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ago, and McLean says the "tool has been used quite extensively. The system went live about a year " published by Corporate Counsel shows a growing trend among Fortune 50 companies to insource or centralize e-discovery. The ACC spoke to 17 general counsel from the top Fortune 50 companies and most indicated they are finding value by managing some aspect of e-discovery in-house, as opposed to simply dump- ing massive amounts of data on their external law firms and letting them call the litigation shots. For example, according to the report, Procter & Gamble has insourced and centralized e-discovery, as has Bank of America, and mortgage giant Freddie Mac is bringing its e-discovery practices in-house, work that was previ- ously done by outside vendors, and it is building an end-to-end process for managing e-discovery. The report also states that Exxon the Mobil Corp. has been building a "robust, centralized e-discovery process that is handled primarily in-house. of 15-20 professionals that work with " It consists swamping their companies. Discovery is one of the most expensive tasks when it comes to managing litigation or responding to regulatory actions, and with the advent of electronically stored information it is becoming unwieldy to manage the various caches of data, ranging from documents and reports to emails and social media. A spring GC Value Insights report the Association departments across the globe are look- ing for the best ways to manage the growing digital tide of information When it comes to e-discovery, legal the global IT team. The group "focuses on efficient and co-ordinated processes designed to meet legal requirements and reduce costs." Others, such as AmerisourceBergen Corp. mandates its external law firms use approved vendors to manage the collection of electronic information and those vendors work on pre-nego- tiated rates. A single law firm oversees the e-discovery process for the law department. Experts say insourcing e-discovery is a recent phenomenon. "It is a trend that of it might seem. "While on the surface insourcing may seem like a great idea — why pay someone to do something your under-worked in-house IT people can do themselves — in some cases, buying software turned out to not be a good solution, and led to higher costs than if the work was outsourced to a knowledgeable vendor. sides of the border it's important to note that the Canadian and American legal systems view discovery differ- ently. In the U.S., discovery is more of For companies that operate on both " It's useful to bring in a third party with a fairly critical eye who can look at what your current processes are and give you an assessment of where you are. In most cases, it's likely to be something of a reality check. DOUGLAS MCLEAN, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. has been growing for a few years," says Chuck Rothman, director of e-discov- ery services at the law firm Wortzman Nickle Professional Corp. in Toronto, which focuses on providing legal advice around e-discovery and records man- agement issues in litigation. Rothman first started noticing the trend in 2010, at the large U.S. LegalTech trade show. Since then there has been a "big push" and now it has reached Canada. "There is a whole raft of software out there, he notes, which companies can use to help them. However, he warns it's not as easy as a fishing expedition, so lawyers will make sweeping claims of electronic documents in a bid to unearth evidence that assists in build- ing the case. In Canada, the discovery rules rely more on proportionality when it comes to deciding what should or shouldn't be disclosed. Factor in different " for discovery involving things like privacy, money laundering, and legislation like the U.S. Patriot Act and putting together an internal e-discovery system is a chal- lenging proposition. But it is likely a necessary one given laws When you need a law firm that's plugged into your business... Your lawyer. Your law firm. Your business advisor. BennettJones-1_IH_Aug_12.indd 1 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 • 12-06-28 10:53 AM 23

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