Leveraging Easy-to-Use Ediscovery Software to Deliver High-Quality Legal Work
Their Story
Loopstra Nixon is a leading Canadian business and public law firm that represents and works with clients on a wide range of cases. This includes but is not limited to litigation and dispute resolution, municipal and land use planning and development, commercial real estate, and business and finance. The Canadian law firm’s clients span across various industries and countries, from financial institutions, insurance companies, municipal governments, real estate developers to individuals.
With Loopstra Nixon representing various types of clients on complex cases, they were looking to become more tech-forward and leverage an advanced cloud-based ediscovery solution that would enhance their ability to craft compelling case narratives. The law firm has focused on leveraging technology that made it easier to get started quickly, provide top-notch legal work, and manage costs efficiently.
Their Challenge
Due to the broad and varied clientele and their cases, Loopstra Nixon encountered obstacles that made it challenging to scale efficiently and manage resources accordingly. Specifically, the law firm was looking for an ediscovery solution that would help:
Ease the complexity of legal technology. Loopstra Nixon had worked with partners with complicated programs that would recommend hiring third-party vendors for their software. This inherently would require the team to receive additional training and hire more people dedicated to managing this work. Many of the legal professionals on staff had various levels of experience and comfort with new technology, making it incredibly difficult to find a solution that was powerful enough to handle complex cases but easy to use for their entire team.
The number one problem that we were having was the ease of use. A lot of these different programs were really, really complicated. We wanted something that we could all use, and it didn’t matter how much experience you had with computers or how old you were.”
Lower costs overall. As a result of the growing complexity, operating costs became a factor. Many of these programs were very expensive, and the team didn’t want to take on the additional expense of a third-party vendor. Additionally, working with these complex solutions would lead to longer-than-desired workflows leading to increased client costs.
Handle high volumes of different types of data. As noted by Amy Caira, Loopstra Nixon’s law clerk, the law firm scaled their operations and took on larger clients and cases. As a result, the amount of data they needed to sift through grew exponentially: “When I first started, affidavits would be around 100 documents. Now, these claims are getting bigger, and we’re a bigger firm with much bigger clients. Suddenly the volume of documents is 10,000 — even up to 100,000,” said Caira. Additionally, new technology and digital communication channels made it tedious to upload and transcribe relevant information and testimonies, all the while making sure to keep the metadata intact.
The Everlaw Solution
Loopstra Nixon was diligent in their search for the right partner. They were involved in a major construction case in Northern Ontario, and the opposing counsel was using an ediscovery platform. Loopstra Nixon would have to adopt it to move ahead with the case; however, after extensive training, it became clear that it would be too difficult for them to use.
From there, they moved on to another solution and found themselves in precisely the same situation: “We spent three days in a boardroom, trying to learn how to use this previous software solution, and even when we went back to our desk to try to actually use it, it just wouldn’t take,” said Caira. The team saw the increased adoption of ediscovery software within the legal industry and knew they had to find the right solution to stay up to date.
Loopstra Nixon formed a committee that researched eight different ediscovery solutions and was immediately drawn to Everlaw for their combination of ease of use, cloud-based technology, and superb customer service.
Everlaw by far stood out for us as the leader in what was a group of really awkward solutions.”
The Canadian law firm found great value in a variety of Everlaw’s features and functions, including:
Creating and sharing binders. Given the number of collaborators on each case, sharing files securely was a top priority. Using the Everlaw platform, the team has been able to group documents within specific binders and share relevant sets of files with other collaborators. For reference, Loopstra Nixon has data organized into binders within their largest database. The ability to store and organize this amount of data into a single binder has made it much easier for the team to search, review, and protect their clients’ data.
Seamless migration and onboarding. The Everlaw Customer Success and Data Migrations team worked with Loopstra Nixon to determine specific data needs and challenges. Everlaw’s two-step process helped the law firm migrate two databases from their previous ediscovery software in just days — helping the team reduce the time required to get data live on the platform and ready to review.
Fast, simple uploads. One of the biggest trends the legal industry has seen has been the increase of relevant data and information on digital platforms. Loopstra Nixon was able to upload a wide variety of file types — like texts and Whatsapp files with their metadata intact — directly to the Everlaw platform, avoiding the need to take screenshots or rely on any other manual workarounds. Loopstra Nixon was also able to give their clients direct access to the database to upload data quickly and independently — at no additional costs (Everlaw does not charge for user licenses). This enabled these clients to cull their own data and avoid having to sift through an over broad dataset.
Remote depositions. With almost the entirety of their workforce relegated to remote work, Loopstra Nixon effectively leveraged Everlaw’s deposition capabilities. The multiple functions within the platform helped them prepare for, conduct, summarize, and review their depositions — all from the comfort of their pajamas.
Build compelling case narratives. Previous to Everlaw, Loopstra Nixon didn’t have a purpose-built solution for crafting case narratives. Everlaw’s Storybuilder delivers that solution by helping them construct case narratives and timelines auto-linking to the most critical parts of deposition testimony, exhibits, and other key documents to prepare arguments for litigation. Additionally, the collaborative features of Storybuilder allow multiple lawyers or paralegals to work in the same document simultaneously.
Results
The combination of Everlaw’s advanced features with the easy-to-use, cloud-native platform allowed Loopstra Nixon to create more efficient workflows for their legal teams, saving time and costs. By partnering with Everlaw, Loopstra Nixon provided their clients with the high-quality support they expected while reducing the complexity of their day-to-day work and easing the workloads of their internal teams as a whole.
Every single time, no one has left us hanging. Things are resolved quickly, and the customer service is beyond anything we have ever experienced before. Everlaw makes us feel like [we are] the only place that uses them — and I know we’re not! Everyone always makes you feel like you’re their number one priority.”