eDiscovery AI Privilege Review

eDiscovery AI Privilege Review

1)      Privilege review is one of the most time intensive and important aspects of document review.  Identifying and withholding or redacting privileged documents usually requires a substantial review team, scrutinizing tens or hundreds of thousands of documents, usually hitting on a very broad search term screen of various attorney names and terms implying potential privilege. eDiscovery AI’s privilege application can review, identify privilege and draft a privilege log entry.  

 

2)      Using eDiscovery AI’s Privilege Review Application 

 

a)      To conduct a privilege review, identify the set of documents for review and follow the steps below.  

i)        Create separate fields for the following items:  

(1)   Attorney List (Long Text): 

(2)   Elements Field (Long Text) 

(3)   Log Entry Field (Long Text) 

(4)   Select the documents eligible for privilege review and use the mass action Send to eDiscovery AI

 


 

b)     In the popup window, select the “Privilege” radio button and then select the "Privilege" tab. You should see the layout below: 

c)      Note, if you do not see a popup window double check that any popup blocking feature on your browser is set to allow popups from your Relativity instance.  

 

 

d)     Fill in the information applicable to the specific privilege review.  Below are descriptions of what each section describes.  

i)        Privilege Types refers to what types of Privilege you would like eDiscovery AI to consider in its review.  There are two default options available, which only need to be checked if you wish for eDiscovery AI to identify and tag them accordingly: 

ii)      Attorney/Client will apply the eDiscovery AI Attorney Client Communication Privilege prompt to the documents  

iii)    Work Product will apply the eDiscovery AI Work Product prompt to the documents.  

iv)    Custom Priv Definition (optional) - allows a user to input a custom prompt to describe any additional Privilege protections for eDiscovery AI to review (e.g., Common Interest Privilege, Banker’s Privilege, etc.).

v)      Custom Priv Type Name (optional) - The label that will be applied to the documents in the Privilege Type field for any documents that meet the criteria described in the corresponding Custom Prompt window.  

            i)The custom prompt sections are optional and can be left blank if the privilege review will only be conducted for Attorney Client and/or Work Product.  

vii)  Privilege List - A list of attorneys or law firms which will help eDiscovery AI identify and appropriately label documents as privileged.  The more comprehensive the list is, the better the system will be at identifying privileged materials. No special formatting or terms and connectors are needed for this list. Please note that if you use generic terms such as “attorney” or “general counsel” on the privilege list, then people associated with those terms within the documents may be listed on the Attorney List Field output even if not explicitly included (e.g., “John Doe, Attorney” may result with “John Doe” being listed on the Attorney output even though he is not listed).  

viii) Safe Domains - Email domains of the client organization and law firms that would be considered “internal” and therefore would not break privilege.  It is important to identify these as documents emailed or forwarded outside of this scope can be considered for the exception “Communication Breaking Privilege.”  

ix)    Attorney List Field - A user created field where a list of all attorney names found in a document will be generated.  

x)    Elements Field.  If you use the default Attorney Client and Work Product prompts, a document may be flagged as privileged, and will include one or more affirmatively identified corresponding elements of privilege. Not all elements of privilege are necessary for the document to be flagged as privileged, and as such if any are missing, it could be a flag a document may need redaction or no longer be privileged.  The elements for Attorney Client privilege are:  

1.      Attorney Client Communication. If the document is to or from an attorney on the Attorney List.  

2.      Confidential Communication. If the document stays contained within the Safe Domains list.   

3.      Legal Advice. If the document relates to the offering, providing or accepting of legal advice.  “Legal advice” is considered broadly in these terms.  

For Work Product Privilege:  

(4) Anticipation of Litigation.  If the document was created or prepared in anticipation of litigation.  

                                         xi. Log Entry Field is the eDiscovery AI summary and interpretation of the document, identifying why it is privileged, written in a way that can be used for potential privilege logs. Note that the log entries should be considered drafts, and still reviewed by an attorney for any necessary edits.

e)      Once all of the above items are entered, click “OK” in the bottom left corner of the entry window to submit the documents to eDiscovery AI for privilege review.  

 

 

3)       Once eDiscovery AI completes its analysis and populates the fields identified, you should see and be able to use the results in the same way as any other field in Relativity such as searching and exporting for a privilege log.  

 

 

 

4)      Important Considerations 

a)      a.      While eDiscovery AI is incredibly effective, it’s still recommended that attorneys conduct QC on the results. Some QC steps to consider:   

                                           i. Any document lacking any respective privilege elements should be considered for QC and manual review.  It is likely that some of these may require redaction or are no longer privileged; that decision should come from the attorney, not the AI model.  

                                          ii. A percentage of documents hitting on various terms or names should be considered for sampling and review. If something is consistently categorized incorrectly, you may want to search on all such documents or revise prompt instructions.   

                                        iii. Priv Log Entries should be reviewed for grammar, context and quality, and edits made accordingly.   

                                        iv. If results are consistently overinclusive or underinclusive, please advise your provider and the possibility of either narrowing or broadening the prompts respectively.  

b.     Privilege checks are always an important part of any review and production process.  It is recommended that conducting an eDiscovery AI sweep across your potential production set to ensure no privileged documents are disclosed is a sound best practice and good QC check for your production processes.