Organizing Large-Scale Document Review Projects

By James L. Crane

The explosion of digital data in the last decade has forced legal practitioners to reconsider what constitutes a “big” case.  The daunting task of collecting and reviewing a million pages seemed to test the boundaries of technology and manpower 10 years ago.  Now, one million page document reviews are commonplace, and the largest cases encompass tens of millions of electronic documents.  Recently, federal district courts have certified class actions with as many as 1.6 million potential class members.  Given the likelihood of a massive and complex data population, it has become impossible to manage a document review project without technology.

The amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have placed even greater pressure on legal practitioners engaged in electronic discovery.  The ability to effectively manage projects involving large document populations has become a necessity for practically every corporate law department, as well as for the firms that provide legal services to them.  Consequently, law firms and corporations continually struggle to implement the best blend of personnel and technologies to support comprehensive, consistent management of their large-scale document review projects. 

Some projects use in-house attorneys exclusively, while others farm out all review work to trusted firms or contract attorneys hired by the firm or staffing agencies.  Additionally, most projects involve a variety of technological tools.  Some of these are adopted off-the-shelf, while others are provided by a litigation support vendor.  No matter which of these different approaches you ultimately embrace, there are three critical issues you should consider when planning a large-scale document review.  Proactive attention to these simple points will help you ensure efficiency, reduce costly errors and avoid missed deadlines.

Determine the Scope of the Work

Thorough, thoughtful planning is essential to prevent small, early mistakes from having a catastrophic impact later in the litigation lifecycle.  One of the first planning steps is for the responsible attorneys to analyze and decipher the issues in the case and the scope of the discovery requests.   This step will include careful preparation for the FRCP Rule 26(f) meet and confer requirements.  Operational planning can begin only after the scope of discovery is thoroughly understood by all involved parties.