Multi-Matter Repositories Are the iTunes of E-Discovery

Corporations are using “iTunes” to manage e-discovery, but they call it a multi-matter repository. The volume of data exploded when people started creating and accessing content through computers and networks, and organizing music collections and burning MP3s onto CDs became a bigger job than most people had time to manage. The entertainment industry responded with iTunes and other multi-media repositories.

Today, corporations face a similar challenge in managing the exponential growth of data. Just as multi-media repositories provided the solution for digital music, multi-matter repositories provide a solution for corporate data. Corporations are using the same big-data, cloud-based technology that we have become familiar with in our personal lives to manage their discovery requirements.

Access to a repository can be set up for multiple parties, similar to the way iTunes can be set up so family members can share access, but with the users coming from a company legal department and its outside law firms. Case databases are synchronized and connected to the repository. just as multiple devices and playlists are used for distributing music. Dashboard reports provide visibility across all the available data. They can be customized to accommodate user needs, to provide review and progress metrics across active cases, as well as insight into where each pocket of data exists.

A multi-matter repository can also help with early case assessment, using built-in technology-assisted review tools and “more-like-this” functionality. These work like the iTunes “Genius” feature, but they are used to isolate document subsets.