eDiscovery is fast becoming one of the hottest areas in law. This isn’t something that is yet taught in law schools. Many firms are just now starting separate departments for e-discovery.  This new course is really going to rachet up the need for implementing archiving systems.

According to Barry Murphy, formerly  of Forrester Research, the challenges are similar for all organizations, whether a bank, a consulting company or a biotech firm. The only difference is that banks are under more government regulation (e.g., SEC) than some other industries and often do discovery specifically for regulatory requests.

Barry also states “the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) amendments really affect organizations in three ways. First, they require a framework for early attention. Organizations not ready to address issues when litigation or regulatory requests hit will immediately be behind. Second, they give a safe harbor for data destruction, meaning there are no penalties for deleting electronically stored information in keeping with routine operation of IT systems if the party took reasonable steps to preserve it. However, this means that organizations must have granular retention policies in place, and technology to enforce those policies and audit the enforcement as well. Finally, there is the requirement for native file production. Organizations must be able to produce electronically stored information in its native format with its metadata intact and prove a valid chain of custody. Again, this spotlights the need for technology to manage the full life cycle of information.”

In November 2008 some 300 attorneys attended a conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center that explored how technology is changing legal practice. Pittsburgh attorney David Cohen, a partner in the Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates, co-chaired that conference, and is on the forefront of e-discovery, the gathering of electronically stored information like e-mail, databases and other computer files for civil and criminal cases.

As a co-chair of the firms’ e-Discovery Analysis & Technology Group, Cohen travels the country helping to bring organizations up to speed on e-discovery tactics.

“E-discovery is one of the hottest areas in law,” says Cohen, who counsels companies and presents training seminars on records management, e-mail sensitivity and e-discovery readiness. “This isn’t something that is yet taught in law schools. Many firms are just now starting separate departments for e-discovery.”

Is your company making preparations for eDiscovery? The writing is on the wall. Now is the time to be prepared before you have to, by implementing an archiving solution.