The “document review” of 20 years ago is data analysis today, and there are new and exciting technologies that help drive faster, more targeted results. There are also myriad traps that companies fall into, spending more time and money on review and analysis than is necessary simply because “more” can be done.
At Redgrave, we understand that selecting a review methodology should be a strategic choice, and our attorneys and advisors have experience with nearly every tool and methodology on the market. We continuously scan the landscape for new technologies, enabling us to identify the best options and all potential strategies. We also help clients understand what is important in a review and show them how to cut unnecessary spending and excess costs. We provide careful and consistent management of the review process once selected, whether that be a traditional attorney review or a highly technical implementation of review analytics.
In addition to providing outside counsel guidance and supervision to vendors engaging in first-level and second-level review, we also provide special review services to meet the demand for high-level and high-quality review. Circumstances where we have been directly involved in providing special review services include: privilege reviews and logging, confidentiality designations, review of documents and data from sensitive sources (such as executive files), quality assurance services for other reviews, and sensitive investigations. We have also undertaken review tasks in connection with our roles as court adjuncts, such as court-appointed experts and special masters.
Redgrave's Data Analysis & Review capabilities encompass a broad range of services, including:
- Developing defensible and repeatable data-reduction strategies to focus the review on relevant data and reducing the cost of downstream hosting and review
- Recommending review strategies and counsel clients on potential legal ramifications of each choice
- Developing defensible strategies for leveraging advanced analytics, TAR, and artificial intelligence to build efficiency and effectiveness into the review process
- Conducting sophisticated internal investigations, leveraging data analytics to cut right to the heart of the matter
- Managing first-level litigation review and analysis, focusing on replicable processes that minimize hourly time and maximize defensible results
- Conducting complex second-level reviews, handling all aspects of coding, redaction, privilege analysis, and quality-control
- Performing complex privilege reviews and building privilege workflows that are defensible and avoid waiver
- Acting as a Special Master in litigation-related disputes
Redgrave has depth and breadth of experience in this space. Our work includes:
- Investigations. Redgrave cuts right to the heart of the matter. With experience in data-analytics workflows involving cutting-edge technology, Redgrave can help clients in investigation contexts find the answer right away. For example, leveraging Brainspace for a major client, Redgrave helped identify the client’s key documents in a matter of days, where another firm projected that a manual review would take weeks, if not months.
- First & Second-Level Litigation Review. Redgrave routinely manages large-scale reviews, often with document counts in the millions. The goal is always to narrow the data set as much as possible by removing junk files and negotiating an appropriate scope of discovery with opposing counsel. Redgrave manages first-level review, conducted either by review attorneys or technology-assisted review systems (or both). Redgrave also manages or conducts second-level review where necessary, leveraging analytics and experience with critical issues like privilege law and targeted identification of key issues.
- Development & Defense of Technology-Assisted Review Protocols. Redgrave’s attorneys are experienced in the strategic choices involved in selecting review methodology, including cases where the use of technology-assisted review (TAR) would be appropriate, helping clients save time and money. Redgrave can take a TAR review from soup to nuts, including the selection of the appropriate technology, management of the process, and defending the process and related statistics to opposing counsel and the court. We have experience defending the selection and execution of TAR processes, as well as assessing and challenging other TAR processes as needed.
- Privilege Review & Logging. Redgrave is proud to be a thought-leader in privilege law, with leading research on cutting-edge methods to save clients time and money. Clients turn to Redgrave to design privilege-review workflows and create defensible and streamlined privilege logs, often at rates lower than BigLaw firms. Clients also turn to Redgrave to navigate large-case dynamics regarding privilege issues as well as successfully defend against challenges.
- Privilege Remediation. Redgrave is frequently called in to remediate privilege logs that have been challenged by opposing counsel or questioned by the court. For one major client in high-stakes litigation, Redgrave stepped in to evaluate the existing logs, provide corrections for deficient entries, negotiate with opposing counsel in accordance with the court’s remediation order, and yield a successful resolution that did not lead to sanctions or derail the case on the merits.
- Confidentiality Designations. Understanding a business and being able to ascertain and designate trade secrets and other highly sensitive and valuable information is critical to protect organizations from the inadvertent loss of protections against public disclosure. In one recent case, we were called into a matter nearing trial to lead the effort to ensure that the confidential information of the client, as well as dozens of non-parties who also produced confidential information, were subject to proper and appropriate sealing processes to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure of confidential information.
- Validating Document-Review Procedures. Redgrave is often called in for its specific experience to evaluate and opine on the sufficiency of another firm’s work. On behalf of a Trustee in a large restructuring-related litigation, Redgrave analyzed the processes used by an Am Law 100 firm, providing contextualization of the work done and tying it to the proportionality factors of Rule 26.
- Support for Special Master and Court-Appointed Expert Work. We have been called on to validate various search methodologies in multiple cases, and we have also provided review services to validate party methodologies and execution.
The review and analysis of large volumes of data and documents is a critical fulcrum point in investigations and litigation. Finding the right information in an efficient manner enables better-informed strategic decisions while also supporting discovery compliance objectives. Done wrong, the review process can lead to extraordinarily excessive costs while also presenting unreasonable risks to the organization, including loss of privileges, loss of confidential information, and the production of non-relevant information that is harmful or embarrassing to the company and individuals that have downstream impacts, including reputational risk.
In a nutshell, the oversight of analytics and data reviews is not a task to be delegated to vendors or relegated to junior attorneys. At Redgrave, our team is comprised of the nation’s leading eDiscovery lawyers, as well as seasoned advisors with experience ranging from data analytics to review-team managers. Redgrave knows and understands the available strategic choices, helping clients select and implement the best methodologies while avoiding both litigation and budget traps. We also work tirelessly on behalf of our clients to ensure that data analysis and review aspects of litigation and investigations are strategic advantages to advance the client’s interests, rather than a cost center that is replete with unmitigated risk.