Intellectual property
Highly effective prosecution or defense during an intellectual property dispute can hinge on an in-depth understanding of where useful electronic information could be stored and how to extract it (e.g., metadata and meta-metadata sources such as network switches, double-deleted e-mail, and arcane systems). Intense interrogation of these data can have a devastating effect during hostile depositions and trial.
Examples of our work include:
- Extracting data out of a Seibel/Oracle Sales Tracking (CRM) system - this extraction was from live sales systems without interrupting day to day operations and pulled only needed fields from more than a dozen tables - yielding immediately actionable information (instead of GB's of raw text files that would require expensive post processing and analysis by experts).
- In a trademark infringement case, Alphalitigator assisted in the deposition of opposing party IT personnel that unearthed information about a legacy Unix system. Interrogation of this system led to the successful protection of our client, the trademark owner.
- In a patent infringement case, Alphalitigator conducted a remote targeted collection of various media and analyzed a store of over 1400 backup tapes. By applying actionable intelligence prior to the Rule 26(f) conference, we were able to significantly reduce our client’s costs.
Employment
Employment litigation and multi-plaintiff wage and hour lawsuits constitute an extremely significant threat to employers in these difficult economic times. Wage and hour collective actions frequently require focused ESI identification and collection operations within/across a multitude of physical locations as well as corporate division, department, team, and individual repositories. The costs of identification and collection can be burdensome – even staggering without a coherent strategy and competent ESI consultant. Alphalitigator has significant experience with the identification, collection, preservation, culling, processing, conversion, and analysis of data in wage and hour litigation. We have the expertise and experience required to handle multi-terabyte collections across geographically dispersed sources – from the particular sources unique to these types of cases. We have successfully correlated huge amounts of data from sources such as: human resources databases time clocks, payroll, network servers, application servers, phone systems, and physical security systems to build longitudinal profiles of classes and even individuals in wage and hour litigations.
Financial Services
Players in the Financial Services industry recognize that litigation is just a part of the business landscape. Government, competitors, customers, special interests – any or all could initiate litigation at any time. The demands of the daily operation of the enterprise dictate that massive amounts of data be generated, segregated, and maintained for extended periods of time. When litigation is anticipated or has begun counsel is often tasked with understanding the inner workings of a complex, potentially global in footprint, heterogeneous computing environment and its evolution over time. This can be a monumental task requiring expertise in myriad technologies. Alphalitigator can streamline this process with a broad range of professional services including early case assessment, ESI mapping, ESI enumeration, and ESI sampling.
Examples of our work include:
- Working with a large cellular phone service provider to extract data from legacy systems in order to identify subscribers meeting the criteria for a class action lawsuit
- The inventorying, indexing, and extraction of data from hundreds of backup tapes in a cost effective and timely fashion
- In a multi-terabyte case, our team was able to defensibly reduce the data set from over 10 million documents to just a few thousand in a matter of days
The highly effective management of large-scale, multi-plaintiff product liability cases often require custom development that integrates data from disparate sources of ESI.
- In a multi-terabyte case, our team was able to defensibly collect data from hundreds of non-traditional ESI sources
- The inventorying, indexing, and extraction of actionable data in a massive case involving a major automaker
- The validation and analysis of over 24 million documents in a massive pharmaceutical litigation
Massive Litigation Management
We have deep experience managing and simplifying large, multi-location cases with heterogeneous computing environments. Information is collected, analyzed, distilled, then used to develop and substantiate case theory. We regularly work on matters involving multiple terabytes of ESI.