Electronic files – including database contents, e-mails, e-mail attachments and thousands of file types – account for almost all modern business information. By some estimates, only 0.01% of new information is actually created in paper format and as much as 30% of all electronic information is never printed to paper.
Global yearly email traffic was recently estimated to exceed 7 trillion messages, with the average office worker receiving between 60 and 200 e-mails per day.
Effective and efficient management of electronic information is a business imperative – particularly in the context of complex legal matters like litigations, corporate transactions and government inquiries.
Fenwick & West's EIM Group provides mission-critical electronic information management services to the firm's clients in all areas of the firm's practice.
Increasing Efficiency and Adding Value for Our Clients
Efficiency of our Processes
Fenwick & West's EIM Group saves our clients money and time when it comes to managing, collecting, analyzing and producing electronic information.
EIM focuses on developing and using technology tools to enhance the quality and speed of the firm's provision of services to its clients in all areas, from complex corporate transactions to government investigations to high-stakes litigations.
The Group is comprised of a rare mix of highly experienced practicing attorneys, lawyers-turned-technologists and career IT professionals. The IT members of EIM include three certified computer forensics investigators and several others highly skilled in networks, processing and analysis.
These teammates bring unique perspectives to the realm of law technology tools.
Retention/Destruction Policies and Protocols
We advise clients on legally compliant and technologically sound methods of retention, preservation and destruction of electronic information. We prepare retention/destruction policies and implementation protocols. Where such policies and protocols are already in place or in development, we consult by providing additional perspectives. We advise as to additional obligations imposed by the ever-changing legal rules and most cutting-edge technological processes.
Collection and Analysis
Once a dispute, transaction or investigation or arises, we minimize costs by only collecting the necessary data and by doing so very quickly using unique software tools.
We apply automated de-duplication processes to cull out huge sets of irrelevant and duplicative data. These processes minimize the need for you to pay lawyers to review mountains of electronic information.
Our award-winning FIND de-duplication and filtering methods often reduce the volume of data needing review by 20%-80%.
To learn more, see Dumpster Diving: Fenwick & West IT Group on the Cutting Edge of Electronic Data Discovery (Law Technology News 8/1/05)
Collaboration
We build secure extranets to share information over the Web with clients, co-counsel, opposing counsel and other parties. We have one of the most robust law firm extranet environments in the world, with more than 450 secure extranet sites in use daily.
Using Web-based tools to share documents, review data and provide advice yields significant benefits. Work progress can be reviewed online at any time, from any location with an Internet connection.
Our collaboration extranets allow members to upload, download, review and comment upon documents, review calendars and due dates and engage in Web-based meetings whenever and wherever they may be conducting business.
Investigation
The EIM Group is trained to conduct in-depth investigations of computer data and data systems. Attorney members are all highly experienced practitioners. Two technologist members are former senior litigators. Three other technologist members are certified in the use of computer forensic tools. Additional IT members are specially trained in networking, processing and analysis.
Our investigation team has handled more than 100 matters, involving the SEC, Department of Justice, IRS, the Attorney General of the State of New York, FCC, FTC as well as litigation in the Federal and state courts.
IT Reliability and Scalability
We have invested in a Network Operations Center comprised of more than 90 servers offering more than 75 Terabytes of online storage – all monitored 24/7 – so that we can instantly respond to our clients' needs. We use the best customized and commercially available software and hardware. And our capabilities are constantly expanding.
When the matter calls for it, we can scale up to the largest bet-the-business litigation or transaction.
On the Litigation front, one recent successful long-term matter entailed what we believe to be the largest collection of data and records in a civil case in the country. In that case, we helped achieve a very favorable result by:
- processing over 180 million pages, encompassing upwards of 120 million produced by the other side plus upwards of 60 million collected from our client;
- indexing and searching more than 30 million of those pages, populating more than four Terabytes of online review databases; and
- structuring and maintaining those databases to deliver the necessary data to distributed teams of lawyers and paralegals across the country and around the world, consistently and accurately for months on end.
On the Corporate front, we recently expedited a mammoth $7.0 billion acquisition by enabling:
- due diligence involving 60 subsidiaries on four continents;
- completing the bulk of the collection and analysis in three weeks; and
- closing the deal in under eight weeks
Security of our Systems
Security is our top-level priority. We follow (and often define) industry best practices in data-handling. We also strongly encourage our clients to use secure e-mail or to communicate via our secure websites.
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