An Overview of etera Consulting Europe and Our In Country Capabilities

Transcription

1 An Overview of etera Consulting Europe and Our In Country Capabilities

2 Table of Contents etera Europe... 3 An Overview Of etera Europe Locations And In Country. Capabilities... 3 Data Collection... 3 Data Processing/Data Analysis/Data Hosting... 4 Document Review/Data Analyst Review... 5 European Offices... 6

3 etera Europe etera Europe ( etera Europe ) provides services covering the Electronic Discovery Reference Model ( EDRM ) throughout Europe to our growing base of U.S. clients with business operations in the European Union ( EU ) and non-eu states such as Switzerland, as well as EU based clients. etera s services include consulting, project management, forensics, data collections, processing, hosting, managed review and production. etera Europe is led by Gregory Bufithis, Esq., Managing Director. Mr. Bufithis is an attorney who has been based in Europe for the last 10 years assisting law firms and corporate legal departments with the legal, administrative and related aspects of document review, legal staffing, ediscovery, and litigation support, and has personally managed multiple ediscovery projects across Europe. An intellectual property lawyer with a specialty in digital media, Mr Bufithis has also undertaken such substantive projects as the commercialization of an intellectual property portfolio, the management of an EU transfer pricing investigation, and managing responses to a DG COMP investigation involving intellectual property and competition policy. etera Europe has a large database of attorneys, lawyer-linguists, and paralegals across Europe allowing us to execute in country ediscovery and litigation work as required by clients. etera Europe believes this is a critical point that distinguishes us from the competition. etera Europe also has: An extensive network of intellectual property professionals and can provide attorneys and experts in such areas as patent prosecution, digital rights management and trademark and trade secrets, as well as litigation support in patent and copyright infringement litigation. A large database of experienced attorneys and lawyer-linguists to handle substantive legal projects, seconded assignments (for example, maternity leaves) and translation projects. Full data collection, processing and hosting capability at etera Europe or at the client location. An Overview Of etera Europe Locations And In Country Capabilities Because European legal projects are often multijurisdictional and multilingual, etera Europe opened offices in the major European countries with the most active legal and electronic data discovery markets. etera Europe has the capability to execute turn-key operations as a client might require in key locations. etera Europe s locations and capabilities are summarized below. 1. etera Europe s home office is Brussels, Belgium where we have a turn-key ediscovery and document review center which can accommodate 20 reviewers but can expand beyond that number if required. 2. etera Europe has an office in Paris, France with the same capability as Brussels: a turn-key document review center. 3. etera Europe has an office in London with the same set-up and capabilities as Brussels and Paris. 4. With etera Europe s data collection partners, we have the capability of setting-up a server/review center in Switzerland (Geneva or Zurich) as well as Rome, Italy and Budapest, Hungary. Overall, etera Europe has the capability of setting-up a data collection/review center in almost any European location a client might require. Data Collection etera Europe has a staff and a process for the collection of data that preserves the integrity of the data, chain of custody and authenticity of the documents in a cost-efficient and time-efficient manner. etera Europe is experienced in working with in-house counsel and outside counsel to assemble a collection team to collaborate on a properly executed collection plan. etera Europe has executed both full disk acquisitions and directed collections. A full disk acquisition involves making bit-by-bit forensic copies of targeted data assets. This process replicates all data, including deleted files and fragments and information in the slack or unallocated space of the drive. etera Europe always consults with forensic technicians when performing a full disk acquisition. Copyright October 2015 etera Europe 3

4 Directed collections are usually preferable because they limit the scope and size of the collection. A directed collection can be limited to include particular custodians, certain file types or documents that result from a keyword or date range search. Keyword searches conducted for this purpose must be carefully crafted and tested with respect to the issues, claims and defenses in a case because the results of any search are only as good as the search itself. The use of advanced search and analytics tools may be preferable to keyword search terms. Obviously the nature and claims of the case or matter, the complexity of an organization s IT infrastructure, the discovery requests and proportionality, and the form of eventual production will impact the decision on which collection method to use and what type of team to assemble. Data Processing/Data Analysis/Data Hosting etera Europe utilizes the 1ntelligent One processing platform in Europe. A key feature of 1ntelligent One is its portability providing the ideal solution for clients who require in country processing and review. The 1ntelligent One Decision Engine provides an interactive visualization and workflow framework powered by analytics software. The key point is that it enables the reviewer/end user to manage data processing. Data and workflows need to be visible and easily transferable among invested parties. Using the Decision Engine, a client can create categorization-based rules. As additional case data is loaded into the system, it acts as an intelligent filter to transfer the data into the applicable classification. This allows the most relevant data to be routed to the most appropriate attorneys for review. By applying these technologies across the entire data set, clients can intelligently prioritize and classify data for review, improving the overall quality. As a result, review cost and time can be significantly reduced. Because the goal is to tell a story, the 1ntelligent One Decision Engine provides an interactive visualization and workflow framework: Who said what to whom What was the nature of the documents exchanged Who else is talking to whom about the subject matter at hand Was someone cc-ed What does the company s distribution network of possible involved personnel look like How do the search terms overlap and relate to personnel Why is a certain person receiving forwards of key documents How much communication is happening outside the network What can a conceptual search around that document tell me The 1ntelligent One approach allows clients to rapidly ingest, access, test, and analyze data in a highly usable format throughout processing to: Quickly cull junk data and uncover relevant information Determine early case strategy and resource allocation Mitigate legal exposure and wasted efforts Identify potential areas of exposure Lower total cost of ownership And ultimately, move less but more relevant data to review The 1ntelligent One Processing Engine is the workhorse and foundation of data processing, allowing all types of data to be imported into the system with multi-terabyte, full processing and indexing every 24 hours. Once ingested, the system enables clients to easily access, organize, track, and move data to review. The 1ntellegent One hosting platform provides full review and analytics capabilities to reviewers that can be centrally located or dispersed. Capabilities include: Fully customizable workflow Keyword highlighting Full search capability including: Keyword/phrase linear search Concept search Duplicate identification Near duplicate identification /conversation threading Predictive Coding/Computer Assisted Review Full reporting metrics 4 Copyright October 2015 etera Europe

5 Document Review/Data Analyst Review Much of etera Europe s work in Europe involves data and document review, analysis and production. etera Europe has handled civil litigations, government investigations (DOJ, S.E.C., DG COMP, DG MARKT) and internal audits. etera Europe also has an intellectual property team which provides expertise in such areas as patent prosecution, digital rights management, trademark, trade secrets, and litigation support in patent and copyright infringement cases. Document review/data analyst reviewer base etera Europe s database of document reviewers and data analysts includes attorneys, jurists and linguists. etera Europe can cover all 24 official and working languages of the European Union and have contractors fluent in such languages as Arabic, Serbian and Turkish. etera Europe s contractors are located across Europe and we can field a team in almost any country requested. etera Europe s strength is the ability to provide scalable teams to meet client requirements. etera Europe uses the following hiring criteria for document review candidates: Member of the bar in good standing Years practicing law or work as a linguist or jurist Years of litigation, document review and ediscovery experience Expertise in the substantive issues involved in the matter Industry expertise relevant to the matter Engineering or technical expertise Skills relevant to software tools used for the matter etera Europe also prefers to train each team on the client s business, substantive issues and specific areas of law that affect each matter. This training period can be one to three days depending on the size and complexity of the case. As an example, on a recent review for a scientific products manufacturer, the team spent three full days of rigorous training on the client s products and business. The training was a collective effort conducted by etera Europe, the client s legal and engineering personnel, and outside counsel to ensure the team had the necessary background on the company, case and issues. etera Europe also wants to be in a position so we can manage any possible spike in demand and plan accordingly. Thus, the etera Europe project intake process focuses on: Understanding the size and scope of the project Developing a solution reflecting client costs, schedule and legal objectives etera Europe s scoping process includes an analysis of the client s needs taking into account data collection, volume of documents, deadlines, identification of custodians of interest, and varying media types. etera Europe realizes that litigation and government investigations are dynamic processes and that review parameters and schedules often change. etera Europe s database of document reviewers and data analysts are versed in a multitude of ediscovery document review platforms. Project procedure ediscovery is still a somewhat new and (often) unknown term in many parts of EMEA and very often is best described as a view from the gallery. But EMEA regulatory authorities are knowledgeable enough to know that it involves data transfer and data disclosure issues that falls under stringent data protection regimes. What follows is a brief outline of a procedure that etera Europe uses as a template for many jurisdictions: a. The initial role of IT Client IT data management can vary from country to country depending on the client s operations and the technology available. An internal assessment must be done to determine the type of data involved, who are the custodians, whether the client has centralized their data storage, and potential third-party control of data. Clients also need to determine who has access to the data, chain-of-custody issues, and company secrets and confidentiality agreements. b. Retention of a data protection expert attorney The EU has a comprehensive system of data protection in place. Before starting the process of collecting, filtering and reviewing data locally it is important to retain an attorney who is expert in the appropriate data protection laws. etera Europe has assembled a network of such experts. etera Europe s data experts can help clients de- Copyright October 2015 etera Europe 5

6 velop the proper plan for collecting, processing and reviewing data including location. c. The manual review etera Europe s selection of the review staff is based on three key factors: i. The languages required ii. The depth of substantive knowledge required iii. Whether the review can be done with a mix attorneys, paralegals and linguists For more information about etera Europe, you can us at Europe@eteraconsulting.com or contact us at one of our European offices. European Offices Belgium Stephanie Square Avenue Louise Brussels Belgium +32 (0) France 12/14, Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées Paris France +33 (0) United Kingdom The Broadgate Tower 20 Primrose Street London EC2A 2EW England +44 (0) Gregory Bufithis Managing Director, etera Europe Gregory Bufithis assists law firms and corporate legal departments with the legal, administrative and related aspects of document review, legal staffing, electronic discovery, and litigation support from the etera Europe offices in Brussels, London and Paris. Greg has lived and worked for the last 10 years in Brussels and Paris and has managed multiple e-discovery projects across Europe. He has written numerous articles about European legal issues on his blog. An intellectual property lawyer with a specialty in digital media, he has undertaken such projects as the commercialization of an intellectual property portfolio, the management of an EU transfer pricing investigation, and managing responses to a DG COMP investigation involving intellectual property and competition policy. He received his Juris Doctorate from the John Marshall School of Law, his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hartwick College, and a Licence en langues et civilizations étrangères (premier degré) from the Universitè de Paris Sorbonne. 6 Copyright October 2015 etera Europe