Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m O c t O b e r 2 0 1 4 37 LEgaL rEport/e-DiScoveRY Chasing data Why the search for the best e-discovery tools keeps getting harder and how to address it. by Shane Schick A nne Glover will admit it: She sometimes miss- es all those banker's boxes. Well, maybe not all the banker's boxes. "I miss the days of five boxes where they would say, 'Here are all the docu- ments in the case,' and you could read them five times and know you didn't miss anything. Those days are gone," says Glover, a partner at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. Glover is the head of Blakes' e-discov- ery and document management team, where she spends most of her time sift- ing through more data than a room's worth of banker's boxes could contain for clients such as Visa Inc. She also helps companies get "e-discovery ready." In other words, Blakes advises on the best ways to collect, manage, and store everything from e-mail and PowerPoint presentations to instant messaging chat records should a court one day ask to see them. "The volume is just becoming so large," she says, "and if you don't have everything, you're paralyzed." E-discovery software is supposed to be a means to avoid that kind of paralysis, but those with little experi- ence in acquiring such products might feel equally frozen. The variety of tools, services, and delivery models has only become more complicated with time, as has the nature of the data that might fall under e-discovery. Mastering this area is not only a budget issue — it's something that may fundamentally change the skill sets of the next generation of lawyers across the country. One of the biggest challenges, according to Peter Vakof, is that many lawyers aren't quite clear on all the areas e-discovery may span. A partner with the forensic services unit within mATThEW BIllINGTON

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