As is increasingly the case, The Posse List is getting out its reports of events and developments so quickly and comprehensively that it is folly on my part to cover them as well. This suits me well, since I am far from short of topics of my own, and I can extend my range by drawing your attention to Posse List reports. This is particularly helpful where I was not present, as was the case at the opening panel organised by Epiq Systems on Day 2 of LegalTech 2010. I was in fact outside, doing the final preparations for the second panel, which I was moderating, and about which I will write separately.
The subject of the first panel, and the heading to The Posse List’s article, was Defensible document review. Epiq is primarily thought of as a software company because of the respected and widely-used review application DocuMatrix. In the US particularly, however, they are known also for a document review service. The panel was led by Laura Kibbe and the panelists included our own Vince Neicho, who knows a thing or two about document review from his position as Litigation Support Specialist at Allen & Overy, and David Kessler , a partner at Drinker Biddle. David proved a lively panelist on my panel as well.
The thrust of The Posse List’s report is that the document review team is much more than a set of mechanics serving up work-product for the lawyers as a separate entity. A document review in which the two work together, feeding information to each other in an iterative cycle, is not only defensible but cost-effective, not least because of the reduced potential for blind alleys and false trails.
The objective, of course, is to conduct the review in the fastest possible time with the lowest scope for error. This, let me quickly add, is not a peculiarly US requirement. Lord Justice Jackson’s Reports on litigation costs emphasise both the expense of the review stage and the role which technology plays in cutting down the expense.
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