Korea ediscovery 한국 이디스커버리 방향?

Former Google In-House Discovery Leader Says It's Important to Invest in People Before Tech

구글이 2010년 전까지만 해도 이디스커버리에 엄청난 돈을 쓰고 있었다. 한건에 100억 넘게 디스커버리 벤더에 지불하기도 했다. 그렇다고 퀄리티가 좋았던 것도 아니었다. 그래서 내부에 인원을 두기 시작했다. 열정으로 뭉친 3명으로 시작했다. 작년에 이팀은 90명 가까이 성장했고 전체 디스커버리 비용의 80프로를 감절약하고 있다. 

한국의 이디스커버리가 이렇게 까지 하기엔 케이스가 많지 않다. 하지만 디스커버리 건수가 일년에 10건만 넘더라도, (당연히 대기업이 되겠지) 내부에 인원을 두는게 비용절감 효과와 고퀄리티를 거둘수 있다. 이젠 이디스커버리를 직접 하느냐 벤더가 하느냐 따위의 논란은 없다. 그냥 원고로서 피고로서 이디스커버리 할 능력이 되면 하면 되는거다. 굳이 뭘했는지도 모를 서비스에 높은 비용을 지불할 필요가 없는것이다.   

Google’s former director of legal, discovery and litigation support, Pamela Davis said that her former department was “like ‘Fight Club’” when she was there—people couldn’t talk about what they were doing.

But when she spoke at the Summit on Legal Innovation and Disruption Thursday in San Francisco, Davis opened up about her former department’s growth during her almost eight years there.

When Davis joined Mountain View-based Google’s discovery team in 2010, she said it was small and inefficient, sometimes spending over $10 million on one case, without getting great quality in return from outside service providers. She knew there was a better way to invest that money, and began putting resources into hiring more in-house lawyers at Google with a deep passion for discovery.

“For me, technology is really, super important, AI is a game changer, but none of that really works without the people,” she said.

When she joined Google, she had a team of only three people, a number that eventually grew astronomically under her leadership, in part due to her mission to find lawyers passionate about discovery work in-house.

“When I came to Google my hypothesis was, what would happen if you really invested in the people?” she said. “And then I went out and found those people.”

The people Davis hired were “excited about discovery and wanted to make it a career,” and Google became a place where that career path was a possibility, she said. She trained lawyers, paralegals and other in-house staff with a passion for discovery and gave them in-house responsibilities as part of the team.

“Really the key, the thing that made it all successful was the people, and I’m quite proud of that,” she said. “We were able to make a career in this business. That I love, and I’m very proud of that.”

Davis said her investment in other passionate people paid off. When she left last year, Davis noted that the discovery team had grown to just under 90 people and was saving Google more than 80 percent of its discovery costs.

“We had turned discovery from a weakness to a strength,” she said.