Everlaw Launches Legal Holds to Make Litigation and Investigation Work Easier

CLOC GLOBAL INSTITUTE-- Everlaw today announced new Legal Holds capabilities that control cost and risk by centralizing discovery and legal holds in one place, allowing legal teams to easily stay on top of legal holds and quickly discover insights within Everlaw's litigation and investigation software solution.

Large companies in the US alone spent $23B on litigation in 2021 and that keeps rising. The legal obligation to preserve data arises as soon as a party reasonably anticipates litigation, or is put on notice of an investigation or legal action. Larger companies often have thousands of employees on multiple holds at once. Failure to properly preserve business communications can result in fines or sanctions. Yet, manual, error-prone tools are prevalent: 51% of corporations use email and 35% use spreadsheets to manage legal holds (ACC/Everlaw).

Everlaw Legal Holds is part of the Everlaw platform, offered at no extra cost. It allows users to keep legal work, from holds and document review to case strategy, in one highly secure place. Everlaw Legal Holds helps data custodians issuers face challenges of frequent updates to custodian information, departure of active custodians, complex reporting needs, and lack of knowledge about how different departments store their data. It includes a hold notification and custodian response tracking system. Holds are stored, created, and managed in individual databases, intrinsically tying each hold to the rest of the EDRM workflow on Everlaw.

Everlaw has been ranked in the top Easiest To Use Legal Hold Software by G2.

Everlaw Legal Holds includes: dynamic directory, and org administration ? management center. Here are the new capabilities announced today:

• Preservation in place: Everlaw Legal Holds allows legal teams to prevent specific M365 user data or content from being deleted or altered.
• Microsoft Entra ID integration (formerly Active Directory): Everlaw Legal Holds integrates with Microsoft data preservations, allowing users to place holds on active data via the Microsoft Compliance Center, and Microsoft directory integration. This enables users to automatically update their employee directories on Everlaw by syncing with Microsoft Entra ID.

"While pre-litigation tends to be underappreciated, solid data-retention practices ? including legal holds ? serve as a first step for successful conflict resolution," said AJ Shankar, founder and CEO of Everlaw. "Moreover, a secure digital platform to manage the entire lifecycle of litigation and investigation emerges as a must-have for GCs."

"As legal departments shift to an all-in-one approach they can deliver on some of corporate counsel's top mandates of controlling costs, driving efficiencies and mitigating risk in order to grow the business," said Ryan O'Leary, research director at IDC. "From legal holds to discovery integrated with the latest Gen AI technology, I'm impressed by how Everlaw helps corporations future-proof their legaltech investment."

Everlaw will spotlight its Legal Holds capabilities at the 2024 CLOC Global Institute at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, May 6-9 at Booth #115.

To learn more about legal holds, read our blog, "How to Handle Legal Holds and Ediscovery More Strategically In-House."

About Everlaw

Everlaw helps legal teams navigate the increasingly complex ediscovery landscape to chart a straighter path to the truth. Trusted by Fortune 100 corporate counsel, 91 of the Am Law 200, and all 50 state attorneys general, Everlaw's combination of intuitive experience, advanced technology, and partnership with customers empowers organizations to tackle the most pressing technological challenges?and transform their approach to discovery and litigation in the process. Founded in 2010 and based in Oakland, Calif., Everlaw is funded by top-tier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, HIG Growth Partners, K9 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and TPG Growth. Follow us on LinkedIn.