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Bridge the IT/Legal Communication Gap
Avoid these real-life blunders by bridging the communication gap between IT and legal departments.
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One of the paradigm shifts the new Federal Rule changes have brought to the discovery phase of litigation is that IT and legal, two departments with seemingly very different goals, backgrounds, approaches (and even languages), must now work together as a team. If IT and Legal don't communicate, coordinate, and operate in unison, the organization loses control over its information, wastes valuable resources, or even worse, faces sanctions and fines for not properly responding to requests for production. If the organization's technology department fails to understand how counsel intends to use the requested information; and if counsel fails to understand the form with which the data can be harvested and programmatically manipulated, there will be higher costs and less persuasive evidence at trial.
Let's face it: IT and Legal have different DNA. They have contrasting backgrounds, training, and terminology. However, as stakeholders in their organization, they must work together to bridge the communication gap wherever possible if they hope to manage the complexities of electronic discovery. When miscommunications occur, they usually result in unnecessary time and expense recreating or organizing information that already exists in the client's systems. This information is extremely valuable because it can be manipulated or reused in a variety of ways to support on-going and future legal claims.
To illustrate why it is critical for IT and legal departments to speak the same language, here are three true stories.
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Pat McColloch is Director of Government Programs at IE Discovery, a provider of discovery management services to government agencies, corporations, and law firms with offices in Austin, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C, where Bill Detamore is CFO and Director of Business Development and Chris Knox is Director of Commercial Programs. Questions about this article can be addressed to Pat McColloch at pmccolloch@iediscovery.com.
ARTICLE INFO
Web Edition: 2007 Week 26, Doc #19113
 FREE ACCESS
Keyword Tags: collaboration, compliance, crm, e-discovery, E-Discovery, E-Mail, it networking, it strategy, law technology, legal, Litigation Support, messaging, microsoft, microsoft exchange, training
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