As a former securities litigator, Gabriela Baron recalls the days of document production when she tagged paper documents with different color tape flags, labeled the boxes lining the hallways with sharpie marker, and met trucks in the buildings loading bay, to make sure all those documents and all those boxes got delivered to opposing counsel.
That was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Then, in 2004, she became a general counsel of the electronic discovery provider Amici LLC, which was acquired by Xerox Litigation Services in 2006. These days, she finds herself in meetings with associates who cant even imagine thats how discovery got done on massive cases. Theyre like, Thats nuts, you were in the loading bay with the boxes?, says Baron, who is now vice president for business development at XLS.
Indeed, a lots changed since what Baron calls the dark ages of e-discoveryand not just the shift from paper to electronic platforms. Back then, corporations were the ones most in the dark about how e-discovery worked, she says. Now, its corporate legal departmentsnot law firmsthat evaluate and contract providers. Baron estimates she spends 90 percent of her time interfacing with corporations, and only about 10 percent with law firms.
Recently, CorpCounsel.com sat down with Baron to discuss big-picture trends, including what clients are putting on their wish lists. Whether youre an e-discovery pro or a novice who needs to learn fast, here are some key takeaways:
1. Why analytics matter
Because, in short, The volumes of data keep going up, says Baron. But its not just that the volume is increasing, its that the forms of media involved in discovery are getting broader, including instant messages, audio messages, text messages, and recordings of conference calls. Attorneys still need to find the proverbial needle in a haystack, and its getting harder and harder to find it, says Baron. Or, it takes more time to find it.
