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Tuesday’s ILTACON 2016 Sessions: eDiscovery Trends

As noted yesterday, the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) annual educational conference of 2016 (otherwise known as ILTACON) is happening this week and eDiscovery Daily will be reporting this week about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  There’s still time to check out the show at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center if you’re in the Washington/Baltimore area with a number of sessions available and over 195(!) exhibitors providing information on their products and services.

Perform a “find” on today’s ILTACON conference schedule for “discovery”, “litigation support” or “information governance” and you’ll get at least 3 sessions with hits.  So, there is plenty to talk about!  Sessions in the main conference tracks include:

8:30 AM – 10:00 AM:

Understanding Client Systems for Better Collaboration During Litigation: A panel of in-house e-discovery leaders and outside technology consultants will share challenges they have faced when preserving and collecting data from corporate technology systems during litigation. Learn what in-house leaders wish their outside counsel knew about the technology their companies use and gain a better understanding of common technology systems that need to be considered during litigation data preservation and collection.

Speakers include: Glenn O’Brien, E-Discovery Manager Liberty Mutual Insurance Company; John Thompson, Sr. Manager – Litigation Support/Legal Operations Sanofi; John Goff, Manager of Information & Electronic Records PulteGroup; Mike Alsup, Chairman Gimmal LLC; Johnny Lee, Principal – Forensic Advisory Services.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM:

Preparing an ROI for eDiscovery Services: A Litigation Technology Operations Workshop: In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants will create a simulated return on investment (ROI) analysis for e-discovery services. This collaborative exercise will highlight several different approaches to a project and expose clues to reaching your firm’s ROI goals.

Speakers include: Mary Pat Poteet, Managing Consultant; Sheila Mackay, Vice President Xerox Legal Business Services; Bret Libigs, Enterprise Accounts Relativity by kCura.

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM:

The Lean, Mean E-Discovery Machine: Project Management in Litigation Support: Everyone talks about project management (PM), but do litigation and practice support technologists truly know why and how it is beneficial in e-discovery? Do specific deliverables and quality check points matter, or is project management an ad hoc exercise? Three high-level e-discovery strategists will examine aspects of the business side of e-discovery, such as estimating and budgeting, and offer insight into how to measure your PM maturity, the success of your e-discovery projects, and the specific processes and workflows that have yielded successful outcomes. Learn what works — and what doesn’t — when implementing a project management program while striving to manage change in e-discovery.

Speakers include: Michael Quartararo, Director of Litigation Support Services Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; Dera Jardine Nevin, Director of eDiscovery Proskauer Rose LLP; Daryl Shetterly, Director, DRS Operations Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

So, what do you think?  Are you planning to attend ILTACON this year?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Time is running out to participate in the quarterly eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey being conducted by Complex Discovery and ACEDS!  It’s a simple nine question survey that literally takes about a minute to complete.  The more respondents there are, the more useful the results will be!  Click here to take the survey yourself.  Deadline is August 31.  Don’t forget!

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Welcome to ILTACON 2016: eDiscovery Trends

The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) annual educational conference of 2016 (known as ILTACON) kicked off yesterday with several networking events, and begins in earnest today with the first day of sessions.  eDiscovery Daily will be reporting this week about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  Over the next four days, we will provide a description each day of some of the sessions related to eDiscovery to give you a sense of the topics being covered.

If you’re in the Washington/Baltimore area, come check out the show at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center – there are a number of sessions available and over 195(!) exhibitors providing information on their products and services.  Perform a “find” on today’s ILTACON conference schedule for “discovery”, “litigation support” or “information governance” and you’ll get at least 4 sessions with hits.  So, there is plenty to talk about!  Sessions in the main conference tracks include:

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM:

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Amendments and Their Effect on Litigation Support Strategies: Significant amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure became effective on December 1, 2015. How have courts interpreted and applied these new changes? Do the amendments provide the basis for corporations to change their approaches to the preservation, collection, review and production of electronically stored information? If so, have they actually changed? What opportunities do the amended rules provide for litigation support departments to educate and consult with clients and drive their e-discovery strategies? Join a panel of experts to learn more about these recent developments.

Speakers include: Eric Lieber, Director of Legal Operations & Litigation Support Toyota Motor Sales; Honorable Andrew J Peck, US Magistrate Judge of New York and Rodney Holaday, Partner Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP.

Information Governance: Regulating Data Privacy Within and Beyond Borders: What are the recent changes to the EU data protection rules, and how do they affect your firm? Large and small, all firms need to know what the changes mean for their business and their clients.

Speakers include: Johan T. Widjaja, Assistant Director Information Governance Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, L.L.P.; John Christian Montana, Principal Montana & Associates; Chris Gallagher, Senior Vice President, National Discovery Solutions & LPO Services Special Counsel.

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM:

Information Governance Best Practices: Building More Than a Great Wall (Corporate Legal Day): ILTA corporate law department members have identified the top aspects of having an integrated information governance (IG) program. The program should value business information as company assets; employ physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect and manage information assets; educate and train personnel; and use metrics to measure and improve performance. Why do so many organizations not have an IG program? It all comes down to perceived cost, and we’re here to squelch the rumors.

Registration is exclusive to ILTA law department and legal operations staff. You must register for either the full ILTACON 2016 event or the ILTACON 2016 Monday Day Pass AND the free Corporate Legal Day.

Speakers include: Kevin Behan, Director, eDiscovery Health Care Service Corporation; Theodore Spurlock, Technology Manager PNC Bank Legal Department; Mike Ferrara, Senior Manager Duff & Phelps, LLC; Ronke Ekwensi, VP Information Mgmt & Policy; Information Governance; Data Privacy; E-Discovery Baxalta Corporation.

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET:

Security and Information Governance: Together in Perfect Harmony, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET: Information governance and security shouldn’t be conflicting goals. You can satisfy the goals of your clients, general counsel, knowledge managers and technologists by aligning your information governance and security policies so they complement one another and advance your firm’s strategic goals. Security policies can reinforce information governance imperatives, and good information governance should be part of your security assessments. Join us as we examine the benefits of harmonizing these two disciplines, best practices and how to identify opportunities within your organization.

Speakers include: James A. Merrifield, Records & Information Governance Manager Robinson & Cole LLP; Leigh Isaacs, Director, Records & Information Governance White & Case LLP; Terry Coan, Senior Director HBR Consulting LLC.

And, of course, you don’t want to miss the Exhibit Hall Opening Reception from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM ET, where booths will be decorated as different countries. As always, this is a great opportunity to visit with exhibitors and tour the Exhibit Hall in a relaxed setting and hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.

So, what do you think?  Are you planning to attend ILTACON this year?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

MAJOR Announcement from EDRM!: eDiscovery Trends

After over 11 years establishing itself as the leading standards organization for the eDiscovery market, EDRM has been acquired!

As they announced in their press release here yesterday, Duke University School of Law has acquired EDRM.  The release stated: “The move advances the missions of both organizations. For EDRM, Duke provides an institutional home with a large and respected organization, ensuring the continued vitality of EDRM. Duke Law and its Center for Judicial Studies gain resources that expand the center’s involvement in electronic discovery and information governance in support of its mission to promote better understanding of the judicial process and to generate ideas for improving the administration of justice.”

“This agreement sets the stage for an expansion of EDRM efforts in industry education and standards,” stated Dean David F. Levi in the press release. “E-discovery is a major component of today’s litigation practice, and EDRM provides valuable resources to educate not only experienced practitioners, but also law students and new lawyers about practical discovery problems they will encounter. This acquisition is also an important step in Duke’s continued efforts to bring together the judiciary, legal practitioners, educators and government organizations to advance the understanding of the judicial process and improve the complex processes in the administration of justice.”

“We are proud of the significant impact EDRM has made on education and practices in electronic discovery and information governance since 2005,” stated George Socha, co-founder of EDRM. “The achievements of EDRM are a direct result of the hard work of many legal and technology practitioners whose efforts and expertise have improved e-discovery and information governance practices and ultimately the judicial process. Tom Gelbmann and I extend to each of them our sincere appreciation, and we encourage continued participation in this exciting next phase with Duke Law.”

Socha will remain with EDRM after the acquisition. EDRM co-founder Gelbmann plans to work with Duke Law for the transition of EDRM programs and will retire later this year. “We are fortunate,” stated Levi, “that Tom Hnatowski, former chief of the Magistrate Judges Division of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, agreed to join the Judicial Studies Center to manage day-to-day operations running EDRM. Tom brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to the improvement of the administration of justice with his many years working with U.S. magistrate judges, the front-line judicial officers who handle discovery issues on a daily basis.”

An email providing details was sent to all EDRM members on Tuesday evening in advance of Wednesday’s public announcement.  In a follow-up response to queries from EDRM members, Socha noted that the “good work” being performed on existing projects “will continue under Duke Law.  Not only will it continue, but we hope to be able to expand it.”  And, he also indicated that “EDRM under Duke will continue to be open to existing members’ contributions”, which “always have been at the core of what has made EDRM successful – indeed, of interest to anyone.”

Hopefully, it sounds as though the acquisition will enable EDRM to continue to provide useful standards models and mechanisms to the industry, even though the day-to-day leadership will change.  As an EDRM Education partner, eDiscovery Daily will certainly continue to provide eDiscovery news and analysis as we always have and will certainly make our readers aware of new deliverables from the EDRM community.

From a personal standpoint, I’m certainly glad to see that George Socha will remain with EDRM, even as he continues in his new role at BDO.  I’m also certainly sad to see Tom Gelbmann retire soon as I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him as a colleague within EDRM through the years – he is truly as nice a guy as there is and I will miss working with him.  Nonetheless, it certainly sounds as though George and Tom found a good new home for the organization that they created 11 years ago – one that should enable it to continue to thrive for years to come.

So, what do you think?  Will the acquisition of EDRM be a good thing for the eDiscovery industry?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Considering All of the Considered TAR Responses: eDiscovery Trends

Our webinar panel discussion conducted by ACEDS a couple of weeks ago has generated some interesting discussion and debate over the past week or so about the content of the webinar, what it should have covered and what it was intended to cover.

The webinar panel discussion, titled How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery was sponsored by CloudNine and presented on August 10 (here is a link to last week’s blog post with an embedded video of the webinar).  Our panel discussion provided an overview of eDiscovery automation technologies and we took a hard look at the technology and definition of TAR and potential limitations associated with both.  Mary Mack, Executive Director of ACEDS moderated the discussion and I was one of the panelists, along with Bill Dimm, CEO of Hot Neuron and Bill Speros, Evidence Consulting Attorney with Speros & Associates, LLC.

On the next day, ACEDS published A Considered Response from Gordon Cormack, which was a letter from Gordon Cormack, Professor with the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada who is an expert in the area of technology-assisted review in litigation and has co-authored several influential works with Maura Grossman, a fellow researcher at the University of Waterloo (and, before that, an attorney with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz).  Cormack and Grossman authored the 2011 Richmond Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT) study (that I inaccurately referred to in the webinar as a “white paper” – sorry about that) titled Technology-Assisted Review in E-Discovery Can Be More Effective and More Efficient Than Exhaustive Manual Review, which was discussed to some extent during the webinar that both Cormack and Grossman attended.

In his letter, Dr. Cormack expressed several concerns about the content of the webinar, including their belief “that the webinar presented the false impression that we, and the courts, are resting on our laurels and that no legitimate empirical work has been done with respect to TAR.”  He provided links to several other works that have been authored by Cormack and Grossman that were not discussed during the webinar and also noted his opinion that the webinar lacked “any constructive suggestion as to how to proceed” (among other concerns he noted).

Then, last week, ACEDS also published responses from two of the presenters, Bill Speros (Reconsidering Dr. Cormack’s Considered Response) and Bill Dimm (ACEDS Commentary: Bill Dimm Responds to Gordon Cormack) where both “Bills” (Speros and Dimm) provided responses to the concerns that Dr. Cormack raised in his letter the previous week.

I feel that both Speros and Dimm made several good points in both clarifying the intended scope of the webinar and also in what we feel the webinar accomplished.  Dimm noted that “our goal was to deliver a large amount of information that is useful to a broad e-discovery audience within the confines of a 60-minute webinar” (of which about 40 minutes were devoted to TAR) and that we covered the JOLT report as extensively as we did (instead of other Cormack/Grossman works) “because it is the study that judicial opinions rely upon, and we’re not aware of any subsequent study comparing the quality (not merely the cost) of TAR results to those of human review.”

Speros identified several constructive suggestions that we felt the webinar provided, including “Clarifying the (general lack of) judicial acceptance of TAR”, “Differentiating alternative TAR techniques and technologies” and “Developing independent and valid TAR assessments”.  Speros also noted that “rather than attacking Dr. Cormack and his work, the webinar’s content spoke to the quality of the court’s interpretations [of the JOLT report] in a manner entirely consistent with thoughtful and professional analysis” – a position with which I agree wholeheartedly.

So, what is my response to Dr. Cormack’s letter?

As the other presenter in the webinar, I don’t have much to add to the responses provided by Speros and Dimm, except that they essentially reflect my own thoughts about the intent and accomplishments of the webinar.  Our goal was to challenge several industry-accepted assumptions about TAR and to take a look at the current state of acceptance of TAR, both judicially and within organizations contemplating the use of TAR.  And, I feel we accomplished that.

Nonetheless, I have tremendous respect, not just for my co-presenters, but also for Gordon Cormack and Maura Grossman and the numerous contributions that they have made to the industry through their research and various works (including the 2011 JOLT report).  I consider this to be a healthy discussion and debate among industry thought leaders and look forward to hopefully seeing that healthy discussion and debate continue.  I encourage you to view the webinar and read the commentaries by Cormack, Speros and Dimm and draw your own conclusions.

So, what do you think?  Do you have an opinion on the webinar or on the topic of TAR in general?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

I Wouldn’t Con You, But ILTACON is Just a Week Away: eDiscovery Trends

Believe it or not, it’s almost time for another ILTACON!  ILTACON is the annual conference for the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA).  This year, it is being held in the shadow of Washington, DC in Alexandria, VA at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.  And, once again, eDiscovery Daily will be covering the show!  If you’re in the DC area next week, you may want to check out a few of these sessions regarding eDiscovery and Information Governance.

Technically, ILTACON opens in 6 days with the annual golf tournament, orientation and opening reception happening on Sunday.  Oh, and every day starts with Yoga and Zumba at 6:30am!  However, the Keynote and Educational Sessions start a week from today, on Monday, the 29th.  Here are a few sessions to check out:

Monday, 08/29/2016:

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Amendments and Their Effect on Litigation Support Strategies, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET: Significant amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure became effective on December 1, 2015. How have courts interpreted and applied these new changes? Do the amendments provide the basis for corporations to change their approaches to the preservation, collection, review and production of electronically stored information? If so, have they actually changed? What opportunities do the amended rules provide for litigation support departments to educate and consult with clients and drive their e-discovery strategies? Join a panel of experts to learn more about these recent developments.  Speakers include: Eric Lieber, Director of Legal Operations & Litigation Support Toyota Motor Sales; Honorable Andrew J Peck, US Magistrate Judge of New York and Rodney Holaday, Partner Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP.

Security and Information Governance: Together in Perfect Harmony, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET: Information governance and security shouldn’t be conflicting goals. You can satisfy the goals of your clients, general counsel, knowledge managers and technologists by aligning your information governance and security policies so they complement one another and advance your firm’s strategic goals. Security policies can reinforce information governance imperatives, and good information governance should be part of your security assessments. Join us as we examine the benefits of harmonizing these two disciplines, best practices and how to identify opportunities within your organization.  Speakers include: James A. Merrifield, Records & Information Governance Manager Robinson & Cole LLP; Leigh Isaacs, Director, Records & Information Governance White & Case LLP; Terry Coan, Senior Director HBR Consulting LLC.

And, of course, you don’t want to miss the Exhibit Hall Opening Reception from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM ET, where booths will be decorated as different countries. As always, this is a great opportunity to visit with exhibitors and tour the Exhibit Hall in a relaxed setting and hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.

Tuesday, 08/30/2016:

Preparing an ROI for eDiscovery Services: A Litigation Technology Operations Workshop, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM ET: In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants will create a simulated return on investment (ROI) analysis for e-discovery services. This collaborative exercise will highlight several different approaches to a project and expose clues to reaching your firm’s ROI goals.  Speakers include: Mary Pat Poteet, Managing Consultant; Sheila Mackay, Vice President Xerox Legal Business Services; Bret Libigs, Enterprise Accounts Relativity by kCura.

The Lean, Mean E-Discovery Machine: Project Management in Litigation Support, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM ET: Everyone talks about project management (PM), but do litigation and practice support technologists truly know why and how it is beneficial in e-discovery? Do specific deliverables and quality check points matter, or is project management an ad hoc exercise? Three high-level e-discovery strategists will examine aspects of the business side of e-discovery, such as estimating and budgeting, and offer insight into how to measure your PM maturity, the success of your e-discovery projects, and the specific processes and workflows that have yielded successful outcomes. Learn what works — and what doesn’t — when implementing a project management program while striving to manage change in e-discovery.  Speakers include: Michael Quartararo, Director of Litigation Support Services Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; Dera Jardine Nevin, Director of eDiscovery Proskauer Rose LLP; Daryl Shetterly, Director, DRS Operations Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Wednesday, 08/31/2016:

The Future of Law Firms in the E-Discovery Space: A Client’s Perspective, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM ET: With the rise of legal service providers and more clients taking work in-house, the value chain in the e-discovery world has been somewhat disrupted. To combat this, we need to delve into clients’ long-term strategies for managing electronic discovery. Who is responsible for various tasks today? What is the plan for the future? How might these strategies effect how we work and how we’re staffed? How are firms and vendors responding to the new models? Let’s get the client’s perspective!  Speakers include: Eric Lieber, Director of Legal Operations & Litigation Support Toyota Motor Sales; Joan Washburn, Director of Litigation and eDiscovery Services Holland & Knight LLP; Thomas Biegacki, Business Development Executive Integreon; EJ Bastien, Lead eDiscovery Program Manager Microsoft Corporation.

Thursday, 09/01/2016:

How Future Technology Will Affect Litigation Support, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET: A panel of e-discovery industry leaders and visionaries will discuss what future technologies will have an effect on litigation support and e-discovery. Find out what these leaders think will happen in the next few years and what you need to be ready for with the coming changes in technology.  Speakers include: Stephen Dooley, Assistant Director of Electronic Discovery and Litigation Support Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Craig Ball, ESI Special Master and Attorney Craig D. Ball, P.C.; Jay Leib, Founder and CEO NexLP; Sheila Mackay, Vice President Xerox Legal Business Services; Dave Copps, Founder & CEO Brainspace; Brendan Hall, Vice President, Business Development Xerox Legal Business Services.

Click here for more information on registering for the conference.  Hope to see you there!

So, what do you think?  Are you attending ILTACON this year?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Here’s an Interesting Interview Conducted Using a Cool Conversation Tool: eDiscovery Trends

If you regularly read sites that discuss legal technology and other important issues for the legal profession, you’re certainly familiar with the site Above the Law, which takes a behind the scenes look at the world of law and covers it on several levels, including big law, small firms, law schools, finance, CLE and, of course, eDiscovery.  Regarding eDiscovery, their latest interview gives you an opportunity to learn more about our company, CloudNine.

In Simplicity And eDiscovery? A Conversation With CloudNine’s Brad Jenkins, written by Zach Abramowitz, our CEO and co-founder discusses the evolution of our company (we’ve been around probably longer than you realize – over 13 years), the challenges of competing in a crowded eDiscovery market and, especially, the challenges of competing in that market without the benefit of outside funding from an investor or venture capital firm.  Brad also discusses our value proposition and how our approach to security is different from other SaaS eDiscovery automation providers in the market, among other things.  If you want to learn more about us as a company, this is a good opportunity to hear it from the guy (well, one of two guys) who started it all.

Another notable aspect of the interview is how it has been (and still might be being) conducted.  Abramowitz is using a mechanism called ReplyAll, which enables you to invite other writers or interesting guests to your site for interviews, roundtables, stories and debates.  So, it’s really a mechanism that facilitates conversations online.  Having commented on a couple of conversations started via ReplyAll, it’s a great way to manage discussions with a limited or (conceivably) unlimited number of participants.

When I mentioned that the interview still might be being conducted, that’s conceivably possible.  When the interview “began” on Tuesday’s article, Abramowitz had asked Brad a few questions, to which he responded.  If you checked yesterday morning, there was another question out there and, later in the day, another response from Brad.  So, the interview may still be going on as we speak!  :o)

So, what do you think?  Have you participated in an online discussion using ReplyAll?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Daily Has a New Look!: eDiscovery Redesign

If you’ve been reading our blog the past couple of days, you may have noticed that our blog has a new look.

After nearly 6 years and over 1,450 posts, we decided it’s time to freshen our look.  So, our new site has a fresher look, larger fonts for easier reading of the posts, even easier to read than our last redesign back in January 2015.  We hope you like it!

Though we’ve updated the look, we’ve maintained the overall functionality within the blog to preserve the easy ability to look up topics by category or by month and we’ve preserved the search box to enable you to search for any topic you desire to find.  Most importantly, we’ve preserved the entire catalog of posts so that the entire knowledge base that we have built over the last 5 years, 10 months and 25 days (but who’s counting) is still available.  It’s all still there for you, including the almost 500 eDiscovery case law posts covering over 330 cases.

Naturally, when you migrate posts and change layouts, there are going to be a few hiccups.  So, if you see a page that has formatting issues, missing images or get an error when trying to navigate to a particular page, please feel free to drop me a line at daustin@cloudnine.com and let me know about it.  I would appreciate it.

By the way, this redesign is part of a larger redesign of our overall company site at CloudNine to better align our message with the offerings we provide (don’t worry, those haven’t changed).  We’ve redesigned our site to make it easier to get information about us, with a lot more information accessible from the main page.  So, whether you want to understand what we do, understand the professional services we provide, get a sense of some of the clients we’ve assisted and supported, find out about our news and events, find out what clients are saying to us or get to our blog (obviously!), you can get that information from the main page.  Of course, you can also get a free trial of our software.  Navigation to other areas is more intuitive as well.

Even our default domain has changed!  Our new site is cloudnine.com/ – we’re The eDiscovery Automation Company! (our old url – www.cloudnincloudnine.comm – still works too).  And, it looks sharp!  (at least we think so…)

A lot of hard work has gone into the site over the past several months from strategic planning to design to creating a pilot site for demonstration at the ACEDS conference this year to actual development of the new site.  Thanks to all who helped make this site happen and provided feedback along the way, from media members to clients, friends and other advocates.  We also want to thank industry analysts like Gartner, Blue Hill Research, Inside Counsel, 451 Research and KM World for their coverage this year as well – we really appreciate it!

So, what do you think?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Thanks to EDRM, There Will Be a Way to Assess the Data Security of Your Providers: eDiscovery Best Practices

Do you ever wonder or worry about how securely your providers and partners handle your sensitive data during the discovery process?  Then, this latest project from EDRM will help address those worries.

As they announced earlier this week, EDRM has established a new project to develop and provide a security survey. A team of experienced and qualified EDRM members will be working to develop and publish a “straightforward and easy tool for evaluating the security capabilities of corporations, law firms, cloud providers and third parties offering electronic discovery or managed services”.

The goal of the security survey project is to provide organizations with an overview of the critical questions to ask when assessing the data security of an eDiscovery vendor or partner. The overview includes specific sections on risk management, asset security, communications and networking security and identity and access management. The evaluation allows the assessor to determine the level of risk the organization may be assuming by engaging the vendor or partner and to make suggestions to improve security practices and enhance the service provided.

Once created, the security survey will be intended to evaluate an organization’s data security and practices, allowing potential customers to assess the risk of entrusting their sensitive data to the vendor. The tool will also be able to be used to assess data protection from destruction or unauthorized access, as well as to assure regulatory compliance with data-related legislation such as HIPAA, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and security breach notification laws.

Project leads for this new EDRM project are Julie Hackler, regional sales manager at Avansic, and Amy Sellars, senior litigation attorney with The Williams Companies. As you can guess, project deliverables are in the development stage. If you’re a professional in eDiscovery, data management or security and interested in joining and contributing to the project, you can direct questions or volunteer interest by email to Tom Gelbmann: mail@edrm.net.

So, what do you think?  Do you worry about how securely your providers and partners handle your sensitive data during the discovery process?  As always, please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Don’t Miss Today’s Webinar – How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery!: eDiscovery Trends

Today is your chance to catch a terrific discussion about automation in eDiscovery and, particularly an in-depth discussion about technology assisted review (TAR) and whether it lives up to the current hype!

Today, ACEDS will be conducting a webinar panel discussion, titled How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery, sponsored by CloudNine.  Our panel discussion will provide an overview of the eDiscovery automation technologies and we will really take a hard look at the technology and definition of TAR and the limitations associated with both.  This time, Mary Mack, Executive Director of ACEDS will be moderating and I will be one of the panelists, along with Bill Dimm, CEO of Hot Neuron and Bill Speros, Evidence Consulting Attorney with Speros & Associates, LLC.

The webinar will be conducted at 1:00 pm ET (which is 12:00 pm CT, 11:00 am MT and 10:00 am PT).  Oh, and 5:00 pm GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).  If you’re in any other time zone, you’ll have to figure it out for yourself.  Click on the link here to register.

If you’re interested in learning about various ways in which automation is being used in eDiscovery and getting a chance to look at the current state of TAR, possible warts and all, I encourage you to sign up and attend.  It should be an enjoyable and educational hour.  Thanks to our friends at ACEDS for presenting today’s webinar!

So, what do you think?  Do you think automation is revolutionizing eDiscovery?  As always, please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

ACEDS Adds its Weight to the eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey: eDiscovery Trends

We’ve covered two rounds of the quarterly eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey created by Rob Robinson and conducted on his terrific Complex Discovery site (previous results are here and here).  It’s time for the Summer 2016 Survey.  Befitting of the season, the survey has a HOT new affiliation with the Association of Certified eDiscovery Specialists (ACEDS).

As before, the eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey is a non-scientific survey designed to provide insight into the business confidence level of individuals working in the eDiscovery ecosystem. The term ‘business’ represents the economic factors that impact the creation, delivery, and consumption of eDiscovery products and services.  The purpose of the survey is to provide a subjective baseline for understanding the trajectory of the business of eDiscovery through the eyes of industry professionals.

Also as before, the survey asks questions related to how you rate general business conditions for eDiscovery in your segment of the eDiscovery market, both current and six months from now, a general sense of where you think revenue and profits will be for your segment of the market in six months and which issue do you think will most impact the business of eDiscovery over the next six months, among other questions.  It’s a simple nine question survey that literally takes about a minute to complete.  Who hasn’t got a minute to provide useful information?

Individual answers are kept confidential, with the aggregate results to be published on the ACEDS website (News & Press), on the Complex Discovery blog, and on selected ACEDS Affiliate websites and blogs (we’re one of those and we’ll cover the results as we have for the first two surveys) upon completion of the response period, which started on August 1 and goes through Wednesday, August 31.

What are experts saying about the survey?  Here are a couple of notable quotes:

Mary Mack, Executive Director of ACEDS stated: “The business of eDiscovery is an ever-present and important variable in the equation of legal discovery.  As financial factors are a primary driver in eDiscovery decisions ranging from sourcing and staffing to development and deployment, ACEDS sees value in regularly checking the business pulse of eDiscovery professionals. The eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey provides a tool to help take that pulse on a systematic basis and ACEDS looks forward to sponsoring, participating, and reporting on the results of this salient survey each quarter.”

George Socha, Co-Founder of EDRM and Managing Director of Thought Leadership of BDO stated: “In my experience, the successful conduct of eDiscovery is comprised of a balance of in-depth education, practical execution, and experience-based excellence.  The eDiscovery Business Confidence survey being highlighted by ACEDS is one of many industry surveys that positively contributes to this balance, as it provides a quarterly snapshot into the business of discovery. I highly encourage serious eDiscovery professionals to complete and consider this survey as a key tool for understanding the business challenges and opportunities in our profession.”

The more respondents there are, the more useful the results will be!  What more do you need?  Click here to take the survey yourself.  Don’t forget!

So, what do you think?  Are you confident in the state of business within the eDiscovery industry?  Share your thoughts in the survey and, as always, please share any comments you might have with us or let us know if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Don’t forget that next Wednesday at 1:00pm ET, ACEDS will be conducting a webinar panel discussion, titled How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery, sponsored by CloudNine.  Our panel discussion will provide an overview of the eDiscovery automation technologies and we will really take a hard look at the technology and definition of TAR and the limitations associated with both.  This time, Mary Mack, Executive Director of ACEDS will be moderating and I will be one of the panelists, along with Bill Dimm, CEO of Hot Neuron and Bill Speros, Evidence Consulting Attorney with Speros & Associates, LLC.  Click on the link here to register.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.