Situation: Assess 12 terabytes of "mystery" data during government inquiry – in 3 weeks

Assess the size and scope of potentially responsive documents within 12 terabytes (TB) of unstructured data in response to a government inquiry in one month. The data set included more than 6 million documents and e-mail from a bankrupt company that had acquired bankrupt companies - leaving investigators with many questions and few starting points.

Solution

The Radiance Visual Analytics software which was able to quickly process, enrich, search and visualize the documents and e-mail allowing lawyers to quickly identify key custodians, relevant keywords and responsive documents. Through the iterative and interactive use of keyword search, word cloud visualizations and analysis of social networks the firm was able to not just scope and size but complete the review of responsive documents. And because Radiance is so easy to use, lawyers and subject matter experts were able to interact with the data directly, eliminating the risk, time and complexity involved with using middle-men or IT.

Results

  • A savings of $2.5 million to the client
  • Reduction of the data set by more than 95% (12 terabytes to > 50 GB).
  • A reduction of the reviewable, responsive document set from 6 million to 25k.
  • Key information was found by lawyers in less than 20 minutes.
  • Start to finish of the entire project in less than three weeks.
  • Elimination of costly “review phase.

The engagement details:

In this engagement a medium sized law firm was challenged to meet a court ordered deadline which required them to provide estimates on the scope and costs associated with reviewing the legacy data in their client’s possession. Given that they knew so little about this data and the intellectual content within they were concerned with providing estimates that would place undue burden on them to complete (not enough time) or with giving estimates that might look like they were not taking the matter seriously (too much time). Knowing that a standard document review platform and process would be too time-consuming, the law firm engaged FTI and leveraged the power and speed of the Radiance visual analytics software to solve this challenging problem. Not only did they complete a thorough scoping and sizing analysis within the mandated time, but they continued on to actually review the documents that were deemed responsive, leading one investigator to say "Radiance is superior to traditional document review platforms. It provides us visibility into all of the content -- conceptually and with other targeted metadata."

Notable benefits for the client:

Rapid set-up and data loading resulted in a critical "quick start"

Investigators were in a hurry given the 30-day deadline. Because Radiance is available via hosted or mobile deployment the FTI team was able to get the investigation moving quickly. With time of the essence, the Radiance hosted portal was utilized and data was quickly collected and imported into the system for analysis.

Comprehensive data enrichment provided investigators with multiple entry points into the data

Radiance was able to rapidly transform 12 terabytes (TB) of previously unknown data into a highly navigable analytics workspace. Documents and e-mail were analyzed and enriched via concept analysis, entity identification, topical clustering and social network analysis.

Advanced search options let investigators quickly test the validity of "known facts"

Radiance provides a wealth of search options including keyword, Boolean, data range and concept searching. This allowed the attorney’s to quickly run sample searches and identify key pockets of relevant rich documents. These documents were quickly tagged and moved into a secondary workflow where the legal team could leverage the Radiance visualization library to reveal deeper connections to other custodians and reveal other critical terms.

Data visualizations quickly revealed the "unknown"

The Radiance visualization library was put to use quickly during the investigation as both the Word Cloud and Social Network visualizations proved to be equally valuable. Word cloud helped investigators refine and expand their key concept and keyword lists - resulting in an ever reduced number of relevant documents, and the social network visualization quickly revealed who was part of key e-mail exchanges and has access to sensitive data.

Real-Time filtering allowed investigators to interact directly with the data (no consultant required)

Used from start to finish, the Radiance facet pane proved to be a quick and flexible way to rapidly filter data sets on a wide variety of criteria. Designed to work in tandem with the visualizations and document lists, the facet list - which includes metadata, entities and concept terms - allowed investigators to run multiple “what-if” scenarios via simple mouse clicks (no exhaustive Boolean required) to exhaustively examine documents potentially responsive to key issues in the case.

Flexible export options allowed for seamless transfer of data... and attorney work product

Investigators needed to move documents from Radiance to the Ringtail E-Discovery software to meet several court ordered requirements for production. This also allowed the legal team to being their more formal e-discovery review work. Since radiance offers several, standardsbased export options, the legal team was able to move not only the responsive documents, but also the unique coding applied during the Radiance review.

Faster case strategy development

The Baker McKenzie team was able to develop case strategy faster because the most important documents were sent to senior lawyers quickly.

Significant cost savings

Through the use of CAL to find the responsive documents quickly, Baker McKenzie used fewer review attorneys and estimates that they saved their client between AU $500,000 and $800,000 in e-discovery costs.

Defensible results

The expert FTI Technology team documented every step in the process and could provide expert witness testimony on the defensibility of the process and results.

A better way to perform early data analysis and early case assessment

Perfect for early case assessments and on-site investigations, the Radiance visual analytics software quickly transforms vast amounts of unknown and unstructured data into a highly faceted and interactive workspace. Here, investigators can search, visualize, filter and review documents, timelines and the social networks which are the heart of any data assessment. With rapid deployment times, a flexible import and enrichment process and an easy-to-learn and master user interface, Radiance is ready when your organization needs an answer to its next time pressured investigation.