The first two posts in this series highlighted some fascinating findings from our annual Advice from Counsel study, providing recommendations for the top corporate e-discovery ‘plays’ according to legal departments at Fortune 1000 corporations. Some of the top practices touched on included preservation and collection, when to utilize service providers, tackling the uncertain waters of predictive coding and leveraging data re-use. In addition to the five overarching ‘plays’, the survey respondents also weighed in on other pressing matters that are impacting e-discovery today, and will continue to do so in the near future.

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) workforce

Although it is a relatively recent phenomenon, 40 percent of respondents work with organizations that have implemented a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy within the last three years. Another 27 percent will implement a BYOD policy this year.

Big Data

Fifty-seven percent of respondents reported being able to quantify how much data they collect, review and produce in a typical matter. Those amounts range from 20 gigabytes (GBs) per custodian to 100 GBs of data from 50 custodians on a recent matter. Sixty-two percent of participants expect a continued increase in e-discovery data volumes for the next few years.

Information governance

When asked to highlight their top three information challenges, 37 percent of the respondents identified growing data volumes as their highest priority, followed by 23 percent, who struggle with data mapping and identifying the sources of information. The majority of participants (52 percent) identified the cross-practice (IT, compliance, legal) collaboration required to develop and implement a plan as the most significant inhibitor to implementing an effective information governance strategy.

There is still no silver bullet

While many respondents noted the appeal of an end-to-end e-discovery software platform, spanning information management and identification to review and production, a number were skeptical that one application could do it all effectively. “It is like buying a stereo system; you can get all of the components built into one box, but if you do so, it is usually an illusion and you cannot improve any single aspect.”

While there may never be a one-size-fits-all e-discovery plan, the common playbook identified in this year’s AfC can help you identify and manage the people, process and technology necessary to effectively manage e-discovery. Read the study »