Streamlining the legal hold process is essential, but error-prone manual methods and fragmented software can result in data spoliation, noncompliance, and overall organizational risk. Look for a tool that automates the process of issuing holds, sending alerts and reminders, monitoring compliance, and tracking progress.

Waiting for physical media to get delivered or for data to upload and process means wasting valuable time. Instead, leverage a solution that allows users to drag and drop data into a unified platform, or upload it directly from popular cloud storage providers.

Because new communication apps are constantly being developed and launched — and massive amounts of data are moved into the cloud — it can be difficult for legal teams to understand how to process everything. Relevant data sources are ever-changing, and legal professionals need tools that help them locate, protect, and extract information properly. 

ESI might include data from collaboration tools like Slack, Google Chat, and Teams, as well as A/V sources like Zoom. Make sure the ediscovery software you choose enables your legal team to create fully searchable transcripts from A/V files; add timestamped, searchable notes throughout the review process; process individual and group chats; and easily review different data types. This saves time, reduces costs, and provides much-needed transparency for relevant data. 

Disparate systems can lead to data silos, workflow bottlenecks, and other process inefficiencies. Choose a tool that easily integrates with third-party systems (like HR platforms) to speed up operations and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. 

The Everlaw Application Programming Interface (API), for example, allows integration with your existing applications and makes it easy to upload data from sources like Microsoft Office 365, so your team will never miss a beat.

Overall, your ediscovery software should have features that help expedite the discovery process while also ensuring it is completed correctly. This is particularly important as the amount of ESI increases and more legal outcomes hinge on the inclusion or exclusion of electronic files.  

Early case assessment (ECA) provides a high-level overview of ESI that’s potentially relevant to litigation. To overcome the excessive spending and time-consuming nature of traditional ECA, invest in a unified platform that streamlines the process and eliminates the cost of third-party data processing and ingestion.

Software that provides intuitive data analyses can help your team remain as organized as possible throughout the discovery process. These tools examine the text within a set of documents, determine which documents are related, and group them together in clusters for more efficient review. They help legal teams filter and sort through documents for faster decision-making.

Collaboration is a key part of ediscovery. Legal professionals must work together to build compelling narratives, organize arguments, and prepare for depositions and trials. But manual searching methods and disjointed tools threaten a team’s ability to collaborate. And with the increase in remote work, legal professionals need a reliable way to collaborate and litigate from anywhere.

Look for software that pulls everything together in one unified, cloud-based platform. Everlaw’s Storybuilder platform, for example, fosters seamless collaboration, organizes timelines and documents, and digitizes depositions. Real-time chat helps team members work efficiently and complete any follow-up work all in one place. Synchronous review and annotation allow your team to see and make changes in real time. Teams can also share folders and documents with secure links that have specific permission settings that only a cloud-based solution can offer.

For too long, legal professionals used word processing tools for legal writing and accepted the time-consuming, inefficient process as status quo. But in today’s legal world, if your ediscovery software doesn’t offer tools specifically built for the post-review process, you should keep looking. 

Ediscovery software should offer the following post-review capabilities:

• Smart auto linking. Imagine having important documents and deposition testimony instantly available, just by providing a few keystrokes of a Bates number or a phrase from a document in your motion filing. Legal writing tools inside robust ediscovery platforms make this a reality.
• Creating timelines. One of the most frustrating aspects of legal writing is keeping all the right documents in a chronologically organized timeline. When writing a motion, lawyers want to present a clear, factual, and cogent narrative with all the relevant information in one place.
• Built-in collaboration. The law is inherently collaborative — multiple people should be able to edit and link in a document simultaneously. If you can’t edit questions on the fly during a deposition or collaborate across geographical and time zone constraints, you aren’t getting the most out of your ediscovery tool.

Document review is often complex, so make sure the ediscovery software you implement has the following capabilities to make the process more efficient:

• Intuitive search features. Your search interface should be user-friendly, with visual elements that make it easy to build queries and tools that generate real-time results.
  
• Organized document coding. The ability to code and tag documents is vital for remaining organized throughout the ediscovery process. Find a tool that lets you easily flip through documents to apply a rating or code, then add those documents to relevant binders for quick access.
• Simplified redactions. In the past, using on-premises software often meant that once a mistake was made, it was too late to fix. In contrast, those errors can be fixed in the cloud. However, there are still considerations to keep in mind when choosing software that accelerates and simplifies the process of redacting documents. If you apply redactions incorrectly, they can lead to holes in the case or, worse, public leaks of privileged information. With the right software, though, you can ensure efficiency and accuracy with tools for batch redaction, easy text selection, metadata redaction, and more.
• Flexible productions. Last-minute production modifications, secure file sharing, and the creation of exhibit lists can all cause delays at the end of the litigation process — especially if you have to move information from one platform to another. Cloud-based platforms like Everlaw allow for flexible productions and secure file sharing, and automatically create exhibit lists in real time. This simplifies the whole process, eliminates potential errors, and leads to faster issue resolution.
• Predictive coding. Large volumes of data can cause duplicative or similar documents. This can lead to inconsistent coding decisions, which increase costs and slow down the review process. Robust technology like Everlaw streamlines this process, with proprietary predictive coding technology that learns from existing coding decisions and then automates tasks that previously required human intervention.

Everlaw is an advanced cloud-based ediscovery platform for litigators, corporate counsel, and government attorneys. The collaborative platform allows legal teams to discover, illuminate, and act on information to better drive internal investigations and positively impact the outcome of litigation. Everlaw’s ediscovery solution is scalable for firms of all sizes — from small boutique law firms to Am Law 200 firms. 

Law firms of all sizes involved in litigation need systems in place to deal with the discovery process — but they also need to be selective to ensure that their choice actually offers value. Clients of boutique law firms expect the same value as clients of larger firms. Eventually, courts will also expect the basic technological capabilities that ediscovery software provides. 

Everlaw can help boutique law firms improve margins and gain a competitive advantage. The powerful, user-friendly solution streamlines processes for ediscovery while providing predictable pricing, free training, and cost-reducing support.

Larger law firms must manage a variety of challenges, including vast amounts of data, multiple production formats, and complicated legal work. They face complex litigation in practice areas such as construction, securities, and class action, which can involve large volumes of diverse data types. Am Law 200 firms often have to contend with complex organizational and team structures throughout the discovery process as well. Furthermore, large corporations are typical clients of big law firms, and they may have some reticence around cloud-based ediscovery due to concerns about data privacy.

Everlaw helps teams overcome these obstacles and simplifies the discovery process with tools that are:

• Capable of securely managing large volumes and varieties of data.
• Trusted by the Department of Justice and 91 of the Am Law 200 firms.
• Grounded in well-established migration practices, with support for firms transitioning from on-premises legacy systems to the cloud.
• FedRAMP-certified, which builds trust and ensures that digital evidence at the federal level remains protected.

Some Am Law 200 firms don’t bill customers for their ediscovery costs, instead absorbing the costs as overhead. For those that do bill for these costs, there are four main cost-recovery models to consider:

1. Pass-through models. In the pass-through model (which is currently the most popular in the industry), a law firm “passes through” any costs incurred through ediscovery to the client for each case or transaction, without marking any of them up. They usually charge clients for project-management support or the coordination of third-party services. Many law firms choose this model because it offers transparency to clients. 
2. Bundled-cost models. In this model, the law firm will typically use an external vendor for a SaaS or on-premises ediscovery solution. They’ll then bill clients for these services through a markup of the hosting charges they’ve paid (per gigabyte of data). 
3. Adjusted-cost models. The adjusted-cost model is similar to bundled-cost models, in which law firms charge clients for the data hosting and technology costs they’ve incurred from third-party vendors. Here, the firm purchases ediscovery services at a wholesale price from outside vendors, then charges the client at a retail rate.
4. Profit-center models. Any of the previously discussed models can be adapted to a profit-center model by law firms that have a deep understanding of their costs and workflows and efficiently manage the ediscovery process. Cloud-based ediscovery platforms can help legal firms transition to this model, since they enable them to better project costs, identify potential process improvements, and implement more efficient workflows. 

Regardless of which model a firm chooses, it’s critical to provide full transparency so the firm can recoup these fees while still offering clients cost-effective, efficient legal representation. Transitioning to a cloud-based ediscovery platform like Everlaw can help, as it provides complete visibility, fast uploads, and accurate searching — so clients always know they’re getting tangible value for what they’re paying.

It’s important to note that, while the right tool can help, ethical and sustainable cost recovery requires firms to keep three key imperatives in mind:

1. Full transparency with clients.
2. The ability to charge clients fees that are reasonable within the broader marketplace.
3. Assurance that there is precedence in the industry for the approach used.

Legal professionals in the corporate space face hurdles of their own. Litigation support staff are often frustrated by massive amounts of data from unidentified sources, resource and bandwidth constraints, disjointed toolsets, and limited budgets. Attorneys struggle to create repeatable, defensible ediscovery processes, ensure compliance, and overcome issues with collaboration and visibility. 

Corporations need ediscovery software to better control business data, reduce legal spend, and make the litigation process more efficient and actionable. Everlaw’s software helps legal departments meet deadlines in an efficient, cost-effective manner. Especially during a time when there is an increased need for remote work, ediscovery software can make it easier to collaborate in the cloud while reducing the time it takes to manage and review data, since the software seamlessly integrates with external data sources. 

Everlaw can also be used for internal investigations, as it empowers collaboration, automates manual work, and offers a contextual review of multiple data formats — even remotely. Organizations rely on cloud-based ediscovery solutions to connect the remote workforce and conduct internal investigations from anywhere, thanks to the solution’s ability to:

• Easily upload data and set up reviews.
• Quickly cull, search, and review data.
• Empower remote collaboration between on-site teams, remote teams, and outside counsel.
• Provide enterprise-grade security for data protection and privacy.
• Craft cohesive reports that are easily accessible. 

Everlaw’s powerful ediscovery solution enables investigative teams to manage internal investigations with ease while saving time and money.

Legal professionals working in federal agencies often lack personnel resources, deal with vetting requirements that provide extensive security, and face budgeting issues. What’s more, they don’t always have access to adequate documentation and must prioritize constrictive regulatory policies.

At the federal level, ediscovery software can eliminate the need for managing storage and servers via multiple disparate on-premises tools. An integrated cloud-based platform like Everlaw helps agencies work collaboratively, from processing through post-review. It also helps agencies meet stringent US government security requirements. Everlaw’s move to Amazon Web Services made it one of the first cloud-native ediscovery solutions to do so. The simple, intuitive tool enhances collaboration and speed while also maintaining the integrity of sensitive government data. 

Everlaw is one of the first cloud-native software solutions to become FedRAMP-certified. FedRAMP is the government-wide Federal Risk and Authorization Program that standardizes the framework for vendor software security assessments, authorization, and monitoring. It’s fundamental for government agencies looking to adopt cloud-based services for their ediscovery needs.

As data sizes grow and workloads become even more demanding, state and local entities need predictable pricing, tools for document discovery, and automated workflows to enable them to serve in the public’s interest.

Everlaw’s ediscovery software helps state and local government agencies accelerate review, improve cross-team or multistate collaboration, and manage and control costs with complete transparency. When responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, for example, agencies can use Everlaw to automate the otherwise time-intensive and complex process of redactions, reduce backlogs, and ensure the security of sensitive data.

Everlaw’s software also enables government agencies to collaborate when responding to public records requests, with an easily accessible, secure environment — regardless of location. For agencies conducting regulatory investigations, Everlaw’s tools can help them quickly collect data and gain deep insights, uncover key patterns during review, and collaborate on a single platform for increased efficiency.

Journalists need tools that help them quickly uncover facts, work with other team members in real time, and seamlessly weave together information to create compelling stories. Everlaw’s software provides them with technology that speeds up their journalistic investigations — regardless of the document types they’re digging into — no matter where they are.