A monthly newsletter focused on real world issues and practical strategies for the e-discovery investigation professional.

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	From the Investigator's Notebook: Employ E-mail Analytic Tools to Jump Start Your Investigation
	News & Events

From the Investigator's Notebook: Employ E-mail Analytic Tools to Jump Start Your Investigation

At some point your organization may be faced with employee misconduct or malfeasance to the level of prompting an internal investigation. When something goes wrong that requires an investigation, utilizing e-mail analytic tools on the front end can save you valuable time and money. How do you determine who to interview? Whose electronic devices should be forensically imaged and searched? What kind of electronic information should be searched for, and what search terms should be used? Does outside counsel need to be engaged? Does HR need to be involved? E-mail analytic tools can provide answers to these questions and empower you to make informed case-strategy and procedural decisions.

Many analytic tools provide a window into loose files as well as e-mails, however when an inquiry arises, e-mail analytic tools are an invaluable means of strategically planning an investigation that involves e-mail communications. E-mail analytics can be used to sort, organize and analyze documents in a database. The most advanced e-mail analytic tools recognize and visually represent relationships between people and events, including communication patterns. In essence, e-mail analytics can help answer the following questions:

• Who? Who authored the e-mail? To whom was it sent? Was it forwarded to a personal e-mail account or someone outside of the organization? Who accordingly needs to be interviewed? Whose computers need to be forensically preserved and analyzed?
• What? What subjects were the e-mails discussing? How frequently? Were acronyms used? What words or phrases are central to the issues involved?
• When? When were the individuals communicating about these subjects? Were there peaks in communication? What are the key dates or times? What are the clear beginning and end dates?

E-mail analytic tools provide a greater understanding of the incident under investigation with minimal cost and effort. E-mail analytics can be utilized in internal company investigations to identify patterns of conduct. For instance, an investigator can use an e-mail analytics tool to search a set of e-mails sent within a six-month period involving a suspect individual. The tool will automatically populate graphs showing who the individual communicated with during that six-month period, and what subjects were discussed. As an example, if the resulting graph shows that the suspect individual began communicating with a third party at a competing organization just prior to the incident under investigation, the investigating team will be able to direct their investigation accordingly. The advanced visualization features of e-mail analytics allow for quick identification of potential problems as well as potential stores of relevant data, thereby increasing your ability to mitigate damages.

The understanding gained by e-mail analytics also enables investigators to efficiently and intelligently preserve and collect data for the investigation. Unless investigators know what data needs to be preserved in order to conduct an investigation of an incident, either more data than necessary will be preserved (resulting in significant expenditures for unnecessary preservation efforts), or a "smoking gun" could inadvertently be destroyed through lack of sufficient preservation.

E-mail analytic tools provide a wealth of information that can jump start your investigation, and most importantly, assure that it is directed correctly towards the people and issues that need to be investigated. An investment in e-mail analytic tools can yield valuable returns because an investigation that is accurate, efficient and mitigates risk provides immeasurable protection of company assets.

Special thanks to Rhea Frederick, J.D., Kroll Ontrack Legal Consultant for her contribution in writing this article. Ms. Frederick advises law firms and corporations on the complex issues surrounding electronic discovery and cost-saving measures. She can be contacted for questions or comments at rfrederick@krollontrack.com

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News & Events

Enhanced E-Discovery Certification Course Propels Litigation Teams to New Heights
Given the current economic conditions, corporate clients are being forced to cut back legal and IT budgets, while the threat of sanctions due to improper ESI handling continues to rise. Become an e-discovery expert to prevent your firm or corporation from becoming the next headline. Kroll Ontrack's 2009 E-Discovery Certification Course is ideal for legal and technical professionals of all levels, especially in-house counsel, law firm attorneys, litigation support professionals, paralegals, IT staff, and members of the judiciary. Upon completion of this program, you will be able to make informed decisions regarding ESI, be prepared to negotiate at the meet and confer and understand the most current e-discovery law. For more information and to register for an upcoming course, visit www.krollontrack.com/certification-courses/.

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This newsletter was written by Meredith Socha and Kelly Kubacki, Kroll Ontrack Law Clerks, with assistance from Regina Jytyla, Kroll Ontrack Managing Staff Attorney. Ms. Socha can be contacted by writing to msocha@krollontrack.com.

For more information about e-discovery and computer forensics services, contact Kroll Ontrack at 800 347 6105 or www.krollontrack.com.