Litigation Support Department - Abridged - Press Release Services

39 Pages·2006·0.38 MB·English

by  Mark Lieb

Litigation Support Department - Abridged Version

Litigation Support Department
Abridged - Sample

Mark Lieb
© 2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc.

©2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc. Page 1 of 39
Litigation Support Department - Abridged Version
Litigation Support Department
©2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc.

This book seeks to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It
is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other
professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent
professional person should be sought.

Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by section 107 or 108 of the
1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for
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Purchase of this book and the electronic files does not give reproduction rights. This book content is not to
be copied, distributed or otherwise reproduced without signed permission of the author. Site licensing is
available.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. In all
instances where Ad Litem Consulting, Inc. is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital
or all capital letters except for entities whose expressed names begins with a lower case letter. Readers,
however, should contact the appropriate companies for more complete information regarding trademarks
and registration.

ISBN Number - 0-9774267-0-X
ISBN-13 Number - 9780977426706

Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN): 2005909508

Ad Litem Consulting, Inc.
7777 Lake Street, Suite 200
River Forest, IL 60305

http://www.AdLitem.com

1-866-477-4523

©2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc. Page 2 of 39
Litigation Support Department - Abridged Version
Table of Contents - Abridged Text

Table of Contents - Abridged Text.....................................................................................3
Table of Contents - Complete Book...................................................................................4
Clients...............................................................................................................................10
Preface...............................................................................................................................11
About Mark Lieb...............................................................................................................13
To Litigation Support Professionals.................................................................................14
To Attorneys and Paralegals.............................................................................................17
I. Hierarchy.......................................................................................................................18
1. Traditional Business Hierarchy.................................................................................20
II. Services........................................................................................................................21
Department and Firm Level Initiatives.........................................................................24
Accounting....................................................................................................................25
Budget Estimation.........................................................................................................27
III. Needs Assessment.......................................................................................................28
IV. Tools...........................................................................................................................30
V. Litigation Case Lifecycle.............................................................................................32
1. Software Lifecycle....................................................................................................32
A. Phase 1 through Phase 3.......................................................................................33
Litigation Support Strategies........................................................................................33
VI. Supporting Files..........................................................................................................36
Case Lifecycle Task List...............................................................................................37
Discovery Lifecycle Flowchart (Sample).....................................................................38

©2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc. Page 3 of 39
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Table of Contents - Complete Book

Preface 12
About Mark Lieb 14
Author’s Note 15
To Litigation Support Professionals 16
To Attorneys and Paralegals 19
I. Hierarchy 20
1. Traditional Business Hierarchy 21
2. Chart – Traditional Business 22
3. Chart – Litigation Support 23
A. Shareholders 24
B. Chief Operating Officer 25
C. VP of Marketing 26
D. VP of Finance 30
E. VP of Operations 32
F. Production Manager 34
G. Clerk 36
1. Clerical Tasks 36
II. Services 38
1. Management 45
A. Implementing Best Practices 45
1. Department and Firm Level Initiatives 45
2. Case Level Initiatives 53
B. Supporting Files 54
1. Department and Firm Level 54
2. Case Level 55
2. Marketing 57
A. Legal Team Relations 57
3. Financial 60
A. Accounting 60
1. What to Bill 61
2. Billable Hours 65
3. Media 66
4. Cost Codes 69
5. Revenue Sources 71
4. Operations 74
A. Budget Estimation 74
B. Computer Forensics 76
C. Document Review Systems 77
D. Electronic Discovery 77
E. Paper Discovery 78
F. Project Management 79
G. Storage 82
1. Small Firm 83
2. Medium and Large Firms 84
3. Hosting and Storage Options 85
4. On Hosted Solutions ("ASPs") 90
H. Technical Work 93
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1. Staging Areas 96
2. Network Folders 99
I. Training 107
1. Litigation Support 109
2. Legal Team 109
3. Vendors 110
J. Vendor Relations 113
III. Needs Assessment 115
1. Financials 117
2. User Tools 120
3. Storage Assessment 125
4. Firm Technical Standards 127
5. Litigation Support Software 128
6. Department Hardware Capabilities 130
A. Read Media Formats 130
B. Read Operating Systems Formats 131
C. Optical Media Creation 131
7. Video 133
8. Media Inventory 134
9. Project Management 135
10. Network Configuration 137
11. Backup Routines 141
12. Disaster Recovery Plan 144
13. Training 147
14. Departmental Operations 153
15. Political Abilities 155
16. Ability to Bill 159
17. Vendors 161
18. Printing 163
IV. Tools 165
1. Software 166
A. Litigation Support 167
1. Spreadsheet Program 167
2. Batch File and Folder Renaming Program 168
3. Text Editor 168
4. File-Folder Comparison 168
5. File Viewer 169
6. Database Programs 169
7. IPRO IConvert 170
8. Password Cracking 170
9. Macintosh Emulator 170
10. Email 171
B. Legal Team 174
1. Case Fact Management 174
2. Document Review Software 174
3. Transcripts 175
4. Depoware / Exhibitware 175
2. Hardware 177
A. Litigation Support 177
1. External Hard Drives 177
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2. Hub 177
3. Smart Media Hub 177
4. iOmega Zip Drive 178
5. Administrative Server 178
6. Robotic Media Burners 180
7. Robot Loaders 181
8. Nylon Binders 181
9. Projector 181
10. Thumb Drives 182
11. Monitors 182
B. Legal Team 183
1. Trial and Deposition Hardware 183
2. Scanners 183
3. Fax Server 183
4. Monitors 184
V. Litigation Case Lifecycle 187
1. Software Lifecycle 187
A. Phase 1 through Phase 3 187
B. Phase 4 through Phase 5 188
C. Phase 6 189
D. Phase 7 189
E. Phase 8 190
F. Phase 9 190
2. Case Lifecycle Task List 192
A. Phase 1 through Phase 3 193
B. Phase 4 through Phase 5 194
C. Phase 6 195
D. Phase 7 195
E. Phase 8 195
F. Phase 9 196
3. Discovery Lifecycle 197
A. Phase 1 through Phase 3 197
B. Phase 4 through Phase 5 207
C. Phase 6 210
D. Phase 7 212
E. Phase 8 213
F. Phase 9 214
VI. Supporting Files 215
1. Case Lifecycle Task List 216
A. Phases and Tasks 216
2. Collection to Production 221
A. Mass Collection 222
B. Filter for Extraction 223
C. Pre Production Database 224
D. Pre-Production Review 225
E. Create Production 226
F. Production Database 227
3. Department Status Reports 228
A. Marketing Report 228
B. Operations Report 228
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C. Financial Report 229
4. Deposition and Trial Resource Sheet 230
5. Discovery Lifecycle Flowchart 231
6. Litigation Budget Spreadsheet 232
A. Budget Worksheet 233
B. Discovery Matrix Worksheet 234
C. Limiting Discovery Worksheet 235
D. Roles and Responsibilities Worksheet 236
7. Litigation Support QC Tasks 237
A. Discovery - Blow-Back Steps 238
B. Discovery - New Media 241
C. Discovery - Production Steps 243
8. New Matter Assessment Email 246
9. Server Organization Email 247
10. Vendor Compliance Email 249
11. Litigation Support Technical Standards 250
Acknowledgements 254
License 257
Preface 259
1.00 Introduction 260
1.01 For Vendors 260
1.02 For Firms 261
1.03 How to Use This Document 261
2.00 Business Standards 262
2.01 Outgoing Media Kit 262
2.02 Cost Codes for Litigation Support 262
2.03 Request for Quotes ("RFQs") 263
2.04 Quotes 263
2.05 Weekly Updates 263
2.06 Color Blindness 264
2.07 Quality Control 265
3.00 Technical Standards 267
3.01 Media Labels 267
3.02 File, Folder and Volume Naming 270
3.03 CD Content and Organization 271
3.04 Organization of Sub-Folders 271
3.05 Bates Schemes 273
3.06 Data Files 274
3.07 Database Conventions 276
3.08 Native Files 277
3.09 Project Specifications Document 278
3.10 Bibliographical Coding Manual 278
3.11 Image Format 279
3.12 OCR 279
3.13 Slip-Sheets or Unitization Rules 280
3.14 Video 280
3.15 Synchronization 282
3.16 Transcripts 282
3.17 Delivery Media 283
4.00 Software Specific Requirements 284
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4.01 Casesoft Suite 284
4.02 IPRO 284
4.03 Dataflight's Concordance and Opticon 286
4.04 Image Capture Engineering 287
4.05 Summation 288
4.06 iCONECT 288
4.07 inData TrialDirector 289
4.nn Additional Titles to Follow 291
5.00 Examples of What Not To Do 292
5.01 Media Labels 292
5.02 File / Folder / Volume Name Conventions 292
5.03 Database 292
5.04 Media Content 292
5.05 Load Files 293
5.06 OCR 293
5.07 Opticon Load Files 293
5.08 Image Format 294
5.09 Transcripts 294
5.10 General Errors / Issues 294
5.11 Real Experiences 295

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Testimonials

Attorney Opinions

"It's a thorough, hands-on roadmap of how to set up a litigation support department and
how to make an existing department better, written by someone with actual experience in
creating a successful lit support department. In short, it's exactly what you would like to
have at hand when building a lit support department. It includes checklists, useful files on
CDs and a detailed roadmap of the steps in the litigation process where lit support
personnel can be employed effectively. If you have the task of creating, building or
managing a lit support department, get a copy of this book as your starting guide. It'll
take you a long way."

- Dennis Kennedy, Attorney, DennisKennedy.com

Mr. Lieb’s expertise focuses on the full range of modern electronic discovery. He has
been instrumental in creating a robust infrastructure for providing electronic discovery
services within the firm. In addition, he was the principal author of Gray Cary Ware &
Freidenrich’s Litigation Support Technical Standards. This document has done much to
enhance communications between vendors and end users.

- Browning Marean, III, Partner, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP.

Mark Lieb's litigation support best practices ideas are a great resource. Mark has distilled
his extensive real-world case management experience into a set of standards that make it
easy for law firms to organize the litigation support function and shows us how to use
technology to tame case complexity. Very impressive stuff!

- Greg Krehel, Attorney, CEO, CaseSoft
A Paralegal Opinion

"I estimate that using the template Specs saved me at least 50 hours of independent
research in drafting the E&A Vendor Specs...The work that I received back from the
vendor using the specs was absolutely perfect and loaded and tested without any errors."

- Priscilla Rush, Paralegal, Edwards & Angell, LLP

A Litigation Support Professional Opinion

"[I] have worked as a Litigation Support Specialist at a firm and basically created the
department and its standards. However I grew frustrated with the office politics of not
knowing how to involve Lit Support with the firm's practices. I wish my former employer
had the same foresight as my current one to utilize the standards and practices proposed
by this book."

- Domingo Rodriguez, C2 Legal
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Clients

Ad Litem Consulting's clients include a diverse base of law firms, litigation
professionals, corporate counsel and industry vendors from multiple countries and
continents.

Ad Litem respects the wishes of law firms for anonymity and gratefully acknowledge and
thank those who allow use of their name below.

Customers include:

• Gowlings
• Thompson Hine LLP
• LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP
• Edwards & Angell, LLP
• A federal agency
• Dozens of law firms within the first few months of publication
• Firms in four countries and three continents
• American Document Management
• C2 Legal
• D.O.E. Technologies, Inc.
• InSource Document Services
• kCura Corporation
• Palm Beach Medical
• People within mid-sized and smaller practices
• ...and many more.

Ad Litem Consulting is in discussion with educators from law and paralegal schools as
well as industry training programs for use of the book in classrooms.

Learn how Litigation Support can pay for itself by providing a consistent lifecycle
experience to the legal team, vendors, clients and opposing counsel.

Ad Litem also provide consulting on both individual cases and for law firms that wish to
implement best practices.

©2006 Ad Litem Consulting, Inc. Page 10 of 39