5 Gift Ideas For The eDiscovery Professional In Your Life

It's the time of year to say thank you for saving me.

I love the holidays. It’s that time of year when we have an opportunity to say thank you to the people in our lives who help us keep it going day after day, and whoever is trying to make a comeback on the music scene has a Christmas special out. Congrats, Gwen Stefani.

This year, I have a heck of a list and mine includes many, many ediscovery professionals who have helped make this year a success for ESI Attorneys and eDiscovery Assistant. It occurred to me that you might need a little bit of help in deciding how to say thank you to your ediscovery professionals. There’s a 100% chance that they’ve saved your a$$ this year at least once, and I know you want to make sure they know you appreciate it. 🙂

I’m not just talking about your litigation support group, although they are key. I’m also talking about those lawyers who get you out of a bind time and time again.

Let’s face it, knowing what a grown-up might want is hard when the only time you spend with them is to call them with demands, and you have very little personal conversation. So, I took some time to compile a list of the top 5 gifts to get your eDiscovery professional this holiday season. No need to choose from the list, just do all five. Trust, me it will set you up well for 2018 and beyond.

  1. Time. Yes, as in good old Father Time. Or the Rolling Stones — Time .  . . is on my side. Well, it’s not on theirs. They want more time to do what you are asking, because no, they don’t want to stay until 10 p.m. every night, and yes, they would like to be able to sit down and figure out the best solution to the task without having to do the same old thing because they don’t have enough time. So this holiday season, be gracious and give them hours, days, or a week to get a project done. Get it from the client earlier and give your eDiscovery professional a chance to put in a queue of projects to be done rather than figure out how to get a project that will take a week done in 24 hours. It’s a small gift, but one that will reap huge rewards. And by huge rewards, I mean they’ll do more for you when you can’t give them the time. Because people do things for people who are nice to them. See the flow here?
  2. Return all the spare flash drives and hardware sitting in your drawers. Remember when I gave you that flash drive and you threw it in your desk drawer? I need it back. That stuff doesn’t grow on trees, and someone is constantly trying to manage the media to have it as needed. Plus, you shouldn’t leave data lying around. Last-minute trips to Best Buy don’t factor well into the whole “I forgot to call you and I need this now scenario.” See #1. So in the holiday spirit, fish through your drawers and bring back the media you’ve inadvertently left buried in the corners of your office. Don’t use inter-office mail, if that still exists. Get up and walk to their office. You need the break anyway and your Fitbit will thank you. A personal touch is what we are going for here.
  3. The weekend off. Seriously. The whole weekend. That means no dropping projects on your team at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon unless they don’t need to be started until the following Monday. We have kids and lives too, and we’d like to acknowledge them during the holiday season. Baking cookies, finding time for our own gift lists, playing in the snow (if only we could get some here in Colorado), and just getting to see the lights and decorations up without running past them would be great. This is a good gift. Think about it and give it to your team, even if it’s just the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
  4. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Yep, you know what I’m saying. Channel some Aretha Franklin and let your eDiscovery professional know that she or he is awesome and how much you appreciate being able to call her or him on the fly and have them save your keester. It’s still a mystery to me why we have this whole lawyer/non-lawyer hierarchy crap going on today, and that even your eDiscovery attorneys aren’t getting the respect they deserve. So tell them you value what they are doing.  Preferably in person or by phone. Don’t cheap out with an email.
  5. Whatever they want. Yes, I really mean that. Whether it’s Bose noise cancelling headphones or the best caramel popcorn you can find, figure out what makes your people happy and get it. The internet has this cool ability to deliver basically anything to anyone — use it. Here are a few suggestions — gift certificates to great restaurants (I’m partial to Charlie Bird in NYC), chocolate, Harry and David baskets, annual Spotify subscription, Jeni’s ice cream (OMG, that is SOO good), tickets to whatever show or sporting event they like, etc. If you don’t know what they like, ask someone or, heaven forbid, the person you are shopping for. Get together with a few colleagues that you know use the team and make it count. You can do this with very little effort, and a little effort will go a very long way.

Remember that time when you thought the production would never get out? Or when the client threw away their cell phone and you had no idea how to get to the text messages? Or when you needed to collect social media evidence and had no idea how? Yes, all of those reasons are why letting your eDiscovery go-to folks feel a little holiday love is key. Give a personal touch — even if it means carrying the box from Amazon to their desk. You’ll be glad you did.


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Kelly TwiggerKelly Twigger gave up the golden handcuffs of her Biglaw partnership to start ESI Attorneys, an eDiscovery and information law Firm, in 2009. She is passionate about teaching lawyers and legal professionals how to think about and use ESI to win, and does so regularly for her clients. The Wisconsin State Bar named Kelly a Legal Innovator in 2014 for her development of eDiscovery Assistant— an online research and eDiscovery playbook for lawyers and legal professionals. When she’s not thinking, writing or talking about ESI, Kelly is wandering in the mountains of Colorado, or watching Kentucky basketball. You can reach her by email at Kelly@ediscoveryassistant.com or on Twitter: @kellytwigger.

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