The automated office

The days of lawyers drowning in paper are over. Over the past decade technology innovations have moved at warp speed, transforming the practice of law forever.

When Kathryn Manning began practising law in 1998 as a litigator, she used to receive boxes of documents from clients. Files had to be manually scanned for privilege and relevance.

“Now, we get discs,” says Manning, an associate in the litigation group at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto.

Thanks to technology, her work in e-discovery has changed.

She uses Summation, a litigation software product, to organize client documents, transcripts from oral examinations and pleadings when preparing for a trial. Another e-discovery tool, called Clearwell, is used to cull — within minutes, if not seconds — information, such as email, for relevance and to avoid duplication, and bulk-tag information that is needed rather than requiring her to conduct a linear review of every message or file. Another software tool for e-discovery — called Relativity — enables litigators to search documents by concept.

“You’re not using your legal skills when you’re looking at things that are repetitive or irrelevant. You become a lawyer to analyze and think analytically,” says Manning, who is also responsible for knowledge management initiatives and e-discovery developments within her litigation group at Blakes. As such, she keeps an eye on trends and, to that end, attended the recent LegalTech trade show in New York City. That three-day event drew thousands of technology vendors and lawyers, including Canadian e-discovery and litigation management expert Susan Wortzman.

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Source: lawyersweekly.ca
By: Christopher Guly