Consilio In Action: Mark Walker, Jennifer Schaefer, Bradley Crandall, Paul Featherly

Consilio In Action: Partnering with Am Law 100 Law Firm to Take on High-Profile Defamation Cases

Consilio’s client is an Am Law 100 litigation firm that represents parties in high-stakes commercial litigation. With a track record of securing billions in verdicts and settlements for Fortune 50 clients, it is the go-to firm when the stakes are high and losing is not an option.

When the law firm took on a client to file high-profile defamation lawsuits against media outlets, it knew it needed an eDiscovery partner that could keep pace with the rapid developments in these cases. Having relied on Consilio for eDiscovery services for almost 10 years, this firm once again turned to the Consilio team to take on the monumental task of collecting, processing, reviewing and producing millions of documents on tight deadlines set by the judge, who fast-tracked the cases.

Unparalleled White-glove Service and Expertise

The law firm litigation team knew of Consilio’s ability to provide specialized service as one of the world’s largest eDiscovery providers. As Consilio’s project management lead Jennifer Schaefer explains, “With this client, they entrust most of their matters to Consilio. It is important that they know that they’re working with one of the world’s most sophisticated eDiscovery providers, but still getting high-touch, white-glove service.”

Having access to Consilio’s vast resources and expertise was invaluable. Yet the firm still expected and received customized, dedicated support as if Consilio were a boutique vendor. No request was too big or small for the Consilio team. Whether navigating massive datasets or tracking down a single custodian’s files, they provided meticulous services tailored to the firm’s specific needs.

A Highly Specialized Approach

According to Consilio’s senior solutions architect Mark Walker, this specialized approach is integral to Consilio’s partnership with the firm: “The team at Consilio has a wide range of expertise, which allowed us to adapt swiftly to the changing demands of the case. Each of our project managers has different strengths and different backgrounds. . . . This helps because we can be just as nimble as the firm.”

The combination of Consilio’s scale and boutique-style service allowed the litigation team to have it both ways – leveraging the capabilities of one of the industry’s largest eDiscovery providers while getting the personalized attention of a small, focused team. This dual benefit enabled optimal efficiency and agility against well-resourced opponents.

For Consilio project manager Bradley Crandall, meeting the client’s expectations every step of the way as well as practicing nimbleness during the collections process was extremely important. Bradley states, “The international collections process added to the complexity and challenges of this project because we had to deal with the constantly evolving speed at which we had to operate. I believe our client appreciated our professionalism and collaborative relationship. We achieved the best results by working together.”

Fast-paced Litigation was No Problem for the Consilio Team

The case presented immense eDiscovery challenges. A thousand custodians were initially identified, with emails alone totaling more than 50 million documents and multiple terabytes of data. Working closely with the litigation team, the Consilio team helped narrow the scope to a set of key custodians and honed in on relevant date ranges and search terms. Still, the volume of data was massive. Making matters more difficult was the incredibly fast pace of the litigation. Deadlines were constantly being moved up, requiring the Consilio team to work evenings and weekends to meet compressed timelines. As an attorney from the firm communicated, “I cannot thank you enough” for Consilio’s “tireless support.”

Throughout the two years working on these cases, the Consilio team, led by Jennifer, Bradley, Paul Featherly and Maggie Vacek, operated as an extension of the litigation team. This level of integration enabled seamless collaboration and responsiveness to the rapidly shifting demands of the cases. According to another attorney at the firm, they worked Consilio “to the bone,” but the team always had an “incredible” level of commitment and positive spirit.

A critical component of Consilio’s service delivery was extensive expertise across multiple domains. The core service team of Paul, Jennifer, Bradley and Maggie harnessed experience across the spectrum of eDiscovery capabilities: collecting data, processing and culling data, conducting searches, managing databases, producing documents and managing document review. Beyond the core team, Consilio provided backup support from technical experts in forensics, engineering and analytics. The technical teams extracted data from devices, ensured optimal hosting performance and ran analytics to prioritize document collections.

Paul states, “The project management team demonstrated an exceptional work ethic, consistently going above and beyond with late nights and weekend support to ensure the client’s needs were met. Our seamless collaboration with the client allowed us to become a true extension of their legal team, fostering a strong and effective partnership.”

Being able to access this range of expertise in-house allowed Consilio to adapt swiftly to the changing demands of the case. Whether implementing new searches, transferring data across review platforms or managing terabytes of information, Consilio had the knowledge base to move quickly. According to Mark, “Having a consistent team throughout the project makes the cases run much smoother because the client does not have to train the vendor.”

The depth of Consilio’s expertise also enabled them to operate at the pace required for fast-moving litigation, and their familiarity with the firm’s approach meant being able to ramp up rapidly. The firm understood how to implement processes in parallel to accelerate timelines, and by leveraging Consilio’s institutional knowledge and expertise across eDiscovery domains, it could move nimbly without needing to train new team members at each phase. As Mark notes, Consilio’s capabilities “gave the client the ability to move at light speed, which is what they had to do for these cases.”

Bradley comments, “I can’t say enough about the Consilio forensics department and its members who had to constantly face collections challenges and meet deadlines. Their assurance in data privacy and collections protocol and ensuring that the data was as secure as possible every step of the way brought peace of mind to everyone involved. It was paramount, and in many ways, a linchpin to our success.”

Historic Winning Results for the Client

In the end, the firm achieved a historic result for its client. When the news broke, the law firm attorneys emailed the Consilio team from the courthouse steps thanking them for their “endless nights” and “tireless support” without which the victory would not have been possible.

“Fully aware of the stakes, we maintained an unwavering commitment to excellence, relentlessly pursuing accurate and timely results. I am incredibly proud of our team's dedication and passion for the success of the case and our client. We were deeply invested in the process and thrilled by the historic outcome.,” states Paul.

The extraordinary result reflects the power of partnership. By seamlessly integrating the firm’s litigation team with the full capabilities of Consilio’s platform and experts, the two organizations formed a formidable, united front. Consilio is proud to stand alongside its law firm client in taking on some of the most consequential cases of our times.

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