The massive proliferation of electronic information has fundamentally altered the discovery and use of evidence in modern litigation.
While most law firms approach this challenge as a back-office litigation support function, we recognize electronic discovery, or “e-discovery,” as a critically important component of fact-finding and advocacy. We focus only on data that matters to claims and defenses in dispute, which reduces the burden and risk of discovery, and can ultimately determine the outcome of a case.
In addition, other firms assign e-discovery to technologists who lack courtroom experience. BakerHostetler’s E-Discovery Advocacy and Management team puts advocacy first. Our team is chaired by litigators who have taken cases to trial, but who also understand the unique challenges of electronic evidence in the litigation arena.
Our lawyers have helped shape standards and best practices for addressing the burdens and opportunities of modern discovery, including the doctrine of proportionality, which holds that the burden of discovery should be commensurate with what is at stake in a case. We have been at the forefront in applying sophisticated new e-discovery technologies such as predictive coding and other machine learning tools to identify data that is relevant to a dispute, which dramatically reduces the time and expense associated with traditional document review. Our advocacy efforts limit the scope, burden, and risk of discovery and internal investigations, and can cut client costs by more than $1 million in a single case.
At the same time, our e-discovery team has developed electronic infrastructures for sharing information with vast numbers of people, increasing the power and efficiency of cases being managed throughout the firm. We manage one of the largest and most complex data sets currently at issue in any single litigation in the United States: the SIPA liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Yet, we can scale our technology and procedures to deliver cost-saving efficiencies in matters of any size. Our technical ability to analyze a client’s data in the context of specific litigation also enables us to align our interests with those of our clients and offer a fixed price for document review—a rarity for law firms in what has become a multibillion-dollar e-discovery industry.