eDiscovery Response Planning: A Guide for Corporate Legal Departments

Litigation Readiness: A Practical Approach to Electronic Discovery authored by Prashant Dubey and Sam Panarella: Industry studies indicate that corporations in the United States spend almost $4-5 billion annually taking electronically stored information (ESI) from its source and producing it for a requesting party. The cost to review this information for privilege/responsiveness prior to production is estimated to be another $30 billion. Traditional solutions to these problems have ranged from knee-jerk (and expensive) purchases and implementation of software and hardware for managing discovery, to abdicating responsibility for the process to law firms, to half-hearted attempts at managing the process with capacity-constrained in-house legal, IT and records management resources.

The failure of these approaches has led to a growing recognition that corporations should approach "the inevitable" (i.e., litigation&discovery) with a proactive and organized approach, which is known as "litigation readiness." This phrase was first introduced to the market in 2004 by Prashant Dubey, one of the authors of this book in the form of an executive primer book entitled: Litigation Readiness: Mastering the Inevitable. Seven years hence, the co-authors have authored a book based on years of learning derived from helping dozens of corporations achieve a higher level of litigation readiness in the face of an every growing electronically stored information ecosystem. Litigation Readiness: A Practical Approach to Electronic Discovery is a strategic guide to litigation readiness, or how a corporation can establish and embed a business process for responding to discovery when compelled to produce ESI.

Features

•   An experience based, practical guide to litigation readiness
•   Addresses all the elements of a change management initiative
•   An excellent, practical, easy-to-comprehend guide for corporations on how to control and manage electronically stored information
•   The flow of the book is "broad to narrow," and follows a simple storyline
•   It is not too technical for a non-lawyer or a non-technocrat

Reviews

"This book couldn't be better timed. eDiscovery has been subjected to much frenzy resulting in large and often haphazard corporate expenditure. Prashant Dubey and Sam Panarella are experienced practitioners who rightly stress that a successful eDiscovery program is as much about human dynamics and change management as it is about navigating the intersection of technology, law, and business. Litigation Readiness is a must-read for any practitioner in the eDiscovery trenches as well as any executive charged with leading a corporate eDiscovery program."
--Ronke Ekwensi, Vice President eDiscovery, Pfizer Inc.

"This is an extremely useful guide for in-house counsel who want to proactively address the considerable challenges and risks associated with responding to eDiscovery requests in an age where effective information management is increasingly difficult and complex. The authors' approach to the topic is both interesting and informative, and their extensive experience in helping businesses develop effective processes to manage these risks is clearly apparent. Much of their guidance is also germane to addressing other legal and compliance risks faced by businesses."
--Eva Kripalani, Legal and Business Consulting Services, Former Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Knowledge Learning Corporation

"In-house law departments have long understood the need to make eDiscovery less expensive, more efficient, and more compliant. The efforts, led largely by lawyers and IT specialists, have been monumental and costly, but the results have been mediocre at best. Bringing their years of experience to bear, Prashant Dubey and Sam Panarella recognize eDiscovery for what it really is -- a BUSINESS issue, not a legal or IT one. They approach it by applying proven business methods, and innovative, practical solutions. Litigation Readiness is a fabulous tool and a must-read for anyone trying to tackle the monster called eDISCOVERY."
--Thomas Sabatino, Former Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Schering-Plough Corporation

"The book is an excellent resource and should be added to most legal information collections, particularly those in private law practices. It is a must-have for libraries in firms with corporate clients or for any library supporting corporate counsel, and it is a valuable resource for academic law libraries as well, particularly given the increased emphasis on practice-oriented classes in the law school curriculum."
--Christine I. Hepler, Law Library Journal