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Making a small team function like a big one at Plunkett Cooney
- Law Firms
Andrea Barragan, Litigation Support Coordinator with Plunkett Cooney, is part of a two-person team in a demanding legal environment. Cases for document review and production often arrive with little notice and strict deadlines. “It’s a lot of triaging,” Barragan says. “A lot of asking, ‘What needs to happen and how can we get this done in the timeframe they’re asking for?’”
Epiq Managed Services is an integral part of making the firm’s process work. “We have a team behind us,” Barragan explains. “If my co-worker and I run into an issue with a workspace or an issue with documents, we’ve got the whole Epiq team at our disposal that we can reach out to. And we’re hearing back from them usually within 10 or 15 minutes. If it’s something they don’t have an answer for, they’re saying, ‘Hey, We’re going to look into this.’”
If we’re feeling stuck, or if we’re overloaded, we rely on Epiq to step in and take care of the matters we can’t handle.
Dependable resources on call
Knowing she has resources on call saves Barragan’s staff time and frayed nerves. “We’re not having to go through and figure things out and search for available resources,” she explains. “That in itself provides a lot of value.”
With Epiq, she also has almost unlimited ability to scale, despite her small team. “As an example,” Barragan recalls, “we just had to scale up because we got a surprise—almost 700 gigabytes of data for which I didn’t have space. I emailed Epiq and by that weekend, they were adding the space into our environment. They didn’t say they were going to need three or four days to spin this up. I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m dropping this on you on a Friday at three o’clock, but it just got dropped in my lap, and this is really hot,’ and they were on it.”
Epiq doesn’t only step in if there’s an emergency. Barragan considers them a natural extension of her team. “If we’re feeling stuck, or if we’re overloaded, we rely on Epiq to step in and take care of the matters we can’t handle. I think it’s just their overall dependability. It keeps my stress levels down just knowing if something comes up at the last-minute, I’ve got a whole team that’s going to be responsive to what I need in a really timely manner.”
Knowledge on-call that’s cost-effective
The firm uses Relativity for document review and productions. Barragan considers it the gold standard but realizes there are program functions and intricacies that she simply hasn’t the bandwidth to master. “For some of the complex functions that can be run in Relativity, we just don’t see enough cases to become fluent in them,” she explains. “There are things that we are not 100% familiar or comfortable with. So, it’s great to have that Epiq expertise on call and say, 'Hey, we’ve never done this process from start to finish, and need some guidance.’ What’s also great is that we’re able to learn from them as they’re helping us.”
Always searching for the best support, Plunkett Cooney regularly evaluates other vendors. “What we’re getting is a steal for what I see other vendors charging for the amount of data that we use,” Barragan states. Other vendors may boast that user licenses are rolled into the price, but she discovers the price will be 4x or 5x more than Epiq. “There’s a huge difference,” she says.
There are things that we are not 100% familiar or comfortable with. So, it’s great to have that Epiq expertise on call...
A solid relationship
Familiarity, consistency, dependability are foundational pillars of Plunkett Cooney’s relationship with Epiq. “I know people have come and gone during our seven-year relationship,” Barragan says, “but our main contacts have been very consistent. And that right there speaks volumes. The stability with that team indicates that the employees are valued and recognized for the skill sets that they bring.”
Price is always a consideration in choosing a vendor, but for Barragan, the relationship with Epiq goes beyond that. “We’re getting good value,” she concludes, “but it’s really about this team we’ve been working with. They know how we operate, and we know what to expect from them. The relationship is solid, and it’s something we can count on.”
We’re getting good value, but it’s really about this team we’ve been working with. They know how we operate, and we know what to expect from them. The relationship is solid, and it’s something we can count on.
