Six Concepts for Effective Data Conversion

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Now That the Secret is Out, Remember These Six Concepts for Effective Data Conversion

By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

Last time, I discussed the eDiscovery service that nobody talks about – Data Conversion – and three common scenarios where it may be needed to support discovery.  But that’s only half the story.  The other half is understanding how to manage it effectively, as failure to do so can derail your entire eDiscovery project. So, here are six concepts and best practices for effective data conversion, gleaned from our experience performing hundreds of data conversions for clients: Read more

Data Conversion: The Service That Nobody Talks About, But Everybody Needs

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By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

With so many advances in automation in eDiscovery these days, it’s not uncommon to think that data just automatically moves from platform to platform with no intervention needed.  The data starts within an enterprise system, can seamlessly be transmitted into, say, a legal hold platform and then into an eDiscovery review platform.  Productions from opposing parties just load right into your review platform because they’re all the same and productions received are always consistent.  Right? Read more

Do the Math, Think Fractional

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When it Comes to Timely Project Management for Discovery, Do the Math and Think Fractional

By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

eDiscovery case law is rife with cautionary tales of significant mistakes in eDiscovery that were made that cost the parties dearly – sometimes even the case itself.  In this case ruling from earlier this year, counsel for the defendants made so many mistakes that the court ordered them to complete at least eight hours of CLE on electronically stored information (ESI) by the end of the year. Read more

Contracting Dis-ease: Optimizing Your Contracts Process

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By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

Drafting, reviewing, and managing contracts has become more complex than ever these days.  The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic prevented numerous individuals and companies from fulfilling their contracts last year, forcing mass review of those contracts to determine what recourse contracting parties could take to address the situation.  The number of contracts affected, and the costs associated with review of those contracts was, for many companies, astronomical.  Here’s what you can do to address the contract review dilemma and ensure your processes are more streamlined. Read more

There Are No Small Parts

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By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

In theatre, there is a saying attributed to “the father of modern acting” Konstantin Stanislavski, where he said, “there are no small parts, only small actors.”  Just as in a theatre play where every actor contributes to the play’s success, every team member in a discovery project contributes to the success of the project in terms of your ability to accomplish the discovery objectives on time and on budget. Read more

That’s Not the Way We Do It Anymore

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By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

One of the biggest impediments to progress within organizations is the phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.  As we discussed in this post, processes have to evolve to continue to be useful and productive.  And they have to leverage technology, as well as expertise in those processes to lead to improvement.  And that’s certainly true for the process of managing contracts. Read more

Trust the Process

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By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

Trust the Process, Because Processes Have to Evolve to Lead to Improvement.

We’re in the midst of the NBA basketball playoffs and the top seed in the Eastern Conference this year is the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers used to be bad – really bad. They won just ten games in an 82-game season a mere five years ago. Back then, their general manager talked about trusting the process to building a better team and one of his first draft picks, Joel Embiid, was a player that (due to injuries) didn’t even play for two seasons. Echoing their GM, Embiid encouraged fans to “trust the process”. Embiid became the player most associated with the process and even adopted “The Process” as his nickname. When he finally played, he developed into one of the best players in the NBA. Read more

The Lines Between Information Governance and Legal Hold Are Becoming Blurred – and That’s a Good Thing

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By: Doug Kaminski
Chief Revenue Officer, Cobra Legal Solutions

If you’re familiar with today’s Electronic Discovery Reference model (EDRM), you know that 1) the model shows distinct lines between each of the phases and 2) the far left-side of the model actually includes a model within the EDRM model.  The Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM) recently replaced a circle that simply said “Information Governance”.  So, the EDRM model now actually gives you two models in one! Read more

Where I’m From

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When crafting this post, I was considering a number of different topics that are relevant to legal operations professionals. From eDiscovery to contract management to aligning value for allocation of resources, I thought about all the current projects we’re working on with our clients and how I could tie that all together. Read more

Creating and Driving Value for Consumers of Legal Services

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The news is full of predictions for change in the business of legal services. Disruptive technologies, new entrants to the market, demand for legal process improvement, and ensuring that data integrity and security are solid are all important issues but detract from the main driver. The lack of perceived value derived for the consumers of legal services is the driving force. With the rise of the legal operations function within corporate legal departments and the subsequent demand for receiving more value and innovation from their outside counsel, optimizing the delivery of legal services has become the main focus. Read more