Should law departments be responsible for litigation-support data maps?

A fundamental step for companies that want to be prepared for discovery of electronic documents is to prepare what is known as a data map (See my post of April 13, 2008: law department customized data mapping software.). As explained in an article in Inside Counsel, Aug. 2008 at 44, “data maps should capture what type of data lives where” in a company.

More to the point of this blog, the author puts the burden of maintaining the data map squarely on the law department. “It is the job of the legal department to keep the data map up to date, along with support from IT and records management.” No discussion, and I wonder why the lawyers must take the lead on this function that serves at least two other groups (See my post of July 19, 2007: GC’s role too expansive.).

The article also mentions two choices of enterprise search technology that can help create and maintain data maps. Software offered by Autonomy ZANTAZ and Kazeon Systems Inc. “can help in-house counsel automatically understand the content of data stored in various repositories throughout a company’s network.”