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CCCA_V3No3_Dept-EDiscovery-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No2_Dept-CrossBdr-V1.qxd 9/16/09 1:32 PM Page 14 E-discovery Managing information overload Adopting e-discovery best practices today can spare you a world of grief tomorrow. By Luigi Benetton hanks to the wonder that is elec- to 10 colleagues asking:‘Does anyone know Ttronically stored information,corpo- a good business valuator in Winnipeg?’” rations profit from — and sometimes Smith says.“Most recipients will stagger under — more information than hit reply all, so you get six ever before. And few tasks highlight the emails saying no and four mass of a company’s data like e-discovery. with various thoughts on Those closest to the work know this well. “In-house counsel were dealing with elec- tronic discovery long before anybody in a law firm had to deal with it,” says Brett Burney, founder of e-discovery services provider need to be retained and which should be Burney Consultants in Cleveland, Ohio. deleted — the ‘fractal record-keeping’ That experience has spawned best prac- phenomenon,” says Peg Duncan of tices that inside counsel and their employ- Ottawa, a member of the steer- ers can adopt to lessen e-discovery conster- ing committee and editorial nation. Here are a few tips you can use to board for Sedona Canada guide your company’s e-discovery efforts. Principles. “In advance of litiga- Don’t create more email tion, in-house counsel than you need to who to use, when you can ensure that the corpo- Consider e-mail, arguably the largest con- don’t give a darn.” ration keeps only what it needs tributor to the information explosion. Smith also takes umbrage with “email for business or regulatory reasons and “The worst offender is the reply-all forwarders” who don’t delete other people’s expunges the rest [which is the bulk of the offender,”says Glenn Smith,senior partner email addresses to protect their privacy. information],” Duncan adds. with litigation boutique Lenczner Slaght “Reducing the volume of information Royce Griffin LLP in Toronto. Don’t keep more email kept,and improving its organization direct- Smith sees a role for both better systems than you need to ly affects costs and burden of preservation, and employee training on email usage, Modern email archiving solutions remove collection, processing and review.” principally with respect to the conse- duplicate emails and attachments, keeping quences of irreverent and not-thought-out storage and backup costs in check. “Email Keep records management policies business emails. archiving gets the corporation away from a up-to-date “Say a team leader sends a broadcast email reliance on end users to decide which emails Burney often finds the policies he reviews Further reading To effectively handle e-discovery, counsel must understand what it means. Tap in to the wealth of knowledge on the web. Sedona Conference publishes its work at www.thesedonaconference.org/. Sedona Working Group Seven (WG7) continues to refine Canada’s take on e-discovery. The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (www.edrm.net) develops guidelines and standards for e-discovery consumers and providers. ISTOCKPHOTO E-discovery Canada keeps track of new developments at www.lexum.umontreal.ca/e-discovery/ as well as all Sedona Canada principles: www.lexum.umontreal.ca/e-discovery/documents/SedonaCanadaPrinciples01-08.pdf 14 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association FALL 2009