[3]. This means that soon, even the smallest litigation or investigation may involve terabytes of data to review. In turn, that means that AI technology will be critical for almost any litigation involving a discovery component.And that means that we as attorneys will have an ethical duty to keep abreast of AI technology to competently represent our clients in matters involving eDiscovery. As we have seen above, there is just no way to conduct massive document reviews without the help of AI technology. Moreover, the imperative task of protecting sensitive client data like attorney-client privilege, trade secret information, and PII (which all can be hidden and hard to find amongst massive amounts of data) also benefits from leveraging AI technology. If there is technology readily available that can lower attorney costs and client risk, while ensuring a more consistent and accurate work product, we have a duty to our clients to stay aware of that technology and understand how and when to leverage it.But this ethical obligation should not scare us as attorneys and it doesn’t mean that every attorney will need to become a data scientist in order to ethically practice law in the future. Rather, it just means that we, as attorneys, will just need to develop a baseline knowledge of AI technology when conducting eDiscovery so that we can effectively evaluate when and how to leverage it for our clients, as well as when and how to partner with appropriate eDiscovery providers that can provide the requisite training and assist with leveraging the best technology for each eDiscovery task.ConclusionAs attorneys, we have all adapted to new technology as our world and our clients have evolved. In the last decade or so, we have moved from Xerox and fax machines to e-filings and Zoom court hearings. The same ethic that drives us to evolve with our clients and competently represent them to the best of our ability will continue to drive us to stay abreast of the exciting changes happening around AI technology within the eDiscovery space.To discuss this topic more, feel free to connect with me at smoran@lighthouseglobal.com.‍[1] “Client-Lawyer Relationship: A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.” ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.1.[2] See Comment 8, Model Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 1.1 (Competence)[3] Reinsel, David; Gantz, John; Rydning, John. “The Digitization of the World From Edge to Core.” November 2018. Retrieved from https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/our-story/trends/files/idc-seagate-dataage-whitepaper.pdf. An IDC White Paper, Sponsored by SEAGATE.ai-and-analyticsanalytics, ai-big-data, ediscovery-process, red-flag-reporting, departing-onboarding-employee, prism, blog, focus-discovery, ai-and-analytics,analytics; ai-big-data; ediscovery-process; red-flag-reporting; departing-onboarding-employee; prism; blog; focus-discoverysarah moran

Legal departments tend to run fairly lean. This means relying on external parties to accomplish any task is the norm. But when you are managing dozens of outside counsel on different matters, it can be nearly impossible to keep abreast of email traffic, calendars, and the status of any given task. Thankfully with a little bit of technology and some organization, this issue can be solved. This blog will share some tips on how other legal departments have solved this challenge.Select a technology platform to support organization and collaboration. The technology should allow internal and external parties to edit documents, view and manage calendars, organize task lists, and make comments and/or send messages to each other. There are many technologies that organizations use, such as Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace, that work well for this type of collaboration internally, but are not necessarily set up for external collaboration. With some additional work, you can also set these tools up for external collaboration. However, given all the privacy and data management considerations for internal use, one can imagine how high the hurdles are to set this up for external use. If you are facing those hurdles, there are several third-party technologies, such as Joinder and HighQ, that work well for external collaboration. These third-party cloud technologies are fairly low cost and quick to implement. The most important thing here is to choose a single platform. You want to make sure that you are able to minimize switching platforms with every new matter and/or outside counsel. Imagine the ease with which you can get an overview of all your legal work if you can log in to one platform and see your litigation eDiscovery deadlines, patent filing deadlines, and third-party subpoena response deadlines. You can then seamlessly edit the associated documents and assign a task to the next reviewer. You can see how selecting a single platform provides greater visibility and efficiency.Ensure each third party has a person responsible for maintaining the records inside the shared technology. Although you will likely have multiple people working on any given matter, you want to make sure there is at least one person from each third party who is responsible for updating the system. This should be someone knowledgeable about the matter, the deadlines, and the tasks. This should also be someone who is highly organized and comfortable with the technology.Agree upon a common organizational structure. The hardest thing about managing hundreds of matters is staying organized across all of them. If you choose a way to organize that remains consistent, it makes it much easier to find what you are looking for quickly. For example, you may choose to folder documents and tasks by matter type or by the department of origination. Either way, make sure it is a structure that makes sense across your legal portfolio. Here are some considerations to ponder when deciding how to name your files.Write the above into your outside counsel guidelines. A third-party collaboration tool and the organizational system are only as good as the adoption. By writing a requirement to keep it updated into your outside counsel guidelines, you are increasing the chances of success. Here is some sample text for your use:[Company name] uses [software name] as its third-party collaboration tool and asks that each of its outside counsel use [software name] for all work on the matter. On at least a weekly basis, outside counsel shall update [software name] with important dates in the matter, an updated list of tasks in the matter, and any final versions of key documents in the matter.The benefits of having all your legal documents in one platform increase over time. You create a system of records that can be referenced at any time. I hope that these tips will help you implement a solution for third-party collaboration so you can reduce the time you spend searching your email for the last version of the contract.legal-operationsediscovery-process, legal-ops, blog, legal-operations,ediscovery-process; legal-ops; bloglighthouse

What the administration’s early actions can spell for dynamic changes in regulation and compliance.On day one of his administration, President Biden got off to a bold start by signing more than a dozen executive orders on subjects ranging from student loans to deportation — including a freeze on all regulatory actions in process under the prior administration.In the subsequent 99 days, more orders, executive appointments, nominations, and legislative activities have contributed to a notable thaw in the regulatory sphere as the administration strives to fulfill the policy-driven promises made during the campaign. A recent Corporate Compliance Insights article suggests that companies “should look to bolster their compliance infrastructure ahead of this imminent wave of regulation,” an activity that legal departments would surely applaud.Although the full impact of activities from the first 100 days may not play out for some time, the combination of COVID-19 fallout and the actions of the new administration — especially the appointments of some agency leaders — is already beginning to change business, legal, and compliance dynamics. Many companies are already facing increased litigation and fraud investigations as a result of the pandemic with the expectation that incidents will rise; the potential for increased regulatory actions from agencies energized by new leadership will only intensify the need for a corporate response.Energized regulatory agencies with a consumer protection focus A more robust regulatory environment is expected under the Biden administration, especially for financial and monetary systems, with a greater focus on consumer protection. With Gary Gensler heading up the SEC, there will likely be an emphasis implementing regulatory measures or approaches to broaden the retail investor focus. The Federal Reserve Board will resume examination activities for all banks after previously announcing a reduced focus on exam activity in light of the coronavirus response. And, with Janet Yellen at the helm of the Treasury, there will likely be stepped-up enforcement and investigatory activities on several fronts, including a shoring up of the Dodd-Frank act, which was relaxed under the prior administration, and implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act to expose and combat money-laundering, which Yellen has said is “one of her highest priorities.”Rohit Chopra, awaiting confirmation as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is also expected to play a role in increasing regulatory actions, reversing the prior administration’s more lax oversight and enforcement policies. Already, analysts say, bank examinations, student lending, subprime auto loans, debt collection, mortgage services, and payday loans are expected to come under renewed scrutiny.The M&A landscape is in flux, impacted substantially by the pandemic but now gaining renewed momentum. Due to COVID-19 and its impact on the economy, the DOJ and FTC have been on alert for antitrust violations. According to at least one major law firm’s assessment, there is likely to be increased antitrust enforcement by the DOJ in several key industries over the next several years including tech, health care, and agriculture as well as increased merger enforcement that will lead to more second requests and potential for litigation.Also affecting M&A activity is a possible increase in the capital gains tax that could spur even more activity ahead of its passage. The pending confirmation of Lina Kahn as a commissioner of the FTC marks the probability of greater investigative efforts to potentially break up the expanding reach of Big Tech. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple will be the most likely targets, but expanded investigations related to M&A in other industries are also probable. The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, whose activities stand out in high relief due to the pandemic, are sure to face more scrutiny in terms of both monopoly pricing issues and market concentration, which Biden says he will aggressively tackle.The 100-day message? Be proactive and be prepared. One thing seems certain: the regulatory landscape will continue to be dynamic. The first 100 days is, after all, just the beginning. Increasing litigation and investigations, second requests, and the due diligence and regulatory reporting necessitated by just the few probable changes suggested above threaten to impact the workload of most corporate legal and compliance departments, which may already be overburdened and understaffed.The possibility of such activity is best met with well-prepared legal and compliance functions and a laser focus on corporate data, with the appropriate tools to manage it. Any proactive steps taken to ensure that the appropriate workflows are in place should stand companies in good stead, accelerating any necessary response and mitigating the costly effects of poorly handled document productions. Companies with teams at the ready to meet these data-heavy challenges will be in a much better position to respond quickly and efficiently should the need arise.antitrustblog, regulation, biden-administration, antitrustblog; regulation; biden-administrationlighthouse

LegalWeek’s April conference took place recently, and as with the sessions earlier this year, the April thought leadership panels touched on many of the struggles we are all facing in the legal technology space. But where the February sessions focused on the post-pandemic future of legal technology and the March sessions focused on getting back to the business of law, the April sessions weaved in a more nuanced theme: obtaining organizational buy-in from stakeholders around legal technology and processes.The need for stakeholder buy-in for any type of legal technology change is imperative. Without it, organizations and law firms stop evolving and become stagnant as more agile competitors onboard better, more efficient processes, tools, and teams. But perhaps more importantly, being unable to obtain stakeholder involvement and approval can also end up leaving the company and law firms open to risk.For an example of the ramifications of failing to obtain the necessary buy-in, let’s take look at the legal technology process that many organizations and law firms have been struggling to implement recently: defensible disposal of legacy data. Without an effective defensible data disposal process and policy, data volumes can balloon out of control – especially in a Cloud environment – meaning that organizations and/or law firms will needlessly waste money storing obsolete data that should have been disposed of previously. But it also can increase risk in several ways. For starters, legacy data may contain personally identifiable information (PII) that organizations may be legally required to dispose of after a specified time period, pursuant to sectorial or jurisdictional data privacy laws. Even if personal data does not fall within the purview of a disposal requirement, keeping it for longer than it is needed for business purposes can still pose a risk should the company or firm holding it suffer a data breach or ransomware attack. Additionally, even obsolete non-personal data can cause confusion, disruption, and increased cost and risk if it winds up subject to a legal hold or swept up in an internal investigation. But despite all this, implementing an effective defensible data disposal program is a challenge for many because it often requires sweeping organizational buy-in, from the highest C-Suite executive to the lowliest employee with access to a company-sponsored collaborative platform.So how can legal teams get the buy-in necessary to implement new legal technology and processes that enable organizations and law firms to compete and evolve? It is tempting to think that buy-in starts with learning to control stakeholders. But attempting to control other teams and individuals will only lead to misalignment, tension, and failed implementation. Instead, gaining stakeholder buy-in actually starts with trust. Stakeholders must trust that whatever you are proposing to implement (whether that is a new technology, a new policy, or a new workflow) will be beneficial to them, to their team, and to the organization as a whole and that implementation is actually feasible. Below I have outlined a few tips for gaining stakeholder trust and buy-in for new legal technology and processes.Identify all the necessary stakeholders. Whether you want to onboard a new legal technology or implement a new legal data policy, like an updated document retention schedule, you will need to understand who the decisions makers are, as well as identify anyone who will be affected by the new tools, processes, or workflow.Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. Once you have identified the stakeholders and all those affected by the planned change, you can start preparing to gain their trust. This means doing all the necessary research and legwork up front so that you are well informed and have a fully developed, practical plan in place to present to those stakeholders. For instance, if you are seeking to onboard advanced AI technology to help streamline your eDiscovery program, you can prepare to gain trust by first talking to peers in the industry, as well as legal technology providers, to find the best technology and pricing options. Once you’ve selected an option, choose a test case and run a proof of concept to validate the effectiveness within your own data.Run the numbers. Once you’ve done the research and are satisfied that the new technology or workflow will be a good fit for your organization, quantify that fit by focusing on the bottom line. How much money will this be able to save your organization or law firm? How much risk can it eliminate and how can you quantify that risk? How can this new process or tool improve efficiency and how much money will that efficiency save? What is at stake if this new technology or process is not implemented and how can you quantify that? What is your plan for how this new tool or process will be funded by the organization or law firm?Stop, Collaborate, and Listen. Once you have identified all relevant stakeholders and collected the data, it is time to gather everyone together to present your research (either individually or via cross-organizational working groups or teams). Note that the order in which you present data to stakeholders will depend on your organization or law firm. For some, it may be best to get management and executives on board first to help drive change further downstream. In others, it may be more impactful to get lower-level teams on board first before presenting to final decision makers. Whichever order you choose, it is imperative to remember to listen and accept feedback once you’ve made your pitch. Remember this process will be iterative. It will require you to be flexible and possibly deviate from your original plan. It may also necessitate going back to the drawing board completely and selecting a different workflow or tool that works better for other groups. It may end up changing your desired implementation timeline. But the key to gaining trust from stakeholders is to get them involved early and listen to their feedback regarding planning, onboarding, and implementation.Retain Trust. Congratulations! Once all stakeholders have come to a consensus and you have achieved buy-in from all necessary decision makers, you are ready to implement and onboard. But that is not the end of this process. After implementation, you will need to protect the trust you have worked so hard to earn. You can do this by ensuring that everyone has the necessary training to effectively use the tool or abide by the new workflow or process. Nothing erodes trust more than incorrect (or non-existent) utilization. Whether you’re seeking to onboard a new eDiscovery platform or you’re rolling out a new legal hold technology, people who are affected by the change will need to understand how to use the technology and/or comply with the program. Set up training programs and then have avenues of ongoing support where people can ask questions and continue to train should they need it.I hope these tips come in handy when you are looking for buy-in from stakeholders around legal technology and processes. To discuss this topic more, feel free to connect with me at smoran@lighthouseglobal.com. ai-and-analytics; ediscovery-review; legal-operationscloud, data-privacy, information-governance, ai-big-data, preservation-and-collection, blog, ai-and-analytics, ediscovery-review, legal-operations,cloud; data-privacy; information-governance; ai-big-data; preservation-and-collection; blogsarah moran

While the U.S. is figuring out privacy laws at the state and federal level, artificial and augmented intelligence (AI) is evolving and becoming commonplace for businesses and consumers. These technologies are driving new privacy concerns. Years ago, consumers feared a stolen Social Security number. Now, organizations can uncover political views, purchasing habits, and much more. The repercussions of data are broader and deeper than ever.Lighthouse (formerly H5) convened a panel of experts to discuss these emerging issues and ways leaders can tackle their most urgent privacy challenges in the webinar, “Everything Personal: AI and Privacy.”The panel featured Nia M. Jenkins, Senior Associate General Counsel, Data, Technology, Digital Health & Cybersecurity at Optum (UnitedHealth Group); Kimberly Pack, Associate General Counsel, Compliance, at Anheuser-Busch; Jennifer Beckage, Managing Director at Beckage; and Eric Pender, Senior Director at Lighthouse (formerly with H5); and was moderated by Sheila Mackay, Managing Director at Lighthouse (formerly with H5).While the regulatory and technology landscape continues to rapidly change, the panel highlighted some key takeaways and solutions to protect and manage sensitive data leaders should consider:Build, nurture, and utilize cross-functional teams to tackle data challengesDevelop robust and well-defined workflows to work with AI technology Understand the type and quality of data your organization collects and stores Engage with experts and thought leadership to stay current with evolving technology and regulations Collaborate with experts across your organization to learn the needs of different functions and business units and how they can deploy AI Enable your company’s innovation and growth by understanding the data, technology, and risks involved with new AIDevelop collaboration, knowledge, and cross-functional teamsWhile addressing challenges related to data and privacy certainly requires technical and legal expertise, the need for strong teamwork and knowledge sharing should not be overlooked. Nia Jenkins said her organization utilizes cross-functional teams, which can pull together privacy, governance, compliance, security, and other subject matter experts to gain a “line of sight into the data that’s coming in and going out of the organization.”“We also have an infrastructure where people are able to reach out to us to request access to certain data pools,” Jenkins said. “With that team, we are able to think through, is it appropriate to let that team use the data for their intended purpose or use?”In addition to collaboration, well-developed workflows are paramount too. Kimberly Pack explained that her company does have a formalized team that comes together on a bi-monthly basis and defined workflows that are improving daily. She emphasized that it all begins with “having clarity about how business gets done.”Jennifer Beckage highlighted the need for an organization to develop a plan, build a strong team, and understand the type and quality of the data it collects before adopting AI. Businesses have to address data retention, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and many other potential risks before taking full advantage of AI technology.Engage with internal and external experts to understand changing regulations Keeping up with a dynamic regulatory landscape requires expanding your information network. Pack was frank that it’s too much for one person to learn themselves. She relies on following law firms, becoming involved in professional organizations and forums, and connecting with privacy professionals on LinkedIn. As she continually educates herself, she creates training for various teams at her organization, including human resources, procurement, and marketing.“Really cascade that information,” said Pack. “Really try to tailor the training so that it makes sense for people. Also, try to have tools and infographics, so people can use it, pass it along. Record all your trainings because everyone’s not going to show up.”The panel discussed how their companies are using AI and whether there’s any resistance. Pack noted her organization has carefully taken advantage of AI for HR, marketing, enterprise tools, and training. She noted that providing your teams with information and assistance is key to comfort and adoption.“AI is just a tool, right?” Pack said. “It’s not good, it’s not bad.” The privacy team conducts a privacy impact assessment to understand how the business can use the technology. Then her team places any necessary limitations and builds controls to ensure the team uses the technology ethically. Pack and Jenkins both noted that the companies must proactively address potential bias and not allow automated decision-making.Evaluate the benefits and risks of AI for your organization The panel agreed organizations should adopt AI to remain competitive and meet consumer expectations. Pack pointed out the purpose of AI technology is for it to learn. Businesses adopting it now will see the benefits sooner than those that wait.Eric Pender noted advanced technologies are becoming more common for particular uses: cybersecurity breach response, production of documents, including privilege review and identifying Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and defensible disposal. Many of these tasks have tight timelines and require efficiency and accuracy, which AI provides.The risks of AI depend on the nature of the specific technology, according to Beckage. It’s each organization’s responsibility to perform a risk assessment, determine how to use the technology ethically, and perform audits to ensure the technology is working without unintended consequences.Facilitate innovation and growth It is also important to remember that in-house and outside counsel don’t have to be “dream killers” when it comes to innovation. Lawyers with a good understanding of their company’s data, technology, and ways to mitigate risk can guide their businesses in taking advantage of AI now and years down the road.Pack encouraged compliance professionals to enjoy the problem-solving process. “Continue to know your business. Be in front of what their desires are, what their goals are, what their dreams are, so that you can actively support that,” she said.Pender says companies are shifting from a reactive approach to a proactive approach, and advised that “data that’s been defensively disposed of is not a risk to the company.” Though implementing AI technology is complex and challenging, managing sensitive, personal data is achievable, and the potential benefits are enormous.Jenkins encouraged the “four B’s.” Be aware of the data, be collaborative with your subject matter experts, be willing to learn and ask tough questions of your team, and be open to learning more about the product, what’s happening with your business team, and privacy in an ever-changing landscape.Beckage closed out the webinar by warning organizations not to reinvent the wheel. While it’s risky to copy another organization’s privacy policy word for word, organizations can learn from the people in the privacy space who know what they’re doing well.ai-and-analytics; data-privacyprivilege, cybersecurity, ai-big-data, pii, blog, preservation, ai-and-analytics, data-privacyprivilege; cybersecurity; ai-big-data; pii; blog; preservationlighthouse