You will doubtless recall from your Latin lessons at school that the Romans drew a useful distinction between questions which expect the answer “Yes” and those to which the presumed reply is “No”, the former generally beginning with “Nonne” and the latter with “Num”. The questions “Are you going to give her a call?” and “Surely you are not going to hack her phone?” are subtly different in tone.
The question which comprises my heading clearly expects the answer “Yes”, whether put to a company or to a law firm – general counsel in companies are thought to be seriously concerned about eDiscovery costs, and law firm partners must want to know that they are offering their clients a service which is competitive as well as effective. This turns out to be a different kind of question – the one nobody asks.
The subject comes up now largely thanks to articles by Katey Wood of Enterprise Strategy Group whose Information Asymmetry blog index is here. Three articles – one called eDiscovery and the law firm: great expectations, poor accountability, and two which include the words Is eDiscovery Ignorance Bliss? show for themselves what Katey’s theme is. Where I am a mere commentator, Katey is an analyst, and her assertions about the lack of curiosity shown by both general counsel and external lawyers are underpinned by survey results.
Her blog posts are based on a more formal survey whose results are available only to ESG subscribers; it is called eDiscovery Market Trends: a View from the Legal Department. Dean Gonsowski of Clearwell (now part of Symantec) provides us with a useful summary of the survey in an article whose title, ESG’s Legal Trends Survey Reveals Alarming Inattention to eDiscovery Spending says it all. How can you measure the value which your external lawyers are bringing you if you have no idea what the cost is? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Chris Dale 
