Managing digital evidence - Forensic technology services - Smith & Williamson
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Managing digital evidence Forensic technology services
A ‘new media’ and digital age
The frequency of global As we are now firmly in a
commercial disputes has increased ‘new media’ and digital age,
rapidly in recent years. In the evidence can take a variety
last two years, ‘bet the company’ of forms, making locating and
work has quadrupled1. So too on managing data ever-more
the increase is the volume of data challenging. With the number of
that is involved in these complex devices on which information can
disputes. Disclosure can involve be held constantly growing, legal
reviewing millions of documents2. teams are faced with practical
hurdles as well as pressure to
deliver an efficient and cost
effective solution3.
1
BTI Litigation Outlook 2017
2
The Lord Chief Justice’s Report 2016
3
CPR PD 31B 6(1) *accurate at time of printing
2
Our approach
Smith & Williamson’s forensic technology advisers
will provide you with scalable and technically
focused solutions to issues surrounding the recovery,
retention, investigation and presentation of
electronic data, both in complex investigations and
during the disclosure process.
Our team are technically adept Changes in scope during an
and commercially minded. They e-Disclosure case can have a
work closely with the parties and significant impact on costs and
their legal advisers guiding them the ability to recover them.
through the digital minefield Our team can readily respond
explaining their findings in a to those changes while keeping
commercial context. costs under control. Our
specialists can work as part of
Our approach ensures that there
your team to minimise those
is minimal disruption to your
costs and manage the impact of
client’s business. We actively
any changes to an e-Disclosure
make suggestions about the
exercise, to make the transition
best way to manage your case
as smooth as possible.
to maintain proportionality of
costs and deliver results in a
You can benefit from:
timely manner.
• A reliable service
We have excellent experience • One-to-one or group
in the defensible culling of data training
and review management. We are
• Partner-led cases
able to advise on and assist with
the use of advanced analytics, • A thorough and flexible
approach
such as predictive coding, e-mail
threading and concept clustering • A commercial outlook
in order to make reviews where needed
as accurate and as efficient
as possible.
3
Our forensic services
Smith & Williamson provide the Included in our service offering are:
full range of forensic services • Quantum and valuation services in
and our multi-disciplinary international arbitrations and cross-
border disputes
team advise on a variety of
• Forensic technology and
dispute resolution matters. e-Disclosure services
We work closely with lawyers • Fraud and financial crime investigations
from around the world, taking • Anti-bribery and corruption services
on a litigation support role on • Competition services (including
their cases. European Commission cases)
4
Our forensic technology services
Our advisers will provide you with scalable and technically
focused solutions to issues surrounding the recovery, retention,
investigation and presentation of electronic data.
We have a thorough understanding Our team are engaged on a variety of
of the legal process and we use both commercial disputes, assisting with:-
technical expertise and a commercial • e-Disclosure;
approach when gathering data and
• regulatory response;
protecting digital evidence ensuring
that it conforms to relevant legal and • fraud and money
regulatory requirements. laundering investigations;
• competition investigations;
• disciplinary investigations; and
• gathering forensically sound
digital evidence.
Examples of our assignments include:
• Instructed by the Legal Council to a Sovereign State to investigate allegations
concerning a multi-million dollar fraud stretching back 30 years within a
Sovereign Wealth Fund. This assignment has involved enquiries in EMEA (including
Switzerland) and North America, and involves the hosting of over 1 million
documents.
• Co-ordinated the response to a Section 26 notice issued by the Office of Fair
Trading for an international household goods supplier. This case required the
collection, production and review of millions of items of data in an extremely
time sensitive environment.
• Conducted a large scale eDisclosure exercise on behalf of an international
corporation involving many hundreds of thousands of documents, and provided
technical assistance into preparing the legal response.
• Conducted and led many without notice intervention exercises specialising in the
acquisition of data in high pressure/short timescale environments.
• Co-ordinated a response to a potential Health and Safety Executive investigation
following a serious incident within an international energy supplier. Knowledge
of investigation procedures in addition to technical capability provided the client
with the information needed to respond fully to any subsequent action.
5
e-Disclosure
Building a litigation case can When faced with all of this, an e-Disclosure
exercise could easily spiral out of control
bring with it a number of
in terms of cost and information overload.
challenges, especially when it The cost of disclosure greatly impacts the
comes to e-Disclosure. overall cost of litigation, especially in the
context of big commercial cases. A well-
The amount of information generated by
managed e-Disclosure exercise is crucial in
companies makes disclosure a complex
ensuring that you keep control of the case.
exercise. Whether you have completed
At Smith & Williamson, we put you back in
many cases requiring e-Disclosure, or are
control of the case by offering a complete
relatively inexperienced in such matters,
e-Disclosure solution that:
there are usually common issues to
overcome, such as: • reduces the cost of e-Disclosure
through flexible charging structures;
• excessive data volumes;
• saves you time and money for more
• careful budgeting requirements;
cost-effective planning;
• tight time frames;
• simplifies even the most complex
• resourcing constraints; and e-Disclosure exercise through
• numerous devices holding data. advanced analytics;
• delivers cost-efficiency to your clients;
and
• lets you regain control of the case,
putting you in the driver’s seat.
6
A successful e-Disclosure engagement, Features
relies on more than just software. Our
multi-disciplined team has the expertise Step 1 — Automated Digital Discovery
and skills to guide you through all stages (ADD®)
of the e-Disclosure process. By working ADD® is the most streamlined workflow
as part of your team, we give you the in e-Disclosure. With ADD®, data is
insight and assistance you need to ensure a automatically copied, processed,
smooth e-Disclosure exercise every time. filtered and loaded into review systems
with limited human interaction.
Ipro Enterprise The self-service function in ADD® allows
At the heart of our e-Disclosure solution you to upload data from anywhere in
is Ipro Enterprise, an integrated modular the world directly into a case within
software system that allows us to host and minutes, removing the need to ship
access large amounts of data, which could to a separate location or transfer the
save you time and money. data from a laptop. There is no third
Ipro is a global leader in e-Discovery party handling so you do not need to
technology used by legal professionals wait for an administrator to ingest the
to streamline the discovery of electronic data. ADD® can be deployed on your
data. Ipro is an industry pioneer that draws infrastructure and hosted and managed
upon decades of innovation to deliver by your internal team.
high-performance software that drastically ADD® forensically copies data to the
reduces the cost and complexity data centre and into the database and
of e-Discovery4. begins the chain of custody on data with
Smith & Williamson are the exclusive UK one easy process.
supplier of Ipro software.
4
https://iprotech.com/about-ipro
7
Step 2 — Eclipse: Web-based review Analytics
featuring advanced analytics Document review can be a time consuming
The review platform is called Eclipse and expensive element of litigation
and it enables the review of the and lawyers are under pressure to use
consolidated data using advanced technology that ensures that document
analytics in a unified web-based view. management activities are undertaken
The data can also be sent to the efficiently and effectively5. To alleviate
document production element of the the cost, Eclipse incorporates advanced
system called eCapture for enhanced analytics, technology-assisted review (TAR)
disclosure options and document functionality and cutting-edge features
imaging. which allow you to streamline your
workflow, reducing inefficiency and saving
It is not necessary to create new copies time and money throughout the review
of the electronically stored files, saving process.
time and storage costs while keeping
the document collection pristine and This platform is able to prioritise
reducing the chance of errors or missing documents based on relevance by using
files. a small set of ‘sample’ documents. After
an initial human review of the sample
With Eclipse, you can:- set, Eclipse quickly uses this set to sort
• Begin native file review immediately the population into categories and leaves
irrelevant documents as ‘uncategorised’.
• Save time and storage costs
By using advanced document
• Gain ultimate control with robust
categorisation technology this technology-
security at user level
assisted workflow allows you to achieve
• Use advanced analytical solutions better reviews faster.
• See the bigger picture, sooner with
visual representation
5
CPR PD 31B 6(2) *accurate at time of printing
8
Advanced analytics can be used to identify
and thread email conversations, find
and compare near duplicate documents
and cluster conceptually like documents
together, giving you an immediate ‘first
look’ at the collection before even
starting your review. The use of analytics
can speed up review times and increase
accuracy by reviewing logical ‘clusters’ of
documents in the same batch.
Advanced analytics include:-
• email threading;
• technology-assisted review (TAR);
• near de-duplication;
• keyword highlighting;
• data clustering;
• non-English language detection; and
• identification.
Step 3 — eCapture: high-speed
processing
eCapture is the processing component
of the IPRO e-Disclosure platform. Fully
distributed and infinitely scalable,
eCapture can perform enhanced
processing and full production on
litigation document collections of
any size.
The in-built language identification
system allows non-English documents
to be separated and identified, even
in documents containing multiple
languages. TIFF and PDF versions
of documents can be produced at
very high speed and to almost any
configuration.
9About Smith & Williamson and
Nexia International
Smith & Williamson is an accountancy We are a member of Nexia International, a
and financial services firm with 12 global network of independent accounting
offices and over 1,700 people located firms. With 600 offices in over 120
across the UK, Ireland and Jersey. Our countries, Nexia International links us with
business uniquely combines a UK top ten major cities around the world.
accountancy practice* with an investment
management business.
*Accountancy Age magazine 2019
Our forensic technology team
Our team consists of experienced Contact us
Information Technology professionals
To get you started on IPRO, we are happy
and former police officers. They are led
to offer a free initial demonstration for
by John Holden, a specialist in the field,
you and your team.
with over 10 years’ experience, who has
provided complex forensic computing For further details of how we can assist
evidence to the High Court. you, please contact:
John Holden
Partner
+44 (0)20 7131 8128
john.holden@smithandwilliamson.com
Andries Smit
Senior Manager
+44 (0)20 7131 8418
andries.smit@smithandwilliamson.com
Supported by a team of experienced network analysts
10Glossary
TAR Technology-assisted review Clustering
Enables the automated classification The automated analysis of data content,
of documents based on low volume grouping related documents together into
human review. data clusters.
Metadata TIFF / Tag Image File Format
Data that serves to provide context Common graphic file format.
or additional information about other
data. For example, information about FTP / File Transfer Protocol
the title, subject, author, typeface, A system commonly used for exchanging
enhancements, and size of the data file large volumes of data over a network.
of a document constitute metadata about
that document. Custodian / Custodian (Data Custodian)
A person whose electronically
Keyword search
stored information is collected for
A keyword search is a basic search litigation purposes.
technique that involves searching for
one or more words within a collection De-NIST / DeNisting (deNISTing or
of documents and returns only those de-nisting)
documents that contain the search
terms entered. Removing the operating system files,
program files and other non-user created
data. The NIST (National Institute of
OCR / Optical Character Recognition
Standards and Technology) list contains
Process of converting images of printed more than 40 million known files.
pages into electronic text.
Near de-duplication / Deduplication
Tagging (de-duplication or ’de-duping’)
The classification of a document after A process of identifying near
review, for example, “relevant” / “not duplicate copies of documents in a
relevant” etc. document collection.
11smithandwilliamson.com/business/services/forensic-services
We have taken great care to ensure the accuracy of this publication. However, the publication is written in general terms and you are
strongly recommended to seek specific advice before taking any action based on the information it contains. No responsibility can be
taken for any loss arising from action taken or refrained from on the basis of this publication.
© Smith & Williamson Holdings Limited 2020. 01320eb exp: 31/01/2021.
Smith & Williamson LLP Regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of
investment business activities. A member of Nexia International.
Smith & Williamson Investment Management LLP Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Registered No 580531. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate all of the products and services referred
to in this document, including Tax, Assurance and Business Services.
The word partner is used to refer to a member of Smith & Williamson LLP.
Smith & Williamson is a member of Nexia International, a worldwide
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