What is eDiscovery?

Electronic discovery is the process that lawyers engage in to find and collect any electronically stored information that might be important any time an organization is required to provide information in a legal setting. A legal setting can mean a lawsuit, a government investigation, a serial filing that needs to be made with a regulatory agency, etc.

Industry Best Practice

Organizations need to have at a minimum:

1. An understanding of what the organization’s systems look like and what is regularly implicated in eDiscovery. Often referred to as a data map, this includes the access rights and location of board and shareholder communications, regulatory reporting, and all sensitive legal and corporate documents;
2. A team of individuals with the requisite skills to identify and find the relevant in- formation as necessary: including legal, business, records management and IT, and;
3. A process in place to ensure that information is not lost once that legal duty to preserve it has arisen, as well as being able to provide that information in a cost-effective manner for litigation.

The organization should engage in Information Governance (IG). Information Governance is a combination of multi-disciplinary structures, policies, procedures, processes and controls that an organization implements to manage information at an enterprise level. The goal of IG is to support an organization's immediate and future regulatory, legal, risk, environmental, and operational requirements. The level of complexity of any IG program is unique to an organization’s risk profile. Companies whose shares are publicly traded and therefore subject to the most extensive regulatory requirements are at the greatest risk from a legal and financial perspective.

How Board Portals Can Mitigate Legal Compliance and eDiscovery Risks and Costs

Board portals provide control over how your board communicates and conducts their meetings. If your board of directors is utilizing multiple platforms to share information, you should consider a single platform designed specifically for board communications. Board portals are designed to keep director communications, board materials, corporate documents, and official records secure. The upshot is when utilizing a solution designed specifically for board communications, it can greatly reduce the cost of legal compliance and eDiscovery.