One of the biggest impacts the Covid-19 pandemic has had on industry as a whole is the move to remote working. While in some industries the effects of remote working have been hit or miss, in eDiscovery the transition between in-office and hybrid/remote review has actually been a fairly smooth one... At least, that is how we have observed it.

Being able to offer quality project support regardless of the working environment is a goal the Altlaw team strives towards daily, and as such, we have come up with several strategies for facilitating remote eDiscovery that ensure the efficacy of your review is never compromised. 

Hybrid or Fully Remote? 

The first question to ask yourself is whether or not you want your review to be hybrid or fully remote. While both are perfectly doable, from experience we would definitely recommend at least starting off with a hybrid style review.

At Altlaw we always begin our projects with training sessions to bring your review team up to speed on the Relativity software and specific matters of your case. These training sessions can be completed remotely or in-person, though we have found, especially at the beginning of a project, that the ability for your reviewers and the rest of your team to be able to ask questions of our project managers and receive immediate answers is very beneficial, not to mention in-person training promotes a good team dynamic. 

If, however, completely remote is the only way to go we have several tools and strategies in place to ensure your review is still effective and efficient. One of our expert review managers will will be able to guide you on which strategies work best with your circumstances to bring about the most efficient review possible. 

Working Environment 

When completing a hybrid or remote review a large portion of the work (if not all) will be completed off-site. This can sometimes raise worries with project managers as to the security of the review, however, there is nothing to fear in this respect either. Any reviewer partaking in remote review with us is provided with two documents - our 'Work from Home Policy' document and its accompanying cover letter. Having policy documents in place that state the specific requirements of your reviewers is the best way to guarantee that everyone is on the same page and that each review follows your pre-determined procedures. 

Within these two documents, the requirements for the security of a remote 'office' are clearly laid out so there can be no confusion on the part of the reviewer as to appropriate safety measures. An example of one such requirement is that, whilst working on the project, a reviewer may only access their Relativity instance via a secured, private wifi network. Public spaces are absolutely prohibited. We also require a photo to be provided of the intended private workspace so that we can ensure all security measures are met.

When working from home we also require regular video calls with the entire review team, in place of morning in-person meetings, to keep them up-to-date on case developments and tackle any issues they may be having. 

Software Capabilities

Alongside private secure workplaces, we also require that the reviewer's PC or Laptop (tablets, phones and similar are not suitable) is running on a capable operating system (Mac OS 10.10 - Yosemite or Windows 10 currently). With large data quantities being handled on a daily basis we find this is a necessity. We also stipulate the use of antivirus software and recommend regular internet speed checks to ensure that long load times do not adversely affect the reviewing experience. 

To provide additional security, all reviewers possessing a smartphone are required to provide their number and operating system in order for two-factor authentication to be set up, by providing their phone number they are also then able to be added into relevant conversation threads that enable us to share important non-confidential information with them. Ensuring regular and easy communication is a pillar of facilitating a truly effective remote review. 

There are of course many other methods we employ to make sure your review is top-quality regardless of working environment, and strategies can be adapted on a case-by-case basis depending on your specific needs.

Hopefully, this has given you a flavour of what we can do to facilitate your remote/hybrid review, however, if you would like more information please do not hesitate to reach out and talk it through with a member of our team!