Technology

Today's Tech: How A Litigation Lawyer Prepares For Trial

Using Everchron helps Ellen Kenney, a litigation associate at Hueston Hennigan, better prepare her cases.

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Digital TechnologyOne of my favorite newer categories of cloud-based legal software that has recently made its mark is litigation case management software. The current market for this type of software reminds me a lot of the earlier years for cloud-based legal case management software — there are a lot of new players popping up but it’s unclear which ones will rise to the top and lead the way.

One of the contenders in this space is Everchron. With Everchron, members of a trial team upload litigation documents into the software and then create a chronology. The documents can then be labeled, annotated, and organized within the chronology.

Of course, it’s one thing to describe how legal software works; it’s another thing entirely to hear from attorneys how they use the software. Regular readers know that’s why I write this column. My goal is to showcase how other lawyers are using technology in the hopes that by doing so, other lawyers will be encouraged to incorporate technology into their practices.

That’s why I recently caught up with Ellen Kenney, a litigation associate at Hueston Hennigan, LLP, a California law firm with offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach. Among other things, Ellen handles intellectual property litigation, including patent and trade secrets cases, as well as employment-related matters and consumer class-action defense matters.

Ellen acknowledges that old-school methods of preparing a case for litigation — which include document summaries created in Word or Excel, printed hot document binders, printed witness prep folders, and even sticky notes — can certainly get the job done. But, as she explains, these methods have drawbacks: “The biggest problem is that it can be difficult to quickly locate the information and documents that you need. Another issue is that each member of the litigation team is typically working on one thing at a time.”

According to Ellen, by using Everchron, litigation teams are able to work collaboratively and more efficiently. “Its centralized platform, which includes tagging and search capabilities, is much easier to navigate, and we’re able to work together as a team to generate and build up a case file with everyone’s thoughts and analysis in one place.”

The ability to create real-time case chronologies based on input from multiple team members is a feature that streamlines litigation preparation. And by using cloud-based software to create the chronology, they ensure that the entire team is always on the same page.

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“In the past, I have worked with chronologies mostly in Word, but those can quickly get out of date, especially when a case is very busy, Also, with larger cases, chronologies often get split up into unwieldy sub-issue documents or become impractically long,” she says. “Everchron is superior because it is simple to filter the master chronology by sub-issue so all the information is in one place and you can get to the documents you need more efficiently. Team members can then annotate documents and share them.”

The software is particularly useful when it comes to deposition preparation since it categorizes the data, making it easier for team members to understand the facts and track updates as new documents are added. She explains: “Team members can see all of the evidence and master file documents associated with a particular witness, as well as a breakdown of the relevant issues. These witness files are created automatically, and are dynamically updated as additional documents are added to the system. Reports can also be created which contain key document excerpts and issues relevant to a team discussion.”

The firm has also used Everchron to help an entire litigation team get up to speed from scratch after a case was received from prior counsel just a few weeks before trial. “We uploaded a large set of documents and were able to quickly sort through the documents, issue code them, and create a key document chronology,” she explains. “While parts of this process could have been done in an e-discovery tool, using Everchron from the start streamlined the process of adding our analysis, which was essential given the short timeframe.”

For lawyers reluctant to experiment with new legal technology in their practices, Ellen suggests that while it may sometimes seem like an overwhelming task, it is oftentimes worth the effort. “In my experience there are many lawyers who are resistant to adopting new technologies or taking the time needed to adapt to new ways of working.” She continues, “Personally, I get frustrated with much of the software geared towards lawyers because it seems like it was developed in the ’90s and never updated — it can be slow, difficult to use, and pretty basic as far as functionality goes.  I’d encourage people to put aside preconceptions and try some of the newer technologies out there.”

So that’s how one litigation attorney uses technology. As always, if you or an attorney you know is using technology in a creative or unusual way, drop me an email at niki.black@mycase.com. I’m always looking for new attorneys — or judges, law professors, or bar associations — to feature in this column.

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Niki BlackNicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase, web-based law practice management software. She’s been blogging since 2005, has written a weekly column for the Daily Record since 2007, is the author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York. She’s easily distracted by the potential of bright and shiny tech gadgets, along with good food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at@nikiblack and she can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.

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