Law firm adopts eDiscovery solution, saves $450,000

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Freitag, 27 August 2010) | Category : eDiscovery

Recently, attorneys at law firm Barnes & Thornburg were presented with a case that required them to scan nearly 500,000 documents for relevant material. This task would have cost an estimated $486,000 in attorney fees, with each lawyer receiving $150 an hour and reviewing nearly 600 documents a day.

However, instead of entering this laborious process, the law firm turned to eDiscovery, which greatly alleviated the project. With an effective eDiscovery solution in place, the law firm quickly discovered only 18,000 documents were deemed relevant. The cost of review also dropped considerably, falling to $36,000.

"We've found that by [using the eDiscovery solution and reviewing its report] with the attorneys, we can reduce the review set by 10 to 60 percent and save thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients," said James Norman, Barnes & Thornburg's technology services manager.

Like Barnes & Thornburg, several companies have begun to understand the benefits of eDiscovery and adopt their own tailored solutions involving the technology. As a result, analyst firm Gartner estimated at the end of 2009 that the market for eDiscovery will total $1.2 billion in revenue in 2010.