EDEN Standard No. 1: Information Technology Code of Conduct

The first standard presented by the Electronic Data Extraction Network (EDEN) includes 10 important rules for all IT professionals to follow.  If you missed the initial posting, check it out below.

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EDEN is the first network of its kind: we are a national community of over 135 companies in the US and Canada.  We assess e-discovery best practices and standards from a technical perspective and offer training and references for hands-on technical work.

As part of EDEN’s ongoing work towards the establishment of technical standards for professionals working in the e-discovery industry, we will be drafting and presenting proposed technical standards at the beginning of each month.

As standards are finalized, they will be made available in the Resources portal www.edenhub.com.  We invite the e-discovery community to review, debate and comment on each of EDEN’s monthly standards.

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EDEN Seeks to Establish Technical Standards for E-Discovery

By Cathy Lopez

Tune in to any electronic discovery conversation and you will hear the cry for “more standards!”

E-discovery professionals recognize the need for standards, but they struggle with the implementation. E-discovery, after all, is the intersection of two very different backgrounds: the legal profession and information technology.

Legal professionals make efforts to establish legal standards every week. Through motion practice, court orders and declarations, attorneys and judges wrestle with what is “standard” practice in e-discovery. Some examples of legal standards: How should legal holds be implemented? How often do companies have to remind employees of a legal hold?

Technical standards are very different from the legal standards. They focus on the actual technology used to preserve, collect, process and produce electronic data. The Electronic Data Extraction Network (EDEN) will be establishing technical standards for the e-discovery industry starting in early November  2009.

Some examples of technical standards: What file types are considered standard? What is the appropriate method for de-duplicating email files? When preserving electronic data from a hard drive, is it always necessary to make a bit-for-bit forensic image?

How will EDEN help answer the cry for more standards? EDEN will present one standard each month to its national network of IT professionals. As of Nov. 2, EDEN is represented by 131 companies in 43 states and Canada. The standard will be posted on the EDEN blog, Slack Space, and will be open for discussion and debate.

At the end of each month, EDEN will review the debate and, if necessary, update the standard.  The final, approved standard will be posted on www.EDENHUB.com.

We invite your questions and comments. Please use the section for commenting below to share your thoughts!

Some readers may wonder what qualifies EDEN and its parent company, Blank Law + Technology PS, to endeavor to establish technical standards for e-discovery. Fair enough. What we can say is this: BL+T has been conducting e-discovery and performing computer forensic investigations since 2001.

During those nine years, BL+T attorneys and technicians have worked on thousands of cases, large and small, that required e-discovery services. Clients have relied on  BL+T to provide quality service following industry-tested best practices.

BLT established EDEN as a national network of IT professionals who abide by tried-and-true technical standards. EDEN is a new organization that is based on a tested foundation. We don’t claim to know everything. That’s why we’re asking for input from others in the industry. Together, we think we can devise a set of standards that can make life easier for all those involved in the e-discovery process.

The first standard is the Information Technology Code of Conduct. Below is the Code of Conduct that binds all IT professionals. All EDEN members, and other practicing e-discovery technicians, should strive to abide by the Code of Conduct.

Information Technology Code of Conduct

1. Put Client’s interests and welfare above his/her own interests and act in ways that bring honor to the IT profession.
2. Provide competent service to Client.
3. Exercise objective professional judgment.
4. Know and obey law, contracts and Client’s policies.
5. Explain matters so Client can make informed decisions.
6. Respect and obey Client’s decisions and instructions.
7. Protect integrity and security of Client’s IT system.
8. Access Client’s IT system only as and to the extent expressly authorized by Client.
9. Keep system information confidential from persons that Client has not expressly authorized for disclosure.
10. Report violations of law, contract, policy or code to Client.

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Cathy Lopez is manager of client solutions at Blank Law + Technology PS. She has worked at Blank Law + Technology since early 2004, most recently as project manager on e-discovery projects. As a project manager, Ms. Lopez worked closely with clients on large and small projects involving the preservation, collection and production of electronic documents. Ms. Lopez also trained and supported legal teams using iConect and Relativity online review platforms. As manager of client solutions, she works with paralegals and litigation support professionals to provide insight to e-discovery services and best practices. Ms. Lopez also manages the Electronic Data Extraction Network (EDEN), a national community of electronic discovery and computer forensic professionals. She graduated from the University of Washington in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in communications.