Transatlantic law firm Eversheds Sutherland has partnered with OpenText, the information management company, to create ES/Locate, its very own ediscovery platform that will be used by the firm’s 700 disputes and investigations lawyers.
Powered by OpenText’s ‘Axcelerate Cloud’, Eversheds Sutherland’s aim is to provide clients with a faster and more accurate review of electronically stored information using data analytics, predictive coding, and interactive data visualisation tools.
While the use of this technology is by no means new, even if it is able to provide the latest predictive coding, the fact that a large law firm has effectively brought ediscovery technology inhouse rather than using it at ‘arm’s length’ via an external provider is relatively unusual.
To spearhead this new initiative, Eversheds Sutherland has recruited Enzo Lisciotto as its Head of Litigation Technology in London. Enzo joins from Norton Rose Fulbright and will be part of the firm’s Litigation Support Unit, led by partner Nick Rundle.
The Unit focuses on best use of technology in disclosure and document review work and supports the Litigation Group more generally with central resource and project management capability.
Some aspects of the platform include:
- Data hypergraph, which uses machine learning, graph analysis and advanced visualisation to identify hidden connections between people, documents, messages and timelines.
- Technology Assisted Review that can also assess lawyers’ reviewed documents to suggest other potentially relevant, privileged and key documents in the un-reviewed universe.
Paul Worth, Litigation Co-Head at Eversheds Sutherland, said: ‘ES/Locate significantly advances our data processing capability in the complex litigation and investigations environment by allowing us to centralise our e-discovery projects into a single, secure, cloud-based platform. We are delighted to work with OpenText as a trusted partner to deliver this solution.’
The firm added in a statement that the benefits would be:
- Cost control: no external suppliers required, highly competitive data storage costs
- Speed: driven by predictive coding and advanced analytics
- Efficiency: Technology Assisted Review capability and smart redaction functionality to streamline the time spent managing data volumes
- Security: private cloud-based solution and best-in-class OpenText software architecture