2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey - Australia Supplement
Legal department leaders worldwide are taking more strategic ownership across their organizations and expanding their influence outside the legal department, according to the ACC's 26th Annual Chief Legal Officers Survey presented by FTI Consulting. The survey provides detailed analysis of the evolving role of the chief legal officer position and year-over-year trends related to legal departments’ involvement in helping organizations adapt to a demanding business environment.
Best Practices for AdTech Governance in the Era of Pixel Litigation
Organizations have faced numerous privacy-related lawsuits in recent years, often under decades-old laws that were enacted long before the creation of the modern internet. Statutes such as the Video Privacy Protection Act, California's Invasion of Privacy Act (both wiretap and pen register, trap and trace provisions), and state Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices laws have been wielded by plantiffs bar to allege that consumer personal information is shared with third parties without consent.
Intelligence by Iteration - AI's Software Path
Since early 2018, firms have spent billions of dollars for first mover advantage on the promise of artificial intelligence technology, particularly generative AI. For many though, the results have fallen flat, largely due to gaps in following standard software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes or appropriately adapting SDLC to the specific needs of AI model testing, documentation and monitoring. These early and ongoing failures are costly, potentially risky and can cause loss of trust among customers and partners.
Aligning Legal Operations with the Modern Chief Legal Officer
ACC’s 2025 Chief Legal Officers Survey, in collaboration with FTI Technology, reveals a surge in responsibilities, strategic expectations, and regulatory pressures for CLOs. These challenges, ranging from expanded departmental scope to heightened cost-effectiveness demands, underscore a critical need for enhanced alignment with legal operations professionals.
Data Classification in Microsoft 365 and Pragmatic Copilot Adoption
As artificial intelligence transforms the use of enterprise technologies, a foundation of robust data governance has never been more critical. Establishing a data governance framework that is resilient against AI risks and flexible to ongoing technological change involves a series of steps, many of which were outlined in a previous FTI Technology white paper, “Getting AI Ready through Effective Information Governance.”
Proactive Strategies in Breach Response
In an environment of increasing data breach incidence frequency and severity, including significant financial, reputational, and legal repercussions, organizations should be taking proactive steps to protect sensitive data and have a breach response plan in place. This FTI Technology report outlines the importance of having a comprehensive and strategic approach to data incident response to improve compliance with notification requirements and minimize negative impacts.
The 25 Data Trends Shaping Antitrust in 2025
Enforcement agencies increasingly rely on data to assess potential anticompetitive conduct during antitrust investigations and enforcement litigation. FTI Consulting’s data experts share their views on the top trends of the moment and the issues organizations and their outside counsel need to watch for as they navigate compliance, investigations and merger clearance in 2025.
The General Counsel Report 2025: The Data Guardian in Chief
The General Counsel Report 2025: The Data Guardian in Chief—a co-effort by FTI Technology and Relativity—examines the challenges corporate legal departments face in today’s dynamic risk environment. With growing attention on disputes and investigations, data-driven regulations, privacy requirements, AI and a wide range of emerging data sources, chief legal officers are asserting their role as a strategic advisor and data guardian for the business.
Forecasting Digital Risk in 2025
It may be that 2025 will mark the arrival of one of the most anticipated years in recent memory. After the flurry of regulatory amendments, economic speculation, geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological change that dominated 2024, business leaders are looking for signals of what to expect in the period ahead.
2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey
Legal department leaders worldwide are taking more strategic ownership across their organizations and expanding their influence outside the legal department, according to the ACC's 26th Annual Chief Legal Officers Survey presented by FTI Consulting. The survey provides detailed analysis of the evolving role of the chief legal officer position and year-over-year trends related to legal departments’ involvement in helping organizations adapt to a demanding business environment.
Legal Service Delivery In the Age of AI
FTI Technology and the Blickstein Group present the 17th Annual Law Department Operations Survey.
Data from the Indian Terrain
India’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape presents unique challenges for data management in legal and regulatory contexts. This paper explores how geographical and cultural factors affect data handling and analysis. The purpose is to highlight specific challenges such as the complexity of regional languages, biometric data management, transliteration issues and translation difficulties. Methods include a review of current tools and practices for handling diverse scripts, biometric data and multilingual texts, alongside an examination of AI and machine learning integration. Results indicate that specialised tools and advanced algorithms are essential for accurate data processing. The conclusion emphasises the need for tailored strategies and technologies to navigate India’s data terrain effectively, turning its complexity into a strategic advantage for legal and regulatory operations.
Intentional Disruption: Synchronizing Strategy, Technical Needs and Risk Along the AI Journey
A new class of technological force has descended on society and business with the recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence. In the span of a few years, a decade’s worth of change has taken root. That change is barreling forward so rapidly and prevalently that regulation, commerce, ethics, data protection, business functions, culture and governance are ill-equipped to keep up. At the same time, opportunity abounds.
Key Challenges in White Collar Crime Investigations
More than one-third of businesses in the U.S. are affected by white collar crime and studies have estimated that approximately 40% of large organisations in Europe have been impacted. Fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, insider trading, financial misstatement and intellectual property theft cause annual losses estimated at up to US$1.7 trillion. In recent years, there have been some significant developments in the prosecution of white collar crimes globally, with enforcement activity increasing by more than 50%.
Collective Actions and Data Risk Management
Collective actions, also known as class actions or mass claims, have become increasingly prevalent in the U.K. and European Union due to recent legislation and precedent-setting cases. There has been an estimated 120% increase in the number of collective actions in the EU since 2018, and in 2023, class actions in the U.K. were collectively seeking in excess of €120 billion.
Emerging Data Sources Continue to Spark Governance, Compliance, Discovery Challenges
Concerns over emerging data sources have reached an all-time high. After several years of steadily burning in the background of legal department challenges, the flames have caught on and grown, forcing in-house counsel and their law firms into fire-fighting mode across e-discovery, compliance monitoring, investigations, regulatory response and more. Over the last year, 62% of global general counsel confirmed they had experienced distinct new issues associated with collaboration tools, chat applications, file shares and other similar cloud-based systems, and nearly all (93%) expressed some level of concern about emerging data sources as a significant area of risk.
Off-Channel Communications Enforcement Intensifies, Compounds Importance of Comprehensive Information Governance
Scrutiny over off-channel communications and emerging data sources such as modern communications tools, collaboration platforms, personal devices, chat applications and ephemeral messaging, has become a serious and increasing focus in regulatory enforcement. Over the past two years, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission have issued more than $2 billion in fines to financial services institutions for record keeping failures related to messaging applications. Following suit, this year, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have shared new guidance to specifically emphasize expectations that off-channel communications be preserved and monitored as part of routine compliance programs.
A Pathway to Corporate Data Governance and Improving Value of Corporate Data Assets: Catalysts, Challenges, Approaches and Benefits
Organizations now recognize they have a new, powerful asset class at their disposal: their data and the information and actionable insights that the data constitutes. This asset class can provide significant returns and offers the potential to drive revenue and operational efficiencies, opportunities that have led corporate boards and C-suites in search of a path to derive greater value from corporate data. Even with this acknowledgement of value, however, many organizations are often at a loss for understanding the value of an information governance program, or have made attempts at mining value through technology with unsatisfactory results. This paper covers the fundamentals of implementing a corporate data governance program and explains why and how strong governance must be the foundation upon which value-add data programs are built.
Revolutionizing Third-Party Risk Management with Blockchain Technology
In the rapidly evolving digital economy, organizations face heightened challenges in managing risks associated with third-party partnerships across artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital assets. Traditional third-party risk management (TPRM) approaches often fall short in addressing the complexities of today’s digital risks, regulatory compliance demands and need for transparent, real-time monitoring. This paper explores the imperative role blockchain technology can play in transforming TPRM strategies, offering a sophisticated, secure and efficient framework for managing third-party risks in high-tech industries.
AI Governance in Practice Report 2024
Recent and rapidly advancing breakthroughs in machine learning technology have forever transformed the landscape of AI. AI systems have become powerful engines capable of autonomous learning across vast swaths of information and generating entirely new data. As a result, society is in the midst of significant disruption with the surge in AI sophistication and the emergence of a new era of technological innovation. As businesses grapple with a future in which the boundaries of AI only continue to expand, their leaders face the responsibility of managing the various risks and harms of AI, so its benefits can be realized in a safe and responsible manner.
AI Readiness Through Effective Information Governance in Microsoft Environments
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, generative AI is becoming a disruptive force, reshaping how machines interact with and create content. Advancements in this space offer the potential to unlock unparalleled benefits ranging from speeding up content production to enhancing, streamlining and automating processes. Nevertheless, the rise of generative AI can also pose a significant risk if the underlying information and workflows are poorly governed. Insufficient AI governance can lead to an array of problems, such as biased outputs, data protection vulnerabilities and the potential for making inaccurate or incomplete decisions based upon on out-of-date information.
Understanding Digital Assets in the Middle East
The Middle East is rapidly becoming a region that is friendly towards cryptocurrency and digital assets businesses. Several initiatives focused on infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, goals, and hubs for businesses interested in blockchain and digital assets ecosystem have been established across the region. These initiatives aim to ensure consumer protection, collaborative governance, and alignment with current financial ecosystem guidance and frameworks.
Technology Modernisation for Internal Investigations: Clarion Call for Innovation and Improvement
The landscape of internal investigations has changed dramatically in recent years. This has been driven by factors including increased regulatory and legal pressures, unforeseen government intervention and growth in the scale of information requests. As a result, large organisations today are inundated with an increasing volume of whistleblower claims, allegations of misconduct, customer complaints and claims, suspicious activity reports, freedom of information requests, data subject access requests (DSARs), subpoenas, etc. While each request differs in substance, they all share the requirement to collect information, review and investigate, collaborate on findings, and report.
In Contract Management, Standards Lag Behind Investment
This report explores a framework for CLM - a Digital Contracting Reference Model (DCRM) - and provides a common language framework for practitioners, technology vendors and legal service providers to align on and follow, allowing best practices to develop across disciplines.
Navigating Cloud-First Digital Forensics Across Asia Pacific Disputes and Discovery
Cloud data sources and the prevalence of messaging applications used within the workplace have spurred a new cycle of disruption in digital forensics, investigations and information governance. Overall user numbers for cloud-based platforms, and the variety of applications tapped for business purposes, will only continue to grow, especially as tech giants innovate with artificial intelligence and release new collaborative interfaces. The upshot is that counsel will grapple with how to uphold accepted principles for forensic defensibility, electronic evidence collection, data preservation and information governance across vast, complex, rapidly changing populations of data.
The General Counsel Report 2024: General Counsel Indicate Tipping Points in Strategy, Technology Adoption and Operations
Digital risk has triggered a fundamental shift in the corporate legal department. Against a tremulous cultural, economic and geopolitical backdrop, numerous issues have cascaded into tipping points across the legal function. Data-centered regulatory activity, privacy requirements, generative artificial intelligence disruption, technology advancement and an expansive web of emerging data sources are now impacting the way legal departments prioritize resources. In addition to placing tremendous demand on in-house counsel, this environment has led to a decline in the general counsel’s feelings of preparedness for every major risk category.
How Compliance and Risk Officers Can Balance the Benefits and Risks of AI in Compliance
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries and the way we interpret data, with generative AI leading as a groundbreaking subfield. Generative AI offers immense potential for streamlining numerous compliance functions and operations. However, these advances also come with significant compliance challenges and digital risks. Without diligent oversight, poor application of generative AI technologies can open organizations up to significant corporate compliance, regulatory, litigation, and reputational risks. This white paper explores the role generative AI may play in reshaping organizational approaches to risk and compliance. It will discuss ways corporate compliance officers can proactively mitigate risks and enable an approach of informed and vigilant adoption.
Forecasting Digital Risk in 2024
After a feverish period of disruption across many facets of technology, it’s becoming more difficult to delineate between what could happen and what will happen in the months and year ahead. Business leaders often rely upon industry forecasts to prepare for anticipated change that is likely to impact their operations, go-to-market strategies, hiring plans, etc. Yet in a hype-filled environment in which it seems like anything is possible, organizations must be highly discerning about how they prepare for evolving digital risk and establish resilience for future technological disruption.
Digital Transformation: Leveraging Technology to Improve Legal Outcomes
Organizational change is never easy, but for corporate legal teams tasked with simultaneously mitigating risk and enabling business growth — all within the boundaries of the law — the struggle can be very real, especially amid expectations to rapidly adopt and align emerging technologies. While it would be difficult today to find an in-house legal team that isn’t using some kind of tech solution to create and drive efficiencies, automate repetitive tasks, and improve workflows, comprehensive digital transformation is still considered a work in progress for many organizations.
UAE Financial Crime and Investigations Pulse Check
A recent announcement from the United Arab Emirates attorney general confirmed the government is moving forward with plans to establish special prosecution entities for financial crimes. This step is a continuation and escalation of the UAE’s efforts to increase investigations and prosecutions into abuse of the financial sector and other ancillary channels of illicit flows. It also aligns to the government’s “Forward Economy” and “Forward Ecosystem” strategies to advance as a global leader in economic and judicial strength.
The ABC (D and E) of Technology for Effective Investigations
Investigations today often involve millions of documents and records originating from tens or hundreds of disparate data sources. In complex, high-stakes investigations, manual processes and reluctance to leverage advanced tools to find key information from within large, diverse data sets are causing excessive time, cost and complexity in bringing matters to a swift and defensible conclusion. The use of technology has become essential in responding to modern investigations and catching problems as they arise. However, advanced tools must be applied in a standardised, documented and defensible manner in order for findings to stand up to scrutiny among regulatory authorities and the courts.
Regulatory Scrutiny of Off-Channel Communications, Emerging Data Sources Heightens Governance and Compliance Risks
A broad cross-section of regulatory activity underscores just how valuable and risky data has become in the current business environment. More pointedly, scrutiny over “off-channel communications,” or “emerging data sources,” such as modern communications tools, collaboration platforms, personal devices and chat applications, is intensifying worldwide. U.S. authorities including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice have released new requirements surrounding the governance of emerging data sources and have implemented severe penalties against financial services institutions that have failed to properly preserve, monitor and manage off-channel communications.
Bad Tapes
Once touted as the pinnacle of long-term data storage, magnetic backup tapes have evolved into a data albatross around the necks of corporate Australia. Storage costs, difficulty of data retrieval and the threat of regulatory action due to data over-retention loom over companies which continue to retain backup tapes as a permanent archive.
Delivering on the Promise of “Cradle-to-Grave” Data Management in Large Financial Institutions
Financial institutions are grappling with significant, ongoing challenges in their management of valuable communications data. These challenges are driven by accelerated technology change, a wholesale shift to cloud platforms and many long-lasting changes in working practices and behaviors post-COVID. Financial institutions have experienced a seismic shift from an era where all communications data was stored in centralized servers within the walls of its enterprise data centers. Now, email, chat, voice and video along with other dynamic forms of collaborative content, is stored across a myriad of third-party communications channels and cloud-based platforms outside the perimeter of the enterprise.
Compliance Tech Priorities in 2023
Respondents to a survey conducted by Compliance Week and FTI Consulting largely indicated third parties to be the most heightened area of risk to their businesses this year, with reporting and dashboarding and enhancing analytics capabilities among top priorities.
Global Regulatory Trends in Crypto
FTI Consulting together with The Block and top crypto attorneys have developed a report examining the worldwide regulatory frameworks governing digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
Forensic Analysis and E-Discovery Complexities in Cloud-Based Investigations
The corporate transition to the cloud continues to present significant, continually evolving challenges for discovery in disputes and investigations. The majority of enterprise data now reside in expansive cloud-based environments, and productivity platforms such as Microsoft 365 promise robust discovery and compliance features, alongside a continually evolving feature set. As a result, there has been a trend towards conducting cloud-first and cloud-only data collection and preservation — a departure from the traditional approach of broadly collecting data from custodian devices, removable media and on-premises server-based sources.
The State of Emerging Data 2023: An Overlapping Arrival and Departure
Emerging data sources passed a tipping point this year. It was an expected turn for experts watching the evolution of systems, applications, technology adoption and communication habits over the past several years. Some understood that this year would bring an arrival of a new data reality. Indeed expectations have been validated — 71% of CIOs from the world’s largest organizations now say that the explosion of data is beyond human ability to manage. Simply, traditional data norms have been replaced by a complex, vast, dynamic and constantly changing data universe.
Recommendations for How to Respond to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Evolving Enhancements to its Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies
On January 17, 2023, in furtherance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) efforts to enlist corporations to help fight corporate criminality, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. (“Polite”) delivered remarks on revisions to the Criminal Division’s Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies. His remarks followed Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s September 15, 2022 memorandum (the “Monaco Memo”) that announced changes and enhancements to these policies that aimed to strengthen and clarify existing guidance. The updated policies set forth in the Monaco Memo and reinforced by Polite, continue DOJ’s efforts to, among other things, incentivize corporations to develop more robust compliance programs with sustainable compliance cultures to: (1) prevent misconduct from occurring; and (2) obtain favorable treatment from the DOJ in the event that the corporation engages in criminal conduct that becomes the subject of a DOJ criminal investigation, whether through voluntary disclosure or otherwise.
The Most Valuable, Vulnerable Commodity
The FTI Technology Digital Insights & Risk Management Study, a comprehensive report that examines the extent to which organizations are recognizing the high stakes of data and effectively managing digital risk, involved senior business leaders from various global geographies and industries, with over 90% being at the executive level with primary or final decision-making authority.
2023 Privacy and AI Governance Report
This report explores the state of AI governance in organizations and its overlap with privacy management. We focused on companies’ change processes when striving to use AI according to responsible AI principles such as privacy, accountability, robustness, security, explainability, fairness and human oversight. This study aims to report on different approaches to governing AI in general and to explore how these nascent governance efforts intersect with existing privacy governance approaches
The 2023 General Counsel Report
Risk is now at the center of every conversation in the modern legal department. Over four consecutive years of study in the annual General Counsel Report, in-house counsel have expressed how they’ve been required to evolve and reinvent their roles. Once seen only as risk mitigators, they have become strategic business partners and have taken on an array of new responsibilities across a widening risk landscape.
Five Resolutions for Intentional Legal Operations Improvements
In legal operations, the best laid plans often go awry. More than half of corporate legal departments are currently struggling to effectively implement business process improvements and/or manage their budgets as they work to reduce costs, accelerate service delivery and realize efficiencies. Despite their objectives to optimize across process, technology, vendor management, resource allocation and more, 53% either do not have or are still developing a defined roadmap and strategy. Against that backdrop, most expect that successfully realizing and solidifying their programs will persist as a leading challenge in the year ahead.
Privacy as a Lingua Franca?
Translating the increasing alignment and divergence in global data protection regulation.
Incorporating Data Analytics into a Company’s Antitrust Compliance Review, Monitoring, and Audit Program
Proactive compliance monitoring programs are becoming increasing important to mitigate the risks and fallout associated with rising regulatory enforcement. It’s important to note that these programs can be implemented without significant resources or investment in new tools. With the right planning and expertise, a company’s existing data and systems can be used to incorporate data analytics and communications monitoring into any compliance program.
The State of Emerging Data 2022: Waking a Sleeping Giant
Compliance, legal and IT teams face a dynamic data universe that is generating an unprecedented and varied influx of risk. The increased use of cloud-based and collaboration tools is creating challenges across investigations, legal matters, governance and data protection. Adapting to this new landscape of emerging data sources will be paramount to mitigating risks and establishing new best practices.
The State of Blockchain Technology and Digital Assets in Financial Services: An Escalating Industry Disruption
Blockchain technology and the digital asset class, including cryptocurrencies, have experienced a rapid and accelerating evolution. Overall, the number of companies bringing services to market to support real-world blockchain and cryptocurrency applications through payments, loans, custody, investment and clearance and settlement is on a steady uptick, illustrating the technology’s momentum among financial institutions looking to establish an early position in the industry while awaiting regulatory clarity.
The General Counsel Report 2022
Previous General Counsel studies revealed that the trials from the past two years were critical in preparing legal teams with the endurance needed to face a myriad of emerging expectations and challenges. In this year’s GC Report, we explore three critical areas that will soon dominate time and resources: risk, culture and technology.
Law Department Operations Technology Survey: The Journey to Modernization
The pandemic has impacted us all in many ways. For some, it has meant pausing, reassessing priorities and charting a course for the future. The same can be said of businesses, and the legal departments within. To better understand the changes sought by law departments to increase efficiency through technology, FTI Consulting partnered with the Blickstein Group to conduct a study analyzing the road to technology modernization.
Technology Assisted Review for Corporate Legal: Applying Analytics in Everyday E-discovery
In a world where technology, AI and automation have penetrated nearly every facet of day-today life, it’s easy to take technological advancement for granted. Easy to assume that it has been embraced as intuitive, across all industries and business processes, to optimize efficiency and replace cumbersome manual work. In the legal field though, reality has not quite caught up to expectation. Despite significant advancements in legal technology, widespread judicial approval of machine-powered processes and a mass of proven benefits, advanced analytics and technology-assisted review (TAR) are still regarded by many lawyers as complex.
E-book - Taking Aim at Enterprise Data Governance
Hitting the bullseye in modern data governance starts with a clear view of an organization’s challenges, roles and data objectives in the context of the ever-evolving data landscape. This e-book provides a framework for defining modern data governance, understanding key players and achieving (or refreshing) programs that meets the needs of every stakeholder. It will include FTI Technology’s unique perspective of how combining data governance with broader information governance (IG) and strategic analytics can support robust compliance, data protection, business insights and more.
GCR Survey Report: Investigations, Data and Compliance
The pandemic and its ripple effects have impacted us all in many ways, including how we work. Suddenly, millions of workers worldwide made the shift to remote work - adopting new schedules, communication systems, and business practices. Antitrust practitioners were no different.
Data Security in Texas: The Lone Star in Privacy Compliance?
Are companies in Texas leading the way when it comes to their approach to data security? This new report based on a survey done by ALM Media and FTI Consulting explores the approaches Texas companies employed to challenges faced by virtual workplaces and evolving privacy regulations.
In-House Legal Technology Modernization: Considerations and Best Practices
A practical guide for modernizing legal operations and optimizing investments across people, process and technology, to ultimately do more with less.
M&A in Canada 2021: Navigating Data Challenges and Competition Control
For legal professionals focused on Canada related merger and acquisitions, the latest data trends and updated guidance from the Competition Bureau must be well understood to better navigate the current climate.
Corporate Investigations X-Factors
Examining the evolving landscape and emerging methods in responding to regulatory inquiries and fraud investigations
Effective Strategies to Manage Global Data Challenges
At the recent PrivSec Global event, Nina Bryant and Kajen Subramoney, Managing Directors within FTI Consulting’s Technology segment in EMEA, participated in a panel with other data privacy experts to discuss the current global landscape of data challenges.
The IAPP-FTI Consulting Annual Privacy Governance Report 2020
The IAPP-FTI Consulting Privacy Governance Report is the primary annual study benchmarking the privacy profession. Now in its sixth year, the report takes a deep dive into the leadership structures, core functions, staff and budgets, and tasks and priorities of privacy programs around the globe. It provides key metrics on ongoing compliance with core pieces of privacy legislation and the effects of recent legal rulings and guidance from data protection authorities on processing operations.
The General Counsel Report 2021
Learn how major events impacted the role of general counsel and how the learnings from 2020 can be applied to effectively navigate 2021. The report features candid responses from over 30 surveyed general counsel.
IT’s Role in Supporting Global Privacy Compliance
While privacy programs are typically driven by stakeholders in legal and compliance, the requirements, resources, policies, processes and technologies involved with data privacy compliance often cross over with Information Technology (IT). Existing and emerging data privacy and data protection regulations also introduce a new set of considerations for IT teams to address when sourcing, deploying, managing or sunsetting systems and working with third-party providers.
As LIBOR Sunsets, Contract Intelligence Takes Center Stage
What happens when “the most important number in finance” is eliminated? With the impending retirement of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), financial institutions around the world are now faced with that question.
E-discovery in 2020: The Sudden Shift in Our Data Footprint
The pandemic has impacted us all in many ways, personally and professionally. Like any major event, the impact of the pandemic and its ripple effects will be studied for many years to come. This holds true for e-discovery. In this FTI Report we examine the impact of rapid change in our discoverable data make-up. We take a close-up view of what it means for legal teams---how to adapt, adjust and take action as analyzing rich media as well as fragmented chat strings become key to e-discovery and investigation efficacy.
Future-Proofing Corporate Data Privacy: Budgeting and Solutions to Address Tomorrow's Compliance Challenges
FTI Consulting surveyed over 500 corporate data privacy leaders to understand the solutions, strategies and budgets companies have planned to address data privacy challenges in the coming year. This survey report illustrates how organizations are balancing the costs and risks of managing data in an ever-changing data privacy landscape; the importance of implementing a strategic combination of people, process and technology to mitigate data privacy risk; and the status of future plans in light of today’s uncertainties.
Five Steps To E-Discovery Workforce Continuity in Our New Normal
At FTI, we have adapted our e-discovery offerings to adhere to pandemic-related stay-at-home orders and distancing policies. In this guide, we share the steps we have taken to maintain continuity with the hope you can apply them to your own organization and teams.
Limping to the GDPR Finish Line - Why Many Companies Still Aren’t Fully Compliant
To date, GDPR compliance at most organizations has been approached from the top down. Policies and procedures are essential. However, now that most organizations have those in place, it is time to begin revisiting GDPR programs from the bottom up — starting with the systems where data lives, to ensure cohesive alignment between the existing privacy policies, business requirements, and the IT systems and infrastructure.
Corporate Data Privacy Today; A Look at the Current State of Readiness, Perception and Compliance
FTI Consulting recently conducted a survey of more than 500 data privacy leaders of large, U.S.-based companies. The results illustrate the state of data privacy in today’s corporations, giving insight into the programs, perceptions and strategies at play.
Case Narratives and The Next Generation of Discovery
As e-discovery technology advances, expert teams are utilizing new processes to improve on the existing workflows and to drive greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness in factual case strategy development. In turn, attorneys that partner with researchers will serve their clients better, faster and more cost effectively during this critical phase of litigations and investigations. This will lead to improved client satisfaction and allow attorneys to maintain their positions as trusted advisors, all while continuing to deliver consistency and quality.
Committing To Data Privacy Compliance: The California Consumer Privacy Act And Steps To Prepare
California’s new data privacy law, The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), is ushering in a new era of consumer privacy protections in the U.S. The law takes effect January 1, 2020, and will provide broad privacy protections for California residents. To ensure regulatory readiness, organizations must prepare for the impact the law will bring to their business, understand obligations and take steps to modify processes accordingly
The General Counsel Report: Corporate Legal Departments in 2020
FTI Technology and Relativity partnered with Ari Kaplan Advisors to survey chief legal officers about the future of the legal industry and the skills and expertise needed for the next generation of lawyers. The results of these interviews clearly indicate an industry in transition across four key areas: the evolving role of in-house counsel, risk factors and how the modern legal department is addressing them, technology and innovation in law, and advice that general counsel have for their law firms and for future lawyers.
Merger Clearance Investigations - Increased Rigor and Emphasis on Internal Documents
Historically, when two companies have proposed a merger or acquisition, European competition authorities evaluated various economic and market analyses to determine whether the transaction would establish too dominant of a position for the companies in any given market. Now, regulators, particularly DG Comp and competition agencies in the UK, Germany and France, are increasingly interested in the review of contemporaneous internal documents.
The State of E-discovery 2019
This year’s State of E-discovery report pulls from the latest economic, case law, and professional e-discovery and legal industries to paint a picture of an industry at an inflection point. With the information contained in it, you can make the strategic decisions you need to ensure you stay ahead of the e-discovery curve.
Form Follows Function: Negotiating the Second Request Process with Government Regulators
There may be no process in the entire legal business fraught with more urgency than an HSR Second Request. Legal teams are expected to process, review and produce a large quantity of documents in only a few months. Failure to properly comply can result in significant delays. Because of this, there is an enormous temptation to begin the review the moment a Second Request is announced. This temptation, however, must be resisted until some key "gating factors" are negotiated with the government.
Revolutionising the Monitoring of Culture and Misconduct Risks and Related Investigations
Intelligent use of modern techniques such as machine learning and predictive technologies enable risk and compliance functions to respond to today’s escalating expectations
The State of Information Governance
Bloomberg Quick Pulse 2018 Survey Report
GDPR Breach Crisis: Are You Prepared?
The GDPR compliance deadline might have passed but over two-thirds of UK firms acknowledge they are at risk of a GDPR breach crisis. While data mapping and updating privacy policies are an important aspect of GDPR preparedness, many companies will struggle to respond to GDPR breaches and incidents.
Advice from Counsel: State of the Union on Data Privacy & Security
The 12th Advice from Counsel study explores how issues of data security and privacy impact in-house legal teams at Fortune 1000 corporations and reveals the top concerns and emerging best practices across three key and intersecting topics: the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), IG and data security and remediation.
GDPR Countdown - May 2018: The Starting Point, Not the Finish Line
Companies around the globe are impacted by the landmark EU legislation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into force on May 25, 2018. While there is tremendous focus on the steep fines, the risks associated with reputational damage due to the inappropriate management of personal data is much greater.
Using Information Governance Tactics to Prepare for the GDPR
Much like Information Governance, preparation for the General Data Protection Regulation is a cross-departmental concern that requires input from many different groups within an organization, including privacy, compliance, legal, line of business, IT and information security.
The Lawyer - Global Litigation 50 Report, 2017
Technology is revolutionising the way lawyers practice their trade. To deliver the greatest value to their clients, legal professionals must know about the latest technological solutions.
92 Reasons to Delete Data
Data storage has never been cheaper. But the downstream costs – data discovery, legal review and data breaches, to name just a few – have never been higher. If you don’t yet have a data remediation policy, this collection of stats, facts and references provides 92 reasons to start planning for one.
Tackling Data Security Risks
We asked 33 in-house compliance leaders: How can organizations create an information governance framework that protects data while staying adaptive to the rapidly evolving business landscape?
Transforming Risk: Shifting from Reactive to Proactive
With many organisations struggling to deal with the rapid explosion of data, coupled with increasingly aggressive regulatory enforcement, how should they drive change in information governance?
Transforming Risk with Better Information Governance
As regulated companies are required to manage ever growing amounts of data, and regulators are imposing increasingly severe fines, how can firms ensure they comply with this greater scrutiny?
Quick Wins in Information Governance
From protecting sensitive customer data from cyber threats to complying with data protection laws, corporate information governance efforts are quickly becoming “must do” projects. In this paper, Sonia Cheng gives her top 5 pragmatic and proactive tips to help in-house legal teams achieve quick wins for information governance projects.
Evaluating the Opportunities Presented by Analytics and Visualization in Legal Review
Analytics are changing the game in e-discovery. Written by Blue Hill Research analyst David Houlihan, this report compiles feedback from corporate legal departments, law firms and service providers on best practices for using analytics to reduce costs.
A Method to the Data Madness
As employees migrate to an ever-increasing number of apps, how can legal teams ensure that this data is picked up as part of the usual e-discovery process?
How Predictive Coding is Changing the Legal Landscape
The first formal judicial endorsement of the use of predictive coding in e-disclosure in the UK came from Master Matthews in his High Court ruling in the Pyrrho Investments v MWB Property Ltd case. In this paper, we look at the landmark decision and how it is likely to impact e-disclosure costs and proportionality arguments in UK courts, and increase the willingness of legal teams to use predictive coding in document reviews as part of a wide range of disputes and investigations.
The State of Information Governance in Corporations
For this Advice from Counsel study, we interviewed in-house counsel to better understand the health and success of information governance programs within corporations. The results clearly show that with a few exceptions, most organizations are in the early stages of information governance adoption. Yet these executives have strong advice on how best to begin and implement an IG initiative. From these results, organizations can better under¬stand how their peers are successfully keeping an eye on the big picture while executing quick wins that help build momentum for broader IG initiatives.
Identifying & Protecting the Corporate Crown Jewels
Every organization has a set of crown jewels—information that is critical, unique or irreplaceable. From the CEO’s emails to the board, to sensitive IP, organizations need to properly identify, categorize and secure these crown jewels. This paper is designed to provide a practical overview of how to secure your company’s crown jewels, from stakeholder involvement to developing repeatable processes and technical considerations.
Why Data Deletion Makes Sense (and Dollars)
Conventional wisdom says the cost of storing data is declining. That’s true. But the total cost to businesses to store data is rising unsustainably because they are collecting — and retaining — more data than ever before. The key to controlling costs and freeing up operating capital is deleting data you don’t need to store. How do you know what you don’t need? Two words: information governance.
Measuring Your E-discovery Program Against Industry, 2015
How does your e-discovery program measure against your peers? How does your team size, budget and technology adoption compare to other companies? Download the study now to learn best practices from Fortune 1000 e-discovery professionals on a range of topics, from data security to budget transparency and retention policies.
Mobile Devices, Data Collection and the Next E-discovery Front
Mobile devices are impacting corporations profoundly in ways both obvious and subtle. As in-house counsel, IT staff and the security department grapple with bring your own device (BYOD) policies, security issues and the massive proliferation of data generated by mobile devices, they may not be focusing as closely on litigation and investigational risks caused by mobile device data.
Metrics that Matter
What do Van Halen, M&Ms and metrics in e-discovery have to do with one another? More than you might think.
Advice from Counsel: 13 Ways Your E-discovery Manager Thinks You Can Reduce E-discovery Spending
What if you could ask 25 of the most experienced e-discovery managers from the Fortune 1000 for their advice on reducing e-discovery costs? That’s exactly what we did, and we’re sharing the results.
E-discovery in Asia – Best Practices for Handling the Legal, Regulatory, Cultural and Technical Challenges
Learn the key survey findings, areas of practical concern for multinational corporations and law firms, and expert perspectives on the evolving legal, technical and cultural landscape impacting e-discovery in the Asian region.
Advice from Counsel: The Emerging E-discovery Playbook
Fortune 1000 corporate counsel share advice about how corporations manage their e-discovery programs in this annual survey.
Think Green: How Multi-Matter Repositories, Done Right, Can Save Cost Through Litigation Lifecycles.
Learn about assessing whether a multi-matter repository could provide your company quantifiable cost savings and key considerations for developing a defensible multi-matter repository.
Advice from Fortune 1000 E-discovery Experts: Achieving & Maintaining E-discovery Fitness
Download this report to see new survey results from Fortune 1000 e-discovery experts and benchmark your e-discovery fitness against industry averages.
Discovery Shifts to the Cloud: Rewards and Perils for Your IT and Legal Teams
Adoption of Cloud computing continues to gain momentum, impacting every segment of the technology and legal worlds. Learn key e-discovery factors to consider as your organization transitions to the cloud and SaaS e-discovery offerings.
Can Predictive Coding Add Value to Your Case?
Landmark cases including Da Silva Moore have resulted in rulings favorable to predictive coding. But is this proven process right for your case, or will it add more problems than it solves? Download this white paper and use its 10 guidelines as a quick self-assessment.
Game Change: Reevaluating Collection Processes in the Wake of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network Ruling
Learn key considerations for implementing two main collection methodologies – physical collection vs. logical collection.
Advice from Counsel: Trends that Will Change E-discovery (and What to Do About Them Now)
Learn about where e-discovery is going, and what you can do today to better prepare for these changes.
Advice from Counsel - Can Predictive Coding Deliver on its Promise?
FTI Technology commissioned an interdisciplinary survey of law firm leaders and senior corporate counsel to identify key trends and perspectives on the emergence of predictive coding.
The Experts Weigh In: E-discovery Strategies for International Anti-bribery Investigations
Compare strategies for navigating the technological, legal, and cultural barriers of conducting an effective cross-border investigation.
Attorney Review in the Enterprise: Choosing Deployment Options
Download this white paper from the Enterprise Strategy Group, and better understand the key considerations for each legal review model.
Exchange Message Tracking Logs - Message Forensics
Microsoft’s LogParser utility, designed to monitor message flow for production and troubleshooting in an Exchange environment, may also be applied for conducting investigations of unacceptable communications.
E-discovery and Legal Frameworks Governing Privacy and Data Protection in European Countries | Part 2 - Country-Specific Profiles
For those involved with multinational e-discovery, Part 2 of the report includes an appendix of country-specific profiles for France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
E-discovery and Legal Frameworks Governing Privacy and Data Protection in European Countries | Part 1 - Implications
This 32-page practical review of data privacy requirements and processes that will help corporations and law firms legally collect, process, review and transfer data for litigation, regulatory requests or investigations.
The End of Piecemealing: Improving Upon All-in-One Document Review Offerings
This paper discusses the shortcomings of a piecemeal approach compared to an integrated approach, and how all-in-one offerings may still fall short. It explains the essential features of effective integrated approaches to e-discovery and document review, and lays out the specific features companies should consider in selecting an all-in-one, integrated document review provider.
The Problems of Keyword Search in E-discovery
Learn more about the difficulties working with keywords during a matter, the many challenges associated with relying on keyword search and the cost and risk associated with attempting to "guess” one's way to a relevant document.
The E-discovery Playbook
The E-Discovery Playbook shows you how to assemble the right team, develop a process and choose the right play for your winning case game plan.
