A world of discovery

FST speaks with Jack Halprin about reducing risk, complying with regulations and controlling costs through a defensible eDiscovery process.

FST. What are the challenges and risks in monitoring, managing and storing unstructured data?
Jack Halprin. More information is now being created in more file formats and languages than ever before. This enormous growth in unstructured information – the information explosion – has resulted in a number of issues: rising infrastructure costs; increased risks of failure in the identification, preservation, collection and disposition of information which could lead to evidentiary sanctions or large fines in litigation; and managing this data effectively across borders and jurisdictions to comply with differing rules and regulations regarding electronically stored information (ESI).

Though most institutions have systems for compliance, supervision and eDiscovery in place, they are typically point solutions lacking integration. Additionally, many of these systems rely on manual efforts that cannot scale and simply cannot handle the volume of information that’s being produced today. This lack of unification is particularly troubling when conducting pan-enterprise business processes such as eDiscovery, information governance and regulatory audits. A more holistic, unified approach is needed.

FST. The global financial crisis has triggered unparalleled mergers and acquisitions and unfortunately massive litigation. What can financial institutions and their counsel do to meet compliance requirements and manage high-stakes litigation?
JH. It is true that that litigation and investigation are exploding as a result of recent turmoil in the financial markets, but more troubling is that these cases are complex and involve tremendous amounts of unstructured and structured data. This data must be quickly identified and analyzed to meet FRCP and regulatory deadlines, and recent events have highlighted the fact that regulators and the companies themselves often don’t know what’s happening in their environments until it’s too late. A holistic, proactive strategy would address issues before failures occur. The right solution enables legal and compliance to know what an email says – when it is sent – and determine whether it presents a legal or regulatory issue.

FST. What is a defensible eDiscovery process?
JH. In the US and the UK, the legal bar has been raised substantially by amendments to the FRCP and the CPR in order to streamline the management of ESI and encourage compliance.

A defensible process requires a systemized and repeatable approach towards eDiscovery. Preservation requirements demand that all data sources be searched, including voice and video, and Courts are beginning to recognize the usefulness of advanced search technology. This same process will prepare your organization for future regulatory changes.

FST. How can technology be used to create a defensible, compliant, and effective process and avoid the repercussions from failures that can include sanctions, fines, and jail sentences?
JH. Institutions need better access and control of their ESI. Using advanced technology, they gain the ability to manage and understand ESI for compliance, litigation, and investigations across borders, languages, and data formats.

FST. What does Autonomy offer that is unique?
JH. Autonomy is the only vendor to offer a comprehensive end-to-end platform for Enterprise Search, Information Governance, Compliance and eDiscovery. The FRCP-compliant platform is based on our IDOL engine, which is used by more than 17,000 customers worldwide. IDOL is language independent, can read and analyze more than 1,000 file types, and connect to 400 repositories, including laptops and desktops. Our solutions are available as either a licensed or hosted offering, and our five world-class data centers host over 7.1 petabytes of data, process more than one billion documents a month, and provide industry-leading solutions for the largest and most complex legal and regulatory matters to nice of the top 10 banks and 10 of the top 10 law firms.

Jack Halprin is Vice President of eDiscovery and Compliance at Autonomy. Widely considered a subject matter expert, Halprin assists clients with building best practices and defensible processes. He works with the EDRM and previously held eDiscovery positions at Guidance Software, LexisNexis and was a litigation associate at Haight, Brown & Bonesteel.