Canadian Lawyer InHouse

21 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE MAY 2017 (preservation, collection, review, produc- tion) critical," says Gordon McCue, associ- ate general counsel with Global Litigation at Shell Canada Ltd. Shell has had an inside discovery team since the late 1980s and this team has been refocused on e-discovery since about 2002. The team has attorneys, paralegals, tech- nology administrators for in-house tools and project co-ordinators on staff with administrative support, both on-shore and offshore. "In-house resources have a better historical knowledge of Shell and aspects of Shell information management, organiza- tion, IT systems and ways of working than outside counsel or an outside vendor would be capable of," says McCue. Generally, e-discovery at Shell is focused within the in-house team for preservation and collection. Review and production capability is also in-house with shared services with outside vendors depending on the matter. Outside counsel is involved in an advisory capacity with all steps in the e-discovery lifecycle. "There is a general belief that the in- house team is a critical component to overall cost-reduction efforts and to the reduction of discovery risks. The team is right-sized but expects growth in both resources and tools as new challenges from technology changes continue," he says. For the most part, departments such as Shell's are still the exception not the norm. Sarah Millar of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP says more work is going to external fi rms because the fi rms have improved their expertise in the last four or fi ve years. "We have two computer scientists from Queens — we recruit people who specialize in this area and have become better and more effi cient at delivering the services," says Millar who heads up Osler's discovery management group. "You need people who can write script and have engineering or expansive education in where computers are used every day." Millar says Osler works with several e- discovery vendors, but it doesn't align with any specifi c provider, preferring to keep its options open. She understands why clients want to do more of the work in-house. "The costing in this space is all volume driven. Any ef- fort made to target the relevant data up- front with the people in the organization who are creating it will save you potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars down the road," she says. "Even working with your external counsel for 15 hours upfront can save you $150,000 down the road. It re- ally is just making sure the creators of the data in the organization really understand what's relevant in the lawsuit or regulatory review and that they really put their minds to where the data is and being concise as opposed to us coming in and grabbing everything. "When in-house counsel cares about facilitating that process, that's the best," says Millar. "I love it when that happens. The biggest cost-saving measure is an engaged in-house counsel. You can have the smallest department with one or two people and they do a better job than the biggest blue-chip Canadian companies with 70 in-house counsel. They are taking ownership over the process." IH BabinBessnerSpry_IH_May_16.indd 1 2016-04-05 2:35 PM

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