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Eric Feistel on March 8th, 2010 at 12:23 pm :
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By Jeffery C. Fehrman
Recent advances in litigation support technology now make it more feasible than ever to preserve, assess, and produce electronically stored information from backup tapes. Why is this important? Because no longer is it necessary to recreate complex backup environments or utilize tedious and costly manual processes to restore data from backup tapes. Now you can quickly identify and extract just the relevant data required for court or regulatory requests. In this new white paper from Integreon’s discovery expert Jeff Fehrman, results are compared from two actual tape discovery projects in which his team utilized different technologies for the same set of backup tapes. The findings, which will also be discussed in a webinar on April 8th, represent a “wake-up call” for e-discovery technologists and litigation support professionals.
To request your free copy of the white paper, please complete and submit the registration form below, including your professional (work) e-mail address (no personal email addresses accepted). Qualified registrants will receive the white paper within 3 working days.
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Eric Feistel on February 18th, 2010 at 6:22 pm :
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LLRX.com recently published a white paper, Ethics of Legal Outsourcing (February 14, 2010), authored by Integreon’s Mark Ross. The paper examines the ethical and practical realities of legal process outsourcing in the US and UK, particularly with regard to the offshoring of core legal and support services to countries such as India, South Africa and The Philippines. Included are citations of key bar and bar regulatory authority opinions on legal outsourcing, such as from the American Bar Association, which provide guidance on acceptable practices for firms that wish to ethically utilize outsourcing strategies to enhance value for their clients. Ross discusses such pertinent topics as:
- Avoiding aiding and abetting the unauthorized practice of law
- Competent representation
- The duty to disclose
- Protecting client confidences and secrets
- Avoiding conflicts of interest
- Billing for outsourced legal support
- Malpractice insurance and LPO errors and omissions
- Export control regulations
- UK specific concerns, including data protection export issues
A shortened version of this white paper was also published in the San Francisco Daily Journal, (Legal Outsourcing: Ethical Compliance, February 9, 2010).
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Eric Feistel on February 18th, 2010 at 6:06 pm :
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By Mark Ross, Published on LLRX.com on February 14, 2010
The practical reality for US and UK attorneys engaging in or contemplating Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) is that the outsourcing of both core legal and support services across the legal profession is nothing new. Think about the following examples:
a. Whenever a client sends work to his/her lawyer, it is “outsourcing” the work.
b. Whenever a law firm sends work to local counsel in another jurisdiction, or to a specialist outside the firm, it is “outsourcing” the work.
c. Lawyers have outsourced legal and law related services for generations (e.g. from one lawyer to another within a single firm, from a law firm to a legal research or document review staffing company, etc.).
What is different today with the emergence of the LPO industry is that both core legal and legal support related services are being outsourced to lawyers, law firms and corporations located offshore in countries such as India, South Africa and The Philippines. The outsourcing of legal work by a law firm or legal department to a legal outsourcing company or an entity located offshore raises specific issues pertaining to the outsourcing lawyer’s ethical obligations to his or her client. The concept of outsourcing elements of the legal process, particularly offshore, is provocative to say the least.
In the UK, the relevant regulatory bodies, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and the Law Society, have been virtually silent bystanders as market acceptance of LPO has gathered momentum. In the US the ABA and several Bar Associations have discussed the practice of legal outsourcing, providing more detailed guidance (albeit still limited) than that which is available in the UK. The overriding principles, however, governing both US and UK lawyers’ compliance with their ethical obligations, are remarkably similar in both jurisdictions. This paper will initially examine the position as it stands in the US before turning its attention to the UK. While not professing to be a definitive “how to” guide to ethical compliance, the paper will also provide some practical suggestions aimed at ensuring US and UK lawyers avoid falling foul of their respective ethical obligations.
Read more…
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Eric Feistel on February 16th, 2010 at 10:16 am :
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London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, February 16, 2010 - Actis, an emerging markets private equity specialist, announced today that it has invested US$50 million to acquire a substantial minority stake in Integreon, the leading global provider of legal support, research and business services to law firms, financial institutions and corporations.
As part of this investment, JM Trivedi, Actis’s Head of South Asia, and Gautham Radhakrishnan, a Director at Actis, will join Integreon’s board of directors.
Actis has invested alongside Ayala Corporation, the oldest and one of the leading conglomerates in the Philippines, which initially invested in Integreon in 2006 through LiveIt Investments, its business process outsourcing holding company. Ayala Corporation will continue to hold a majority stake in Integreon.
Today, professionals at leading organizations including 11 of the top 50 global brands such as Microsoft; 32 of the AmLaw 50 such as Clifford Chance and DLA Piper US LLP; and 9 of the top 10 global investment banks, focus on their ‘highest and best use’ by trusting high-quality research, document, and legal solutions from Integreon. Integreon revenues have grown at an 83% CAGR since 2006 to an $89 million revenue run rate in Q4 2009.
With Actis’s investment, Integreon plans to grow its range of services and technologies, launch new delivery centers, and seek strategic acquisitions.
Commenting on the transaction, Paul Fletcher, Senior Partner at Actis said, “Outsourced professional services are one of Actis’s core investment strategies and Integreon represents a best in class investment in this sector. Leading international corporations, financial institutions and law firms harness the specialist knowledge capabilities of the emerging markets, and Actis’s investment in Integreon further strengthens this link. We hold the management team of Integreon in high regard and are excited about partnering with Ayala to drive the continued growth, profitability and ambition of the business.”
Fred Ayala, CEO of LiveIt said, “We are very pleased to bring in Actis as a strong new partner whose proven business building skills and deep knowledge of emerging markets will help us to take Integreon to the next level.”
Liam Brown, CEO of Integreon added, “Actis’s long-established understanding of emerging markets, along with their experience investing in business services outsourcing, makes them an ideal partner for Integreon.”
Jefferies India Private Limited acted as financial advisors to Actis. Marks Baughan & Co. served as financial advisors to Integreon.
About Actis
Actis is a leading private equity investor in emerging markets with a growing portfolio of investments in Asia, Africa and Latin America; it currently has US$4.8bn funds under management. With over 100 investment professionals on the ground in 9 offices worldwide, Actis identifies investment opportunities in India and the emerging markets by bringing local experts together with specialist sector teams. Actis announced the close of its global emerging markets fund, Actis Emerging Markets 3 on 1 December 2008 with commitments totalling US$2.9bn. Actis announced the close of its global infrastructure fund, Actis Infrastructure 2, on 30 September 2009 with commitments totalling US$750m.
www.act.is
About Ayala Corporation/LiveIt Investments
Ayala Corporation was founded in 1834 and is the holding company of one of the largest and most diversified business groups in the Philippines, with interests that include real estate, financial services, telecommunications, electronics, water distribution, and information technology. Ayala Corp and its listed subsidiaries and affiliates have a combined market capitalization of approximately US$13 billion. LiveIt is its investment arm in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. Its strategy is to acquire or invest in existing global BPO companies that have the potential to become a Global Top 5 leader in their sectors, and can leverage the Philippines; it owns significant shareholdings in Integreon, Stream Global Services (voice BPO), Affinity Express (graphics and creative services) and HRMall (HR and payroll services).
www.ayala-group.com
About Integreon
Integreon is the premier global provider of outsourced research, legal and business Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) services, and is a trusted partner for demanding professionals at the world’s leading corporations, law firms, and investment banks. Integreon’s nearly 2,000 Associates deliver services from centers in the US, UK, India, China, South Africa and the Philippines.
www.integreon.com
Media contacts:
Actis
Claire Davies
cdavies@act.is
+44 (0) 7887-521-993
Integreon
Laura Sexton
integreon@daviesmurphy.com
+1 781-418-2417
Ayala Corporation/LiveIt Investments
Leny Salumbre
Salumbre.es@ayala.com.ph
+63-917-630-9519
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Eric Feistel on February 1st, 2010 at 8:31 am :
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Demonstrations of eView™ at the LegalTech New York Conference
New York City - LegalTech Conference, February 1, 2010 - Integreon, the global leader in integrated discovery solutions and legal process outsourcing (LPO), today announced the release of its eView™ 3.2 platform for hosted document review. This release offers law firms and corporate legal departments an expanded range of workflow management and productivity reporting to speed the document review process and improve budget visibility and predictability.
“We listen to our clients’ feedback about challenges they face in managing complex reviews. They consistently cite the need for workflow management and review monitoring tools to give them better insight and control. Our new eView release meets these requirements and strengthens the market-leading position of our hosted document review platform,” said Debra Rozier, senior vice president of global product management, Integreon.
eView 3.2 provides the following new features and benefits:
- Increased Flexibility for Managing Reviewer Assignments: eView 3.2 now offers more granular control over reviewer assignments. Administrators can set-up a review workflow that follows customizable, automated rules from end-to-end or one that allows for manual interventions during the review process.
- Faster Document Review with Concept Clustering: Administrators can now assign entire conceptual clusters, or topical groupings of documents, to specific reviewers or review teams. Within each cluster, the system presents reviewers with their assigned documents ranked according to their topic relevancy, which accelerates the review process.
- Better Productivity Tracking and Forecasting: The latest release of eView provides more in-depth productivity, billable hour tracking, and forecasting reports. The forecasts allow for modeling of completion time based on changes in the size of the review team.
- Added Foreign Language Support: eView now supports Unicode, which enables working with documents in most languages, including simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Punjabi, Russian, and hundreds of other written-form languages.
“Increases in cross-border litigation and growing multi-lingual requirements have made e discovery, and its UK equivalent e-disclosure, ever more complex and challenging to manage for law firms and corporate legal departments,” said George J. Socha, principal analyst with Socha Consulting. “Document review applications which include integrated foreign language support can help to alleviate such challenges by streamlining the discovery process for handling documents, such as emails, which may contain text in one or more non-English languages.”
Integreon customers can choose eView as a hosted review platform or as part of Integreon’s integrated suite of discovery solutions, which includes managed review. Our managed service offers document reviewers who are fluent in most European, Slavic, Asian, and certain African languages. Our reviewers can work on-site at client offices or at any of Integreon’s secure review centers worldwide, following ISO 9001-certified best practices and delivering high-quality, repeatable review results.
Demonstration of eView at LegalTech New York
Integreon is exhibiting in booth 324 at LegalTech New York, being held February 1-3, 2010 at the Hilton New York hotel. Integreon is showcasing its entire integrated suite of discovery services, including demonstrations of its eView platform for hosted document review.
For more information about Integreon or its full range of legal outsourcing and discovery solutions for law firms and corporate legal departments, visit www.integreon.com.
About Integreon
Integreon is the global e-discovery and legal process outsourcing (LPO) partner trusted by the world’s leading corporations and law firms. It is the only legal services provider in the world to receive top marks in both the Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey and the Black Book of Outsourcing LPO Survey. To most efficiently, accurately and defensibly identify responsive data from even the largest data sets, the company provides an integrated approach to all stages of the discovery process, across scalable operations and technology: unified project management, consulting, forensics, data analytics, processing, hosting, and review services. Experienced document reviewers, working on-site at client offices or at any of Integreon’s secure review centers worldwide, following ISO 9001-certified best practices, deliver high-quality, repeatable review results. For more information about Integreon, please visit http://www.integreon.com.
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Eric Feistel on January 29th, 2010 at 12:06 pm :
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Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (”Pillsbury”) in a press release (January 29, 2010), Pillsbury Launches PEARL to Contain Companies’ Litigation Costs and Improve Results, has announced the launch of PEARL (Pillsbury’s E-discovery Alliance of Resource Leaders). PEARL is a first-of-its-kind, strategic alliance of leading e-discovery vendors, consultants, technicians, translators, processors and first-tier review firms with the resources needed to cost-effectively complete any e-discovery project, in any language, anywhere in the world. Pillsbury and its Resource Leaders - Protiviti Inc., Integreon, ACT Litigation Services, Inc., Discovery Services LLC, and TransPerfect Legal Solutions - are addressing the common problems encountered across the spectrum of e-discovery activities, from identification and collection through processing, review, translation, production and certification. The systematic approach of PEARL leverages the respective strengths and capabilities of each alliance provider, and under Pillsbury’s clear legal guidance, offers a team of experts with diverse capabilities who collaborate to deliver efficient, streamlined results at per-page or per-gigabyte rates that create significant costs savings for clients regardless of size, scope of inquiry or location. Integreon is pleased to be part of this innovative initiative. For more information about PEARL or learn how it benefits companies, visit www.pillsburylaw.com/PEARL.
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Eric Feistel on January 27th, 2010 at 3:59 pm :
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The Wall Street Journal profiles Colin Gounden, now Integreon’s Chief Marketing Officer, in How I…Conquered India’s Infrastructure. Gounden, founder and CEO of Grail Research in Cambridge, Mass., describes how he expanded his company into India and the steps he took to open an office in New Delhi. The increased productivity and success of his company helped to pave the way for the firm’s subsequent acquisition by Integreon in late 2009. Liam Brown, Integreon’s CEO, comments in the company’s press release that the acquisition, “accelerates the expansion of our business intelligence, research and analytics business with high-end, custom market research. With the addition of Grail’s capabilities, Integreon can meet the most demanding global research requirements of our investment banking, law firm and corporate clients on an enterprise basis.”
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Eric Feistel on January 5th, 2010 at 9:06 pm :
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TechLaw Solutions e-Discovery Zone provides a collection of educational resources on the e-Discovery and litigation process. Hosted by e-Discovery experts Tom O’Connor, Founder of LEDI’s Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center (GLTC), and Browning Marean, Partner at DLA Piper, e-Discovery Zone routinely interviews a variety of guests, including industry experts, counsel, attorneys, and judges. e-Discovery Zone recently recorded two audiocast sessions with Ron Friedmann (Integreon’s SVP of Marketing and Strategic Legal Technology Blogger), who shares his views on legal process outsourcing (LPO) in the US & UK, knowledge management, e-discovery services and the software as a service (SaaS) model, and assessing total project cost.
Listen to (or Download) Part 1
Listen to (or Download) Part 2
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Eric Feistel on December 18th, 2009 at 9:09 am :
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LOS ANGELES, December 18, 2009 – Integreon, the global leader in integrated discovery solutions and legal process outsourcing (LPO), today announced the appointment of Integreon’s Ron Friedmann to the Board of Governors for The Organization of Legal Professionals (OLP). OLP is a non-profit association dedicated to establishing global standards for e-discovery and other legal professionals through collaboration, education and certification.
“Explosive growth in e-discovery is attracting many new professionals to the field and driving an increasing need for better education, including continuing education for those already practicing. Having the right training and certification available can ensure that lawyers not only receive the support they need but that e-discovery professionals will also have the best career advancement opportunities,” said Ron Friedmann, senior vice president of marketing, Integreon. “I am pleased to join the OLP initiative for development of a vendor-neutral approach to meeting these needs.”
Mr. Friedmann, an attorney with more than 22 years of legal and marketing experience, has worked with both AmLaw 100 law firms and Fortune 500 corporations on electronic discovery, knowledge management strategies, and strategic marketing. Friedmann is also a Fellow and Trustee in The College of Law Practice Management (COLPM) and is widely respected in the legal field as a thought leader in the areas of law practice management and legal technology. He is a frequent speaker at educational seminars and has published extensively both in print and on his personal blog Strategic Legal Technology, including regular contributions to Integreon’s blog on various topics, such as legal research, outsourcing and e-discovery.
Friedmann is one of 14 members sitting on the OLP’s Board of Governors, which is comprised of lawyers, judges, law school professors, consultants, and vendors. Membership in the OLP includes: lawyers, judges, e-discovery managers, technicians, paralegals, case managers, litigation support managers, administrators, vendors, software developers, consultants, and others.
Friedmann is a cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law; he earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Oberlin College. He is a member of the New York and Massachusetts’ State Bars, although not currently engaged in practice.
“Ron’s deep domain expertise and strong consulting background is a great addition to OLP’s Board of Governors,” said Chere Estrin, Chairperson of OLP’s Board of Directors. “As a long time voice of legal innovation, he brings important vision and leadership to the organization.”
About Integreon
Integreon provides a range of outsourced knowledge services to demanding professionals using Document KPO, Research KPO, Legal KPO and Business Services to transform its customers’ Middle Office, allowing professionals to focus their time and energy on their ‘highest and best use.’ Its customers include many AmLaw 100 and UK top 50 law firms, almost all of the global investment banks, several top-tier private equity firms and hedge funds, as well as many Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 corporations. For more information about Integreon, please visit www.integreon.com.
About The OLP
The OLP drives education, best practices and provides professional certifications for those involved in the practice support of complex litigation. Through its programs, OLP ensures that the requisite level of competency in such complicated disciplines such as e-discovery and trial support, among others, is met. For more information or to join, please visit: www.theolp.org.
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Eric Feistel on December 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am :
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LegalWeek reports in Beachcroft and TLT sign up to share outsourced library services with OC (December 8, 2009) that UK law firms Beachcroft LLP and TLT LLP are to join Osborne Clarke in outsourcing their entire library services in an agreement with Integreon. All three firms will use Integreon’s Bristol (UK) centre - creating the first shared information centre in the UK legal sector. Integreon will provide the firms with a range of services that include a central enquiries desk, legal and business research, hard copy and journal management, and information supplier management and purchasing. The article also indicates that eleven library staff will join the shared centre from Beachcroft and TLT, with no job cuts resulting from the outsourcing. In a separate press release, Integreon’s John Croft states that the firms can expect to see, “cost savings of 20 to 30 percent compared to traditional in-house based library services.” Ideal for law firms and corporate legal departments, a similar service may also be launched in the US, according to the release.
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