Find Only Internal Communication

IN THIS ARTICLE

Use Name Normalization output and the functions field in People Profiles to identify communication in your data population that only includes internal client communicators, such as employees of the client organization or in-house counsel.

Set up functions

Functions help identify whether communicators in a data population belong to the client organization, In-house Counsel, Outside Counsel, or represent another 3rd party function. Use MA's Name Normalization analysis algorithm to auto-assign functions based on an email domain. For example, to find all internal communicators, assign the function of "Client" to all email domain(s) that correspond to the client organization in the Name Normalization set run. After a run, refine functions using Bulk or individual update under Entity Profiles > People Profiles. 

Creating a Saved Search to target internal communicators

Once you have assigned functions to your entity profiles, identifying email communication that only contains internal Functions, such as the Client or In-House Counsel can be accomplished with a simple saved search in Relativity. Given that MA is able to identify email participants at a top message level, at a full email level, and at a full thread level, there are multiple options for identifying internal-only communications. Each option is profiled below:

Internal-only communicators at the top message level 

To identify where internal-only communicators are at the top message level, you can utilize the MA field MA Normalized Email Participants (Top Level).  This field will contain all normalized email participants from the From, To, CC, and BCC fields in the top header of the email message.  This field only looks at the top message. There may be non-internal email communicators in sub-headers of the message.  To create a search, you will use a "not these conditions" operator to start your saved search and then add conditions for the MA Normalized Email Participants (Top Level)::Function Name values that you do not wish to appear in your result set (i.e. Outside Counsel, Third party) with an OR condition for where MA Normalized Email Participants (Top Level)::Function Name = "is not set", which accounts for excluding people for which Functions have not been assigned. 

Saved Search Criteria:

  • not these conditions
  • MA Normalized Email Participants (Top Level)::Function Name is "any of these" = Non-Internal Functions
  • OR
  • MA Normalized Email Participants (Top Level)::Function Name "is not set"

Internal-only communicators throughout emails

To identify where internal-only communicators throughout the entirety of the email (top and sub-message headers), you can utilize the MA field MA Normalized Email Participants (All).  This field will contain all normalized email participants from the From, To, CC, and BCC fields in all headers of the email message.  To create a search, you will use a "not these conditions" operator to start your saved search and then add conditions for the MA Normalized Email Participants (All)::Function Name values that you do not wish to appear in your result set (i.e. Outside Counsel, Third party) with an OR condition for where MA Normalized Email Participants (Top Level)::Function Name = "is not set", which accounts for excluding people for which Functions have not been assigned.

Saved Search Criteria:

  • not these conditions
  • MA Normalized Email Participants (All)::Function Name is "any of these" = Non-Internal Functions
  • OR
  • MA Normalized Email Participants (All)::Function Name "is not set"

Internal-only communicators throughout email thread

To identify where internal-only communicators are throughout the entirety of the email thread, you must have run Email Threading with the option to generate a new field labeled "MA Thread Network" toggled on.  This will create a new field associated with your email thread set labeled MA_<ETGroup>_Thread Network.  This field will contain the normalized name values of every participant in an email document and every email participant that will ever appear elsewhere in the email thread.  This is considered a "thread network" and can be helpful for identifying conversations that never expanded beyond internal communicators, even in branches of communication that may have appeared after the email communication you're viewing.

MA Thread Network Option in Email Threading Set

After the MA Thread Network field has been created from your email threading set run, you can utilize the field in your search for internal communicators.  To create a search, you will use a "not these conditions" operator to start your saved search and then add conditions for the MA_<ETGroup>_Thread Network::Function Name values that you do not wish to appear in your result set (i.e. Outside Counsel, Third-party) with an OR condition for where MA_<ETGroup>_Thread Network::Function Name = "is not set", which accounts for excluding people for which Functions have not been assigned.

Saved Search Criteria:

  • not these conditions
  • MA_<ETGroup>_Thread Network::Function Name is "any of these" = Non-Internal Functions
  • OR
  • MA_<ETGroup>_Thread Network::Function Name "is not set"

Search Condition for Internal Only Communicators throughout Email Thread

Reviewing results

Once you've crafted your desired search conditions, be sure to include the ::Full Name and ::Function Name of the normalized name field you used to be displayed in your search result fields. This helps in understanding and confirming your results.

Selecting Normalized Name and Functions for Search

Viewing Results with Normalized Name and Functions Visible


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