The three roles important for any internal e-discovery team, plus one

If a law department takes part in any cross-functional team to address electronic discovery, or if the law department sets up its own team (See my post of Nov. 13, 2007.), the group needs to have representation from three primary constituencies.

The team needs somebody with a legal background, somebody with a technology background, and somebody who understands the business and its sources of information. It also helps to have a project manager. Or so I thought.

But then I read in InsideCounsel, Jan. 2008, Spec. Rpt. at 4, that one commentator advocates an “external-facing person who is responsible for managing relationships with vendors and outside counsel.” No wonder it is hard to set up an internal discovery team (See my posts of May 13, 2007 about the immensity of electronic documents; June 18, 2007 on document review; and Oct. 8, 2007 on an in-house guide to e-discovery.).!