Oil and Gas/Governance Litigation Matter
When Hire Intelligence was contacted by a prominent Dallas law firm to help with a large, high visibility oil and gas litigation matter, there were 1.2 terabytes of data that needed to be reviewed, organized, and analyzed to determine how they fit into the case. The case was a complicated business matter, involving bankruptcy, fraud, misrepresentation, contract and oil and gas issues. There were more than 20 potential witnesses for whom the documents may have been relevant, with the same number of coding categories to be pulled from the documents to allow efficient document searches to be performed later. After meeting with the client, Hire Intelligence, using the iConect review platform, staffed with more than 20 reviewers working seven days a week, prioritized the "hot" documents, coded all of the relevant issues, and completed data fields to insure the integrity of the client's searches. In the end, the 1.2 terabytes of data were reduced to 300,000 reviewable documents, all examined and re-examined by Hire Intelligence to result in a highly usable work product for the client. In a subsequent follow-on engagement, HI successfully completed a review of related documents in the same matter to determine if certain state-specific issues existed. In doing so, HI's team modified existing protocols and methods, and developed new processes, to effectively identify and assess the relevant documents and issues.
Financial Services Litigation Matter
Nothing generates documents like the financial industry. When an international law firm became involved in one of the largest financial fraud schemes this country has ever seen, it knew it needed technological expertise. The firm represented an individual being investigated as a lead investment adviser in an alleged multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme, and the firm wanted to show his innocence. Before packaging information for SEC investigators to persuade them to take the investigation elsewhere, the lawyers wanted to be sure there were no "smoking guns" in the documents. They managed to cull the documents for review down to 50,000, but then they wanted the documents sorted by relevance, priority (identifying "hot" documents), and nearly 25 different issue subcategories, including case-specific inquiries and relevance. That meant each document had to be carefully reviewed and electronically summarized, all in a short period of time, with reliable results that would be presented to the U.S. Government. Hire Intelligence tackled the project with more than 20 reviewers, emphasizing front-end communication with the lawyers to make sure each reviewer understood the issues and goals, and completed the project in a timely manner with excellent results. The database was manageable and usable for the client attorneys, and they were able to piece together the information in the manner that was most beneficial to their client.
Breach of Contract Litigation Matter
Although it wasn't a large volume, the database of 10,000 documents nevertheless presented a difficult challenge to the client. The client was charged with the task of determining relevance and privilege with respect to each of the documents and redacting protected information before production. With issue coding and a first and second pass at the documents, Hire Intelligence was able to quickly cull the documents in this breach of contract and fraud case to a subset of documents containing privileged information, redact the documents electronically, and ready them for production. Hire Intelligence's involvement in this project saved the client thousands of dollars and allowed them to focus their attention on more strategic issues in the case.
Oil and Gas/Governance Litigation Matter
This large document review project started with a first and second pass review of more than 300,000 documents, with issue coding and updating of data fields as the understanding of the documents grew. The defense in the case was outlined by data fields that were updated as reviewers recognized repetitive issues appearing in the documents. With the insight provided by the reviewers, the attorneys were able to better prepare for deposition and witness testimony. As an additional leg to the project, this client requested 10 reviewers to code the documents with additional fields identified during the review.
Legal Research and Case Law Analysis
A national railroad company needed an understanding of the case law pertaining to certain issues peculiar to the industry. Rather than hire high-priced national law firms to prepare the survey of state law, the company sought the assistance of Hire Intelligence. With experienced attorneys conducting the research, and the US management team guiding the process, Hire Intelligence was able to provide the company with the information it needed to develop a legislative strategy for its business. Additionally, subsequent research projects for this client assisted in the development and refinement of the client's operational business practices and procedures.
Intellectual Property Litigation Matter
As it happens, the wheels of justice turn slowly. Sometimes, when a case is passed for trial, the next trial setting is many months in the future. Knowledge fades during the interim. This happened to a client of Hire Intelligence, who called upon our company to assist them with a "trial pass" document review just prior to the second trial setting. Hire Intelligence was tasked with the responsibility of performing a second pass review of the documents, looking for "hot" documents that may have been missed before. Hire Intelligence located a critical document for the other side that had been previously identified; thus causing the client to re-evaluate its settlement strategy before trial and allowing it to achieve a much more favorable result. Hire Intelligence increased the client's preparedness and enabled it to take a much wiser approach to the lawsuit.
Deposition Summaries
Hire Intelligence has been frequently called upon to summarize depositions for use at subsequent depositions and at trial. We have summarized simple, short depositions and complex, multi-day testimony. The work product is clear and concise, enabling the reader to quickly understand the evidence presented in the deposition and how and when to use statements for impeachment or other purposes. Because of the time difference from the client to Hire Intelligence's Philippines operations, the turnaround time for the deposition summary can be as short as evening to morning, giving the attorney handling the case a much-needed advantage in preparedness.
Expert Witness
When the US Government told the defendants in a criminal matter that they had seized more than 12 terabytes of data and were making it available for review in advance of the trial setting two months down the road, the defense lawyers knew they had a problem. They knew the information was too voluminous to review, the time too short, and the process too expensive. They turned to Hire Intelligence to explain that to the Court. At their request, Hire Intelligence analyzed the volume and type of data and made a determination of the cost in money and time to review. Hire Intelligence then prepared an opinion letter reflecting its conclusions, and that letter was attached to a motion for protective order filed by the defendants. The clients were quite pleased with the result, saying the letter helped them explain information to the court in a clear manner so that the court could understand the difficulty of the situation and help fashion a solution.
