KPMG has been helping companies navigate the complex challenges of e-discovery projects for many years. Drawing on our extensive experience in conducting special investigations, handling compliance cases and supporting clients through disputes and regulatory proceedings, we can advise you on a wide range of decision-making matters and support you throughout the entire process.
We place the utmost importance on the quality and security of your data.
In day-to-day business operations, regulatory enquiries, legal disputes and special investigations are often unavoidable and usually arise suddenly. We support you in preparing for such situations in advance and work with you to develop a plan to deal with them effectively. This involves understanding the full range of potential data sources, retention periods and backup options.
Data structures and datasets that have evolved over time often make it difficult to handle e-discovery cases effectively. We can help you identify relevant data sources whilst ensuring that both data protection requirements and individual interests are respected.
We secure your data in a court of law, anywhere in the world. The globally distributed locations of the KPMG network enable evidence data to be secured quickly and efficiently. Our forensics experts always maintain data integrity and document the entire chain of custody. A wide variety of source media such as laptops, servers, clouds, mobile phones, etc. can therefore be recorded and fed into the e-discovery process.
Preparation takes place in a multi-stage process that includes pre-processing the backed-up data. This involves removing irrelevant technical data, such as system files, etc. In addition, initial deduplication is carried out and the data is harmonised. This also includes the conversion of documents, images and email attachments into searchable text formats (OCR). The data is then prepared for efficient review, for example by displaying consistent chat histories in the review environment
KPMG offers you the option of carrying out the review yourself, having it carried out by your lawyers or using our managed review services.
User-friendly tools
We provide you with a range of leading review and analysis software on a central platform. We support individual evaluation requirements with our own data analyses. In any case, our aim is to provide you with insights from communication, documents and data as early as possible. This enables you to make quick decisions regarding the content and cost-effectiveness of investigations. You benefit not only from increasingly effective software solutions and visualisations, but also from our accounting expertise.
Managed Review Services
We offer managed review on a 1st and 2nd level basis. We combine technology and human expertise to provide you with an economically viable and court-proof evaluation. As part of the 1st-level review, we carry out an initial classification of the data for relevant content. This review helps to significantly reduce large volumes of data and thus concentrate on the relevant facts. The 2nd level review supports you in generating a tangible condensed result based on the facts at hand. Our experts from the fields of special forensic investigations and lawyers assess each individual document.
Personnel
Our extensive experience in project management is particularly advantageous for large-scale projects. Our experienced e-discovery project managers pay particular attention to the high efficiency of (parallel) investigations, quality aspects and a balanced cost-benefit ratio. If required, we can assist with the development of discovery strategies and interfaces between external and internal stakeholders.
Early Case Assessment
We use Early Case Assessments (ECA) for early assessment and case evaluation. In the initial phase of an investigation, these provide an initial overview of the case and the associated data and pave the way for the appropriate detailed assessment. Gaps in communication and missing documents can be identified using suitable analyses. Aggregation algorithms reveal dominant topics and relationships between people. Visualisations can help to ask the right questions right at the start of the investigation and further develop investigation approaches.
Predictive Coding
The targeted use of machine learning in the e-discovery environment can help to achieve increases in effectiveness and efficiency. An "active learning" algorithm is trained to recognise and suggest potentially relevant communication and documents and support the efficient processing of complex projects. Continuous review by human analysts combines the advantages of both worlds and enables better prioritisation and shorter review times.
AI / GenAI
Innovative and cutting-edge generative AI technologies are used to make your data analysis processes more efficient through intelligent prompting and to unlock new possibilities. AI-powered e-discovery solutions based on generative AI identify complex data patterns and correlations that can be difficult for human reviewers to detect. The use of generative AI in the review process ensures consistent and efficient document review and accelerates the e-discovery process. Furthermore, AI-assisted relevance assessment facilitates the rapid identification of important documents.
In the context of legal disputes and enquiries from supervisory authorities, court-proof data exports from the review environment are usually required. KPMG has extensive experience and expertise in helping you export data in the appropriate scope and format, which can vary greatly from authority to authority. E-discovery productions require particular care, as the delivery of too much or too little data must be avoided.
We are happy to provide you with the entire technical platform for your document review. We import your data into our security-certified Forensic Data Centre (FDC) or our RelativityOne environment and make it available to the relevant parties.
Partner, Audit, Regulatory Advisory, Forensic
KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
