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Day in the Life of a Litigation Support Person Part 3

By Dawud Burke posted 10-19-2018 11:42

  
My name is Dawud Burke and I am a Regional Litigation Support Project Manager at Littler Mendelson. Littler Mendelson has 75 offices across the globe and currently staffs over 1,500 attorneys. I manage the Central South region of Littler Mendelson under the leadership of Mark Blaha – Director of Litigation Support – Regional Services. I navigate my case teams through the challenges of handling electronic evidence and provide litigation support services which drive efficiency, enhance review and promote defensibility throughout the eDiscovery process. I am also a Certified eDiscovery Specialist (CEDS) and a Relativity Certified Master.


Time

Action

8:30 AM

I start my day by reviewing eMail from case team members related to litigation matters in order to assess project scope, requisites, level of urgency and manage expectations.  I initiate meetings with project stakeholders (Littler and/or client side) for the purposes of discussing project goals and parameters for the collection of electronic evidence, review strategy and production timelines/ protocols and to address issues for discovery.

9:00 AM

I evaluate the receipt of client electronic evidence and prepare projected cost estimates for the processing and hosting of ESI with recommendations on reducing client spend and minimizing the review burden for attorneys and the review team.  For volumes that are granted client approval, I prepare instructions to our data analysts/technicians to process and host the evidence for case team review in preparation for production.  For volumes that are cost prohibitive, I assist case teams with crafting search terms based upon the case complaint or discovery requests for production and employ other advanced culling strategies in an effort to reduce the volume for review and associated costs.

11:00AM

I streamline the review of processed evidence by identifying potentially relevant ESI using targeted searches and employing structured analytics operations to further create efficiencies in the review of electronic evidence by bringing the “low hanging fruit” to the forefront of the review process.   I perform presumptive privileged and PII search screens to identify documents and evidence requiring close scrutiny by the case teams.

12:00 PM

LUNCH

1:00 PM

With production deadlines looming, I work with associates and other case team members in preparing documents and evidence for production.  I conduct searches to identify responsive evidence and perform quality assurance measures against the production sets to identify tagging conflicts requiring reconciliation and ensure privileged and sensitive material is withheld from production which guarantees a defensible production workflow.   Once cleared, I delegate tasks, run the production sets, generate the production exports and quality control the final output in preparation for delivery to opposing parties.

2:30 PM

I provide direction and resolution steps to analysts and technical staff related to processing inquiries and issues, and in turn, update case team members with adjusted time lines for project completion to effectively manage expectations.

3:00PM

I manage vendor engagements and cost proposals for the forensic collection of electronic devices such as mobile devices, laptops or social media accounts and provide vendor resources with instructions related to the targeted scope of the identification of relevant evidence for case team review for the ultimate production of that evidence to opposing parties.

 

 

4:00 PM

I attend Regional Project Management meeting to discuss department best practices, upcoming technology advancements, upgrades, issues and workflows.

5:00 PM

I provide end of day project status updates, adjust stakeholder expectations as needed and shift project priorities as needed.

5:30 PM

I flag new litigation projects for follow-up and acknowledge receipt of eMail correspondence from case team members for follow-up during normal business hours.



  1. What’s your fav part of your job?
    My favorite part of the job is helping attorneys work smarter and not harder.  Utilizing technology to help my case teams work more efficiently makes my day.  I also thoroughly enjoy consulting with my teams with best practices on ensuring defensibility and mitigating risk throughout the EDRM process.

  2.  What’s most challenging?
    The most challenging is making my case teams consistently understand the power that they have at their disposal with technology.  It is there to augment what you do so use it to your advantage to argue your case!

  3.  How many hats do you wear and what does that entail?
I wear 4 hats. - I am a project manager but I also wear the following hats:
1.) Educator – I educate my case teams in my regional offices with eDiscovery best practices and how to adhere to evidence handling best practices to mitigate risk and ensure defensibility of discovery.
2.) Analytics subject matter expert – It is a pleasure to serve my boss, case teams, colleagues and Firm with my knowledge and expertise on analytics offerings which creates additional efficiencies in our review process across the Firm.
3.) Vendor Liaison – I connect my case teams with vetted eDiscovery vendor resources and communicate what is required for the collection of electronic devices and interpret eDiscovery jargon so that nothing is lost in translation so that services rendered is as expected.


Please check out PART 1 HERE
Please check out PART 2 HERE


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