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5 Top Takeaways From the ACC Conference in Boston —
Litigation Cost Concerns Top the List
Contact: Warwick Sharp, Vice President, Marketing
and Business Development, Equivio Inc.
(800) 851-1965 | info@equivio.com |
www.equivio.com
The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) 2009 conference
was held last week in Boston. We had many discussions with
corporate lawyers over the week. Undoubtedly, the strongest
theme to emerge was the concern over litigation
costs.
According to the people that we spoke with, this concern
results from the combination of two key factors —
firstly, the ever-growing costs of litigation, driven mainly
by the exponentially-growing volumes of information; and,
secondly, the economic discipline imposed on corporations
following the global financial crisis.
This is what people were saying at the conference:
1. Corporate counsel are very concerned with litigation
costs, so they are becoming much more involved in
ediscovery.
Once the undisputed domain of law firms with ediscovery
savvy, corporate counsel now recognize that such a major
cost center cannot be the left as the exclusive domain of
law firms. The billable hour may not yet be dead (as rumors
may have it), but corporations now clearly recognize that
the use of appropriate use of ediscovery techniques and
technologies can dramatically reduce litigation review
volumes and, as a direct consequence, billable hour
costs.
2. Corporate counsel are very concerned with litigation
costs, so they are actively educating themselves in
ediscovery.
Corporate counsel feel that their lack of knowledge of the
emerging ediscovery space was forcing them to cede control
of this cost-intensive process to their vendors, the law
firms and service providers. The popularity of the
ediscovery sessions at ACC seems to indicate that corporate
legal departments are highly motivated to bridge this costly
knowledge gap.
3. Corporate counsel are very concerned with litigation
costs, so they are trying to manage their
exposure.
Early case assessment was a catch-cry at the conference, but
everyone has a different view of it. That being said,
everyone we spoke with agreed that, given the corporation's
exposure, the corporate legal department is obliged to
manage the company's risk and cost of ediscovery. This
involves getting an early grip on the case to answer
questions like:
- What is the chance we can win the case?
- Should we settle?
- How much is at stake?
- What are our key claims and arguments?
- How many documents are there to review? What's
the expected cost of litigation?
4. Corporate counsel are very concerned with litigation
costs, so they are actively exploring innovative new
techniques and technologies.
Collection and forensics tools are a necessary baseline for
early case assessment. Agreement on this seems to be
universal. However, some (but not all) corporations now
understand that this is only the baseline, and that the
ability to deliver on the early case assessment vision will
depend on analytical capabilities. They know how much is at
stake, and are actively looking for technologies that can
address this need.
5. Corporate counsel are very concerned with litigation
costs, so they are engaging with law firms in old-new
ways.
It would be interesting to subject this to formal content
analysis. In talking about their work with outside counsel,
corporate legal departments are in the process of adopting a
whole new language. At the show, we heard lots of talk about
"value for money", "budget limits", "competitive pricing",
and "cost controls". By the way, we are also hearing the
mirror image of this from law firms. These concepts are the
foundation stone of modern business, but they are very new
in the litigation space.
For more on all of this, download Conrad Jacoby's white
paper on managing litigation review budgets.
Sincerely,
Warwick Sharp
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Equivio Inc.
5260-G Nicholson Lane
Suite 150
Kensington, MD 20895
(800) 851-1965
info@equivio.com
www.equivio.com
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