Soon, tech-savvy General Counsel (GC) will be more common than those stuck in the past, still using piles of paper. Today’s most effective GC use technology in all sorts of ways, including predictive coding, identifying languages in a document set, cost-effectively reviewing corporate data for litigation or investigations, redacting private or privileged data, and applying legal holds. Some technologies may have a learning curve at first, but that curve is less steep than the time spent and costs incurred sticking to the old methods of corporate legal work.
Analytics
Document review and production is the most expensive component of legal discovery and government investigations. Tools like predictive coding, email threading, de-duplication and more empower GCs to take advantage of the latest technological advancements and apply them within their departments.
Document Review
Today’s document review services are more advanced than those of yesteryear. Now, firms can combine the logistics of managing major, complex review workflows with technologies that make the process faster and less costly for all parties. In the future, document reviews of all sizes – and with both physical and electronic data – will be done with technology.
Identify Languages
There are many different companies that offer new technologies that help multinational corporations identify data in a wide array of languages. As data volumes grow and companies merge and acquire others on a global scale, enabling GCs to review and produce data in any language will become increasingly important.
Redact Private/Privileged Information
Now, GC can protect sensitive information and streamline the redaction process with an automated approach. Instead of redacting documents by hand following review and possibly missing key redactions and turning over private information, attorneys can automatically find and redact personally identifiable information (PII), personal healthcare information (PHI) and other privileged or sensitive data within review tools.
Process Audio/Visual Data
The days of technology-assisted review tools being able to only process text data are over. Technology now exists for organizations to review multimedia files and make redactions, so that only the information that needs to be disclosed is produced. This works for both audio files, video files and other visual data.
Manage Legal Holds
ESI is on the rise within every organisation and creating a legal hold plan is essential to any good information governance or ediscovery strategy. Companies that have established document retention or remediation policies and automate the process are able to cut costs and eliminate production mistakes down the line. Modern automation processes are transparent, predictable and defensible with the right technology.
General Counsel of the future must become tech-savvy leaders in their organisations, quick to embrace emerging technologies that help them work smarter while reducing department costs. Those who are slow to adapt will find their capacities to quickly and efficiently review and produce data reduced over time.