The legal process outsourcing industry has seen the need for e-discovery, which includes any kind of electronically stored information that law firms and corporate legal departments must gather, analyse and hand over to adversaries in litigation, balloon in the recent past. As law firms look to LPOs as important partners in this space, the latter are doing their utmost to eliminate the chances of client data being tampered with. And this begins with being able to store large volumes of electronic data securely.
Plugging in
How important e-discovery is becoming for LPOs with each passing day is illustrated by one simple fact – all leading LPOs, despite most of them not having their own secure e-discovery platforms, have developed sophisticated processes to make use of these technology platforms, whether hosted by their corporate clients or by third-party providers.
According to Ram Vasudevan, the CEO of legal process outsourcing outfit QuisLex, this has not been an issue for leading LPOs, whose clients have already made their decision as to which e-discovery platform is best for them. “All LPOs really need is secure connectivity to the chosen platform, and ensure that they support the most secure access methods the platform providers offer,” he says.
E-discovery systems can be hosted on cloud platforms and take advantage of some of the key characteristics of such platforms: Ubiquitous, on-demand metered billing, easy provision and take down, and so on. Such characteristics almost always lead to significant cost savings to cloud users in terms of reduced maintenance and management costs, as well as a reduction in capital investment.
On the flip side though, the cloud can sometimes lead to a certain loss of control, added security vulnerabilities, and jurisdictional issues over the physical location of data. Suffice to say that should a corporation decide to go down this route, it is important for it to conduct due diligence when selecting its data hosting provider.
Reinforcing security
So with the cloud not always the most reliable instrument to ensure data security, the question for LPOs is how they can go the cloud computing way without compromising on strengthened cybersecurity. In response, QuisLex Chief Technical Officer Michel Sahyoun says: “Cloud solutions do not strengthen cybersecurity; rather, they can increase security risks due to their open accessibility on the Internet and the shared nature of their infrastructure.”
However, he immediately follows this somewhat gloomy statement up by saying that these risks can be mitigated through heightened scrutiny over the cloud provider and close monitoring of the technology being used to encrypt client data. On the issue of how corporate legal departments and law firms stand to gain from this arrangement, he says the primary advantage for them stems from the flexible, quick and metered billing that cloud solutions afford.
Ensuring data retention, security and privacy
Another gain for corporate legal departments and law firms which opt to go the LPO-e-discovery way is the advantage that information governance gives them by ensuring three things – (i) confidentiality, (ii) security and, (iii) ethical use of their electronically stored data.
According to both Vasudevan and Sahyoun, LPOs have recognised the importance of securing their clients’ data since their inception. “We have implemented stringent security controls and obtained internationally recognised certifications in our early years of operation, and continue to fine tune and optimise our security measures to counter the proliferating threats,” they say.
Data retention programmes, data security requirements and data privacy issues are the three aspects of information governance which directly impact LPOs, and so Vasudevan and Sahyoun believe that LPOs should make it a priority to adapt their processes to meet the unique privacy demands of a given project.
“Data retention has created an explosion in the volume and types of data that clients store, and the associated costs are driving them to seek efficient review partners,” they say.
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