FCPA review team uses Catalyst Consulting for search, analytics and review strategy

An AmLaw 10 firm asked Catalyst to assist with a high-stakes FCPA investigation. "Drives are being flown in from Russia, Spain, Brazil, China and several other countries," our client explained. "We need these files loaded, analyzed and reviewed in less than two months," he added. "Can you meet the plane to pick up the drive being hand-delivered from Brazil?"

Like many FCPA investigations, this one involved emails, spreadsheets, Word files and other documents in a number of different languages, more than 25 at final count. While the law firm had bilingual attorneys on staff, they did not have people who could cover all of the possible languages. Because of secrecy concerns, the client did not want to bring in outside reviewers.

Step 1: Identify and Search the Multi-Language Documents.

The first step was to identify which documents were written in languages other than English. As part of the loading and indexing process, Catalyst CR automatically queries documents for primary and secondary languages. That information is loaded into separate fields allowing users to query and build review workflow based on language characteristics.

While extremely useful, automated language detection isn't perfect. Catalyst Consulting has developed search strategies designed to help better identify documents in different languages. In this case we supplemented automated language identification with targeted searches.

Once we could identify the different languages involved, the next step was to develop comprehensive searches to cover all the possibilities. Effective multi-language searching is a tricky process. You can't just translate the search into another language and expect it to be effective. Catalyst Consulting worked with the client and people fluent in the specific languages to develop search strategies for the investigation.

Step 2: Machine Translation

The next step was to translate documents retrieved from the searches. The client had first-level reviewers who spoke English, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Documents retrieved with text in other languages were sent out for machine (computer-assisted) translation. Examples include Chinese, Portuguese, French, Japanese and Korean.

Although Catalyst offers translation on the fly for more than 32 languages, the team chose to use bulk translation. With well over a million documents as candidates for translation, bulk translation offered a quicker and cheaper alternative. As received, translations were uploaded to the site and linked to the native-language originals. That allowed reviewers to easily move back and forth between the two. Where necessary, users could search against the English translation as well as the native.

This practical approach saved the client millions of dollars. While machine translation does not yet match the fidelity of human translation, it proved adequate for its purpose, allowing reviewers to gain a general understanding of content and to distinguish between relevant and not. Relevant documents could be moved on in the workflow chain for further scrutiny and hand translation if necessary.

Step 3: First Level Review

Documents identified through the searches were batched and assigned to reviewers using Catalyst's review workflow module. The module allows reviewers to tag documents in a variety of ways and to create and use multi-tag macros for faster throughput. It also allowed them to tag documents for which the language was improperly identified or that contained multiple languages that needed additional review. Ultimately, documents were marked Relevant and at a higher level, Hot.

Step 4: Second Level Review

Second-level reviewers focused on documents marked Relevant and Hot. These were more senior attorneys who were extremely knowledgeable about the issues at the heart of the investigation. Their job was to review the Relevant documents and escalate appropriate ones to the Hot category. They also could add comments relating to the investigation and tag documents by issues and potential witnesses.

This was a two-step process. Documents marked as candidates for Hot were sent out for hand translation. These would be used during the investigation and given to witnesses for comments. The partners doing the questioning did not speak the languages and needed the highest-possible fidelity for the translations.

Step 5: Witness Interviews and Completion of the Investigation

Ultimately, documents marked Hot were batched and placed in notebooks along with their translations. With Catalyst CR, both could easily be downloaded in batches for printing.

Partners took these documents on long overseas flights to prepare for their interviews. The originals and their translations could be shown to the witnesses. The investigation and analysis could move forward effectively and efficiently.

Four million documents passed through this system. The fact that many were in languages other than English could have proven a debilitating problem, but not for this team. Foreign languages can be managed if you have the right team and tools to handle the project.

The Catalyst Advantage: Premier Multi-Language Repository Backed by Sophisticated Experts from Catalyst Consulting

As document populations increase, clients and counsel are increasingly turning to repository companies who can supplement their technology with multi-language capabilities and expertise. The Catalyst Consulting team includes certified search experts with many years of experience in dealing with foreign language issues. They are also backed by a worldwide network of language experts who can assist the team on a moment's notice. That's one of the many Catalyst advantages.

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