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CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE MAY 2017
BY JENNIFER BROWN
T
he numbers on e-discovery projects can be staggering both from a
dollar and document perspective. E-discovery can represent 50 per
cent of the cost in a litigation matter. It can also be a process where
50,000 documents are looked at for 200 that really matter.
As Loreto Grimaldi, former general counsel with Progressive
Waste Solutions and now senior vice president and general counsel at ECN Capital,
says, "There's a lot of money at stake here and these aren't things that can be
budgeted for — you can't plan litigation, necessarily, you can't plan a regulatory
proceeding that pops up, so when general counsel are dealing with large unplanned
expenses, there's going to be a tremendous amount of pressure to try and minimize
those if and when they happen.
"It's no surprise these types of fi les are becoming more scrutinized both by the
law departments and by the CFO and fi nance people," adds Grimaldi.
MAPPING
e-discovery
out
an
strategy
As costs escalate and in-house legal
departments struggle with the onslaught
of big data, some are taking on more of the
work in discovery cases. Others are looking
for the most effi cient way to hand it over to
external experts at a reasonable cost.
E-discovery work
outsourced in
Canada
Outsourced to
Law Firms
2016-17 73%
2015-16 55%
Outsourced to
LPOs/LSPs
2016-17 6%
2015-16 19%
Source: Association of Corporate
Counsel Chief Legal Officers 2017 Survey
