Esicon Consulting LLC today announced the launch of its innovative, cross-disciplinary electronic discovery practice. Esicon works with legal departments, law firms, and organizations with significant stores of digital information, implementing solutions to reduce litigation costs, and preparing for and responding to discovery. Esicon’s founders and managing directors, Anne Jordan, Steven Mandell, Dan Rizzolo and Stephen Rosenfeld, all attorneys, each have more than 20 years of industry expertise with proven track records in litigation, information technology, consulting, and project management.
"Firms whose principals combine strong litigation, e-discovery and technical skills are better positioned to help clients realize significant savings and avoid e-discovery mistakes than those who draw from only one of those disciplines," said discovery industry expert, George Socha, head of Socha Consulting and co-producer of the annual Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey Report. "Discovery issues can have a profound impact on the outcome of case, in some instances eclipsing the relative merits of the parties' positions, so it is critical to have people experienced in technology, the law and e-discovery involved."
Even before the current economic downturn, the need to reduce discovery costs was a corporate imperative, but it has taken on new urgency as corporate profits slip. “As in-house legal departments shrink, those who remain are often too busy to maximize cost cutting,” explained Anne Jordan, former general counsel for PeopleSoft, Inc. “Some efforts are significantly more effective than others, and Esicon can quickly point resource-constrained clients toward opportunities for immediate savings,” Jordan added.
“The cost of going to court should not create a bar to litigating a dispute,” said Steve Rosenfeld, a litigator and former software company head. At the same time, companies have to meet their discovery obligations or risk setbacks or even a loss if they can’t find information that needs to be turned over to the other side. “The most cost effective way to do that is to prepare before you’re in the heat of battle,” Dan Rizzolo, an attorney and veteran IT consultant, noted. “Costs saving opportunities can be lost when companies are faced with tight deadlines.” Mr. Rizzolo was with Navigant Consulting and Arthur Andersen prior to co-founding Esicon.
Jennifer Sherman, Vice President and General Counsel of Federal Signal Corporation, understands how critical advance preparation can be to the outcome of a case, so when she needed discovery help, she turned to Esicon's consultants. "We needed to develop the capability to efficiently organize large amounts of data in our mass tort litigation. They helped us develop claimant and witness-related discovery databases that allowed us to analyze the information and quickly initiate and respond to discovery. The project was finished expeditiously and within our budget guidelines and we are now significantly better positioned to avoid the discovery problems that other companies have faced."
“The challenge is to scale the costs of litigation, and discovery in particular, so they are not out of line with what’s at stake in the action,” according to Steve Mandell, a litigator with several well-known tech companies as clients. “It’s also important to create a repeatable process so you don’t incur fees and use internal resources when similar issues come up in subsequent litigation.”
Mr. Mandell, Mr. Rosenfeld and Ms. Jordan will work with Esicon clients and continue to practice with Mandell Menkes LLC.
Esicon Consulting LLC is a cross disciplinary e-discovery and litigation consulting firm that brings together litigators, information technology professionals, and in-house counsel. With this unique combination of expertise, Esicon delivers solutions tailored to clients’ specific needs and objectives that provide immediate benefits. For more information, go to http://www.esiconconsulting.com or email us at info@esiconconsulting.com.
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