Document review takes an extensive amount of time, effort, and resources. It can be an enormous drain for many law firms and in-house legal teams. As litigation costs rise, many firms and organizations have adopted newer and faster document review methods. Below are five quick tips for creating a more effective document review process.
1. Know exactly what you need.
Document review is a classification process. You can go through hundreds of thousands of pages to find small amounts of relevant information. However, you cannot accomplish this goal without thoroughly understanding your target information.
Effective document review starts with what exactly is relevant. If you need to respond to specific discovery requests, set those out. If you are only looking for materials with certain keywords, define those before you start and give the team any context needed to understand how they relate to the document requests or legal issues in the case.
2. Create a standard procedure.
Using a consistent method to go through documents will improve the speed of the document review. By creating a standard operating procedure that the document review team can use for each document or each classification of documents, the team will deliver more consistent and accurate results.
3. Review the documents for multiple reasons simultaneously.
Understanding the full breadth of the project upfront can prevent the attorneys from performing double review, for example, finding relevant information on the first pass and then doing a second review for privilege or confidentiality concerns. Tackling both of these areas at the same time will help increase efficiency—you only touch the document once and classify it simultaneously.
4. Leverage technology where you can.
Technology can be beneficial for sorting large amounts of data if you have specific search criteria. Making sure you have a team that is up-to-date on the technology assistance each review platform can provide is key to leveraging your team effectively.
5. Have an experienced review team.
Having a well-trained, proficient, and experienced team is one of the best ways to make document review more efficient. While you can do many things in-house, outsourcing document review to the right kind of company might make sense for large cases. The larger the project, the more efficiency becomes critical to time and budgetary resources.
Baer Reed provides effective document review services using a team of highly trained attorneys. Our cost-effective solutions for document and privilege review are available for law firms and in-house counsel. Contact us for more information.
Mr. Reyes graduated with honors from the Ateneo de Manila University, where he received the Procter and Gamble Student Excellence Award. He obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law. During law school, Mr. Reyes was part of the Philippine delegation to the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held in Vienna, Austria. He was also a member of the Ateneo Society of International Law and the St. Thomas More Debate Society. He completed his internship at the Public Attorney’s Office. He wrote a thesis entitled: “To Kill A White Elephant: An Analysis of the Fiduciary Exception to the Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege”. Mr. Reyes is admitted to practice law in the Philippines and the State of New York.
Ms. Lardizabal-Manzano is a graduate of San Sebastian College-Recoletos, where she earned her B.A. in Political Science. In 2003, she received her law degree from Lyceum of the Philippines and was admitted to practice law in 2004.
Matthew Hersh earned a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1990 and graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1999. He also holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Cap. Avi Levak (Res. IDF) graduated from from Israel’s prestigious Ben-Gurion University of the Negev with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics. He is also a Leadership and Communication coach trained in TuT coaching by Alon gal in Israel. Avi specializes in high-level, in-depth analysis of business and client needs, within systems and software strategy and architecture.
Ms. Tyler graduated cum laude from Georgetown University and received her law degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. During law school, she interned at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. She also worked on The Tax Lawyer journal and was a member of the award-winning Barristers’ Council Mock Trial Team. Ms. Tyler is admitted to practice law in the State of California and the District of Columbia.
Ms. Cruz-Anonuevo graduated cum laude and top nine in her batch from Miriam College with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in InternationalStudies. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University School of Law in Rockwell. During law school, she interned in Rivera, Santos, Maranan & Associates. She was also part of Ateneo’s Labor Law Bar Operations. She wrote her thesis on, “Stealing Privacy: Limitations on Media’s Photographic Invasion.,” Ms. Cruz-Anonuevo is admitted to practice law in the Philippines.
Ms. Aquino-Batallones obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Development Studies (with Minors in Global Politics and Hispanic Studies) from the Ateneo de Manila University. In 2011, she received her Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University School of Law. During law school, she interned at Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles then became an intern of Ateneo Legal Services Center’s Clinical Legal Education Program.
Mr. De Guzman graduated from San Beda College with a degree of Bachelor of Arts Major in Economics and received his law degree from San Beda College of Law. He is multilingual and is fluent in three languages: Chinese, Filipino, and English. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2003.