Overview
Saunders Walsh & Beard, a Texas-based multi-practice and litigation firm is committed to providing superior legal services, and always providing clients with the most professional, effective and cost-efficient representation. Partner Mark Walsh has extensive experience in construction and business disputes, commercial contract drafting and litigation, partner/shareholder dispute litigation, and governmental entity representation. And given his practice areas, he is often mired in time-consuming deposition work. His paralegal Carly McCall is the go-to support for attorneys across the firm, and is responsible for managing the heavy load of deposition preparations across all of its cases. In an effort to lighten the burden of depositions and free up time for higher value work, Carly began to pursue more efficient and modern ways of approaching her paralegal responsibilities.
Problem
Working primarily on commercial litigation matters, Carly manages an average of two depositions a week, with numerous participants for each. Using the traditional paper-based process, Carly would spend hours compiling paper files for the attorneys to review, and marking the subset – anywhere from 10 to 100 documents – they would use for a deposition. Then, up to a day’s worth of time would be spent standing at the copy machine and organizing the paper documents in boxes for the attorney to lug to the deposition. This labor- and time-intensive process seemed counter-intuitive considering all other areas of law practice are shifting to more efficient approaches through technology. Even after the firm started scanning in all of its files for digital access, Carly would still need to print hundreds of hard copies each week for depositions.
Saunders Walsh & Beard faced the following deposition related challenges:
• Organizing, printing and transporting up to hundreds of documents each week for various matters
• Burden of all preparations firm-wide rested on one paralegal
• Excessive time spent on printing, limiting paralegal’s ability to focus on higher value activities
Solution
Looking to the firm’s preferred court reporter, DTI, Carly began to explore options for alleviating some of the burden of deposition preparation. Because the firm had already attempted to become as paper-free as possible, DTI’s introduction of eDepoze came as a relief and common sense solution to Carly’s challenges. When she brought Mark into the loop, he was eager to try out the platform.
eDepoze delivered the following solutions to Saunders, Walsh & Beard:
• Availability for deployment through DTI, which could offer experience using eDepoze and credibility as one of the firm’s existing trusted vendors
• Straightforward training session and easy-to-use interface allowed Carly and Mark to begin using the system and implementing workflows quickly
• Intuitive process for uploading the documents, organizing exhibits and preparing the deposition for attorneys
• The software’s accessibility and flexibility have allowed for adoption by other attorneys at the firm, and zero resistance from opposing counsel
• Eliminates printing from the deposition process, enabling easier preparations and time and cost savings
Benefits
Mark began using eDepoze right away and had already implemented it on numerous depositions within the first few weeks of becoming trained on the software. Carly was up and running in no time, and found the platform to be clean and simple to use. eDepoze has transformed the way she performs her deposition related job functions and has freed up a significant amount of time for higher value work.
Specific benefits eDepoze has delivered include:
• Elimination of paper copies – and excessive waste – from the deposition process, saving time, effort and money for the firm and its clients
• Reduction of redundant work when exhibits are reused for numerous depositions, allowing Carly to skip the step of recreating the document over and over again
• Quicker turnaround and convenience – Carly can access exhibits directly from eDepoze (versus going through the court reporter) when documents must be marked following a deposition
• Easy to use interface and time savings of more than 50 percent for deposition preparation, allowing Carly to focus her energies on higher value work and ongoing needs of numerous cases