I sat in on a terrific discussion last week related to the current landscape of remote review security in the Cowen Café, conducted by The Cowen Group!

As many of you probably know, remote review security refers to the measures taken to protect sensitive data during document review when reviewers are working remotely – a trend which rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you didn’t know, you do now! 😉

The discussion was moderated (as always) by David Cowen, President of The Cowen Group with three expert panelists: Carrie Betts, Staff Attorney Manager from Covington & Burling; Nick Robinson, Global Director, Legal Solutions from Session Guardian, and Eric Arnold, National Managing Director, Client Relations from Hire Counsel. Cowen guided the interactive discussion through a variety of topics related to remote review security, including implementation, types of security features deployed, challenges of adoption, and how remote review and AI technology are impacting review rates and staffing. Some of the highlights of the discussion included:

The Rise in Remote Review and its Impact on Review Security

When the pandemic first hit, Betts said that while they “had an issue immediately” of how to manage the remote review while protecting against data loss, Covington & Burling has “always taken kind of a belt and suspenders approach to security in our document reviews”, citing Covington’s use of Session Guardian to enable them to “control what the reviewers are able to access database-wise, email-wise, team chat-wise” in protecting their data.

Types of Security Features Deployed and When

Security measures deployed for remote review projects can include everything from secure login protocols to IP address tracking, to restrictions on accessing certain websites and applications and even facial recognition or continuous webcam monitoring! Arnold noted that “the projects that are asking for continuous monitoring through a webcam are outliers”. Robinson agreed, stating: “Not everything you do or I do day to day requires this technology”, but added that review projects involving highly sensitive content like source code warrant that level of security.

Addressing Challenges to Adoption

Adoption – by both the client and the reviewers – is one challenge when it comes to remote review security. Robinson noted that “you need people to be familiar and comfortable with how that technology is going to be deployed and how they’re going to use it”, so “the typical challenges of getting implemented quickly, deployed efficiently, and then user onboarding is where we have to focus our time in the beginning.”

I asked the panelists how they “sell” the reviewers on the need for the security mechanisms and being tracked. Robinson said: “This is the battle I have every day”, but added “it can literally be 15 to 20 minutes just with them to explain how this technology is going to operate, that it’s truly non-invasive” with biometric comparison checks being deleted right after they’re conducted.

Arnold added that relating the biometric check to “a face ID to get into your bank app on your phone” link to the “commonality of what’s becoming normal in people’s personal lives” and the fact that it’s a contractual agreement with clients tends to address most concerns. Still, he said that “occasionally, we do have folks who choose to then not participate in that project because they don’t want that level of what they feel is invasion”.

Betts added that “paying people a little bit more to have them take those extra security steps has also been helpful”.

Priority of Remote Review Security

The Cowen Group issued a poll twice – at the beginning and again at the end of the discussion, asking the group of 40+ attendees whether remote review security was a high, mid-level or low priority:

• At the beginning of the discussion, 60% of the attendees found remote review security to be a high priority, while 17% found it to be a low priority.
• At the end of the discussion, those finding it to be a high priority rose to 66%, while those finding it to be a low priority dropped almost in half to 9%.

Clearly, the discussion had an impact on the attendees’ perception of the importance of remote review security.

The Impact of AI on Remote Review and Security

Of course, as you might expect, the topic of the AI impact on remote review came up. Cowen asked the question: “Is talent going to need to level up? And are you and your clients willing to pay more for that leveled up talent?”

Betts stated: “I think we can afford to pay people more because we won’t be paying 150 contractors anymore. We’ll be paying 25 instead. So, we’ll be reducing costs and increasing accuracy.”

Arnold concurred, stating: “I think we are going to see a level up in in talent. And I think along with that, the industry is going to realize and accept that higher level talent comes a higher level price.”

Robinson added that “the next generation coming through will be very familiar in their day-to-day lives of using tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, because they’re going to be so deeply embedded in their daily life experience of how they interact with tools”.

And Cowen noted: “You’ve heard Abby (Rosenbloom, Senior VP Sales & Events at The Cowen Group) and I say this before, that there will be 20,000 new roles in the legal space. Those roles are not low-level roles. Those are higher-level roles. So, I can’t think of a better place at a better time that we’ve ever been in than today.”

Upcoming Events for The Cowen Group

The Cowen Café is a weekly event, every Thursday at 1pm ET. Next week, the topic is Effective Prompts for Legal Tasks and Law Departments, and you can RSVP to attend here. All the upcoming Cowen Café events for the rest of 2024 are available to check out (and register) here. The Cowen Group also has two webinars coming up: 1) Legal Data Intelligence on October 30th, and 2) The Impact of Handheld Devices on your Organization’s eDiscovery Process on November 13th. You can register for those here.

So, what do you think? What’s the current landscape of remote review security in your organization? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.