Image: courtesy of Fulbright & Jaworski
Corporate attorneys are split between whether or not their firms are becoming more cooperative in litigation discovery processes, and two-thirds are including mobile devices when discovery is performed, Fulbright & Jaworski found in its 8th annual study released this week.
According to the study, 400 corporate attorneys weighed in on discovery, with 34 percent saying yes, they're trying to become more cooperative, 29 percent no, and 29 percent stating that they lack an opportunity. Of those who answered no, 40 percent said the reason is defensive, the study found.
In addition, "When asked why their companies had not made a concerted effort to be more cooperative, U.S. respondents reported: it was their litigation strategy to defend cases on all fronts (34 percent); they were already transparent (32 percent); and attempts were not reciprocated (25 percent)," the New York-based firm said in its announcement.
Of cloud services, mobile devices, and social media, "The three of them together can cause, I think, havoc for companies that aren't prepared from an information governance perspective," explained David Kessler, co-leader of the Fulbright's e-discovery and information governance practice. Looking forward a few years, he said, "The question would be what to preserve, because trying to do it all would be impossible."
That's further complicated by issues such as employee device ownership. In the survey, 91 percent of U.S. respondents and 55 percent from the U.K. said they're allowed to use personal devices for work. That makes discovery difficult because of challenges such as device management, data synchronization, and unfiltered access to cloud services, Kessler added.
More than a quarter of all respondents said their companies use some form of cloud computing, with another quarter of U.S. respondents and approximately one-eighth of U.K. respondents saying to plan to try it. But, "Of those using cloud computing, 31 percent of U.S. respondents and 50 percent of U.K. respondents had to preserve and/or collect data from the cloud in connection with actual or threatened litigation. Meanwhile, more than one-quarter of respondents who use cloud computing report they have encountered security breaches," the study concluded.
Finally, in social media, "Nearly one-fifth of all respondents report that in the previous year their companies had to preserve or collect data from an employee’s personal social media account. Meanwhile, 13 percent of all respondents -- including 27 percent of U.K. respondents -- have had to produce, as part of discovery, electronic information stored on a social media site in the past 12 months."
Kessler acknowledged that such results are open to interpretation, and said in next year's study he plans to ask overlapping questioning to establish comparisons and evaluate trends.
Evan Koblentz is a reporter for Law Technology News. Send e-mail.
Subscribe to Law Technology News
