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“Master” Your Knowledge of eDiscovery Again – This Time, In New York City!: eDiscovery Trends

Back in May, I was excited and honored to moderate an enjoyable panel session in Chicago at The Masters Conference Windy City Cybersecurity, Social Media and eDiscovery event.  However, if you aren’t located in the Chicago area (or didn’t travel there for the event) you may have missed it.  Now, if you’re going to be in the New York area on July 11, you get another chance to attend!

The Masters Conference brings together leading experts and professionals from law firms, corporations and the bench to develop strategies, practices and resources for managing the information life cycle.  Like the Chicago event, the New York City 2016 IoT, Cybersecurity and Social Media Conference will cover a wide range of topics from the impact of social media and the Internet of Things (IoT) on eDiscovery risks and costs to the revolution in eDiscovery analytics to how to handle cross-border data in the wake of the Schrems decision and the new privacy shield.

The New York event will be held at the historic New Yorker Hotel, 481 8th Ave , New York, NY 10001.  Registration begins at 8am, with sessions starting right after that, at 8:30am.

CloudNine will again be sponsoring the session Faster, Cheaper, Better: How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery at 4:15.  I am excited to again be moderating, this time with Bill Dimm, CEO of Hot Neuron, Bill Speros, Evidence Consulting Attorney with Speros & Associates, LLC and Hon. Ronald J. Hedges, Principal of Ronald J. Hedges, LLC, as panelists.

Our panel discussion will provide an overview of the evolution of electronic discovery technologies and also share with attendees ways that they can consider and compare technology offerings from the large ecosystem of providers supporting litigation, investigations, and audits and includes an overview of the attributes of fourth generation eDiscovery automation technology.  It should be a very informative discussion with a very knowledgeable panel!  Hope you can join us!

Click here to register for the conference.  The cost is only $165 for a full day of sessions.  That’s hard to beat!

The Masters Conference also has an event coming up in Washington DC in October – its 10 year anniversary event!  Click here for more information on that.

So, what do you think?  Are you going to be in New York City on July 11?  If so, come join us!  And, as always, please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

eDiscovery Daily will return on Tuesday.  Happy Independence Day!

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.

Can You Figure Out How I Wrote this Blog Post?: Best of eDiscovery Daily

Even those of us at eDiscovery Daily have to take an occasional vacation (which, as you can see by the picture above, means taking the kids to their favorite water park); however, instead of “going dark” for a few days, we thought we would take a look back at some topics that we’ve covered in the past.  Today’s post takes a look back at a little experiment I performed (which was two phones ago for me, by the way).  Enjoy!

______________________________

I have to be honest, this blog post contains quite a bit of content from one of the early posts from this blog.  However, there is something different about this version of the content – it looks a bit unusual.  Can you figure out how I wrote it?  See if you can figure it out before you get to the bottom.  I promise I haven’t lost my mind.

Types of exceptions file

It’s important to note that efforts to quote fix quote these files will often change the files parentheses and the meta data associated with them parentheses, so it’s important to establish with opposing counsel what measures to address the exceptions are acceptable. Some files may not be recoverable and you need to agree up front how far to go to attempt to recover them.

  • Corrupted files colon files can become corrupted 4 a variety of reasons, from application failures 2 system crashes to computer viruses. I recently had a case where 40 percent of the collection what’s contained in to corrupt Outlook PST file dash fortunately, we were able to repair those files and recover the messages. If you have read Lee accessible backups of the files, try to restore them from backup. If not, you will need to try using a repair utility. Outlook comes with a utility called scan PST. Exe that scans and repairs PST and OST file, and there are utilities parenthesis including freeware utilities parenthesis available via the web foremost file types. If all else fails, you can hire a-data recovery expert, but that can get very expensive.
  • Password protected files colon most collections usually contain at least some password protected files. Files can require a password to enable them to be edited, or even just to view them. As the most popular publication format, PDF files are often password protected from editing, but they can still be feud 2 support review parenthesis though some search engines May fail to index them parenthesis. If a file is password protected, you can try to obtain the password from the custodian providing the file dash if the custodian is unavailable or unable to remember the password, you can try a password cracking application, which will run through a series of character combinations to attempt to find the password. Be patient, it takes time, and doesn’t always succeed.
  • Unsupported file types corn in most collections, there are some unusual file types that art supported by the review application, such as file for legacy or specialized applications parenthesis E. G. AutoCAD for engineering drawing parenthesis. You may not even initially no what type of files they are semi colon if not, you can find out based on file extension by looking the file extension up in file ext. If your review application can’t read the file, it also can’t index the files for searching or display them 4 review. If those file maybe responses 2 discovery requests, review them with the natives application to determine they’re relevancy.
  • No dash text file colon files with no searchable text aren’t really exceptions dash they have to be accounted for, but they won’t be retrieved in searches, so it’s important to make sure they don’t quote slip through the cracks unquote. It’s common to perform optical character recognition parenthesis Boosie are parenthesis on Tiff files and image only PDF files, because they are common document 4 minutes. Other types of no text files, such as pictures in JTAG or PNG format, are usually not oser, unless there is an expectation that they will have significant text.

Did you figure it out?  I “dictated” the above content using speech-to-text on my phone, a Samsung Galaxy 3 (yes, that was three years and four versions ago, I will have to update the “experiment” soon to see if the speech-to-text is any better now on my Apple iPhone 6).  I duplicated the formatting from the earlier post, but left the text the way that the phone “heard” it.  Some of the choices it made were interesting: it understands “period” and “comma” as punctuation, but not “colon”, “quote” or “parenthesis”.  Words like “viewed” became “feud”, “readily” became “read Lee” and “OCR” became “Boosie are”.  It also often either dropped or added an “s” to words that I spoke.

These days, more ESI is discoverable from sources that are non-formalized, including texts and “tweets”.  Acronyms and abbreviations (and frequent misspelling of words) is common in these data sources (whether typed or through bad dictation), which makes searching them for responsive information very challenging.  You need to get creative when searching these sources and use mechanisms such as conceptual clustering to group similar documents together, as well as stemming and fuzzy searching to find variations and misspellings of words.

Want to see the original version of the post?  Here it is.

So, what do you think?  How do you handle informal communications, like texts and “tweets”, in your searching of ESI?   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.

Tuesday LTWC 2016 Sessions: eDiscovery Trends

As noted yesterday, LegalTech West Coast 2016 (LTWC) is happening this week in San Francisco and eDiscovery Daily is reporting about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  If you’re in the San Francisco area, today is the last day to come check out the show – there are a number of sessions available and at least 56 exhibitors providing information on their products and services.

Perform a “find” on today’s LTNY conference schedule for “discovery” or “information governance” and you’ll get 24 hits.  Sessions in the main conference tracks include:

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM:

The Encryption Debate: Privacy, Public Safety and Data Security

Apple vs. FBI in the wake of the San Bernardino shooters. The Paris and Brussels attacks. Is it possible to find a balance between protecting user privacy while ensuring national security and public safety? Join us as advocates for each side argue their stance in this hot button debate.

Speakers are: David Bitkower, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice; Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union.  Discussion Leader: Erin E. Harrison, Editor in Chief, Legaltech News, ALM.

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM:

Information Governance and the Updated FRCP: Speed, Proportionality, Preservation and Ethical Challenges

  • How have the December 2015 changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure altered legal strategies in the discovery process and thus the information governance efforts necessary to support those strategies?
  • Mapping and categorizing data sets proactively will help information governance professionals identify and preserve potentially relevant information more quickly when the inevitable lawsuit ensues.
  • Defending the identification and preservation processes will depend on effective information governance disciplines while preparing for, and reacting to, litigation.
  • Navigating potential ethical challenges as to advice on data retention and disposition in light of the updated Rules.

Speakers are: John Janhunen, Corporate Counsel, Google Inc.; Heidi Maher, Executive Director, CGOC.  Discussion Leader: John Isaza, Partner, Rimon PC.

Legal Innovation Lightning Round One

Join us for a series of fast-paced, successive demos and talks featuring the latest emerging legal tech companies working to advance the legal system. During this Shark Tank­ style session, our presenters have the opportunity to “pitch” their products to and receive feedback from a panel of judges consisting of investors, academics and industry giants.

Speakers and Judges to include are: David Fisher, CEO & Founder, ClearLegal; David Slonim, Co-Founder, EstatePass; Monica Bay, Fellow, CodeX; Nicole Shanahan, Fellow , CodeX.  Discussion Leader: Oliver Goodenough, Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Legal Innovation, Vermont Law School.

Ethical Considerations for Machine Learning and Other Future Technologies

Can technology perform the same tasks as a human lawyer? This session explores how computers will soon transform the delivery of legal services. Attendees gain an understanding of the various legal capabilities of computers in the near-future, enabling law firms to work smarter and more efficiently.

Speakers to include are: Dr. Zev J. Eigen, Global Director of Analytics, Littler Mendelson, PC; Judy Selby, Former Partner and Co-leader, Information Governance Team, BakerHostetler.  Discussion Leader: Carolyn Southerland, Managing Director, Morae Legal, Member, Houston Chapter of Women in eDiscovery.

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM:

Can Proportionality in Discovery Finally Be Realized with the New Federal Rules?

  • Can the new Rules finally fulfill the promise of a “just, speedy, and inexpensive” process?
  • Are companies reconsidering what’s reasonable for preservation?
  • Has the plaintiff’s bar been frustrated in obtaining discovery as it feared?
  • Are the parties having more meaningful Rule 26(f) conferences?
  • How will proportionality considerations affect third party subpoenas?

Speakers to include: Mira Edelman, Senior Discovery Counsel, Google Inc.; Hon. Andrew J. Peck, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of New York; David L. Stanton, Litigation Partner and Information Law & Electronic Discovery Team Leader, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.  Discussion Leader: Patrick Oot, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP.

Legal Innovation Lightning Round Two

In continuation of this morning’s session, participants hear from a second group of legal technology disruptors who demonstrate how they are working to revolutionize the law. During this Shark Tank­ style session, presenters have the opportunity to get in front of our esteemed panel of judges who represent various players in the legal tech ecosystem; panelists will in turn share their views on each presentation.

Speakers and Judges to include are: Leila Banijamali, Founder and General Counsel, Startup Documents; Noory Bechor, CEO & Founder, LawGeex; Kevin Miller, CEO & Founder, Legal Sifter; Jonathan Pyle, Founder , Docassemble; Monica Bay, Fellow, CodeX; Oliver Goodenough, Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Legal Innovation, Vermont Law School.  Discussion Leader: Nicole Shanahan, Fellow , CodeX.

E-Discovery Rainmaking at the Law Firm: A New Model for Processing Hosting and Review

As law firms start to insource more and more of their clients work – cost effectively – the paradigm for using third party vendors has shifted to software as a service and enterprise deployments offered by the firm from the traditional client-firm-vendor trifecta. This case study illustrates how one law firm is successfully offering e-discovery services effectively through managed services partnerships with discovery software and service vendors.

Speakers to include are: Robert E. Tonn, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP; Joan Washburn, Director of Litigation/eDiscovery Services, Holland & Knight LLP.

2:45 PM – 3:45 PM:

Incident Readiness: The Role of Information Governance in Mitigating Breach Exposure

  • Information breaches are increasingly common. In today’s business environment, information is power, and those who control information have the most power.  Bad actors are incentivized to break in, or recruit insiders, to steal data – to sell identities on the black market, as hacktivists to make a socio-political statement, as disgruntled employees and customers to get back at a corporation they think wronged them.
  • In most of the recent high-profile data breaches, the bad actors were in the systems for a long time, acting unbeknownst to their victim and with little resistance; and the scope of the breaches were difficult to quickly ascertain. Most security experts agree that perimeter security is important but isn’t near enough – so what else can we do?
  • In this session our expert panel will explore the relationship between Information Governance and Information Security and answer important questions such as:
    • What role can IG play in helping companies detect breaches more quickly and have greater confidence that they can identify the information that was at risk or stolen?
    • How can IG support an organization’s ability to establish better security protocols and processes?
    • What disciplines exist in a mature IG program that can aid in evaluating the impact of a breach?

Speakers to include: Jeffrey J. Beard, Esq., GRC & IG Leader, IBM; Michael S. Dicke, Partner, Securities Litigation, Fenwick & West LLP; Tolga Erbay, Senior Manager, Security Risk and Compliance, Dropbox.  Discussion Leader: John Isaza, Partner, Rimon PC.

In addition to these, there are other sessions today that might be of interest.  For a complete description for all sessions today, click here.

So, what do you think?  Did you attend LTWC 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.

Welcome to LegalTech West Coast 2016!: eDiscovery Trends

Today is the start of LegalTech® West Coast 2016 (LTWC) in San Francisco –and eDiscovery Daily is reporting about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  Today and tomorrow, we will provide a description of some of the sessions related to eDiscovery to give you a sense of the topics being covered.  If you’re in the San Francisco area, come check out the show – there are a number of sessions (both paid and free) available and at least 56 exhibitors providing information on their products and services.

Perform a “find” on today’s LTNY conference schedule for “discovery” or “information governance” and you’ll get 31 hits.  Sessions in the main conference tracks include:

10:30 AM – 11:45 AM:

The Evolving Forensic Technology Landscape

In this program, experienced technologists will discuss current issues in forensics and collections, including:

  • What are the latest challenges around collection of ESI?
  • How are technology advances in computers, systems, and mobile devices changing forensics?
  • What lessons about collections and forensics can we learn from recent high-profile cases?
  • How are organizations facing the newest challenge: Data collection from Internet of Things (IoT) devices?

Speakers are: Bryon Bratcher, Director of Practice Support, Reed Smith LLP; Benjamin Robbins, eDiscovery and Information Governance, LinkedIn; Christopher Sitter, EnCE, eDiscovery & Digital Forensics Senior Manager, Juniper Networks.  Discussion Leader: Daniel Blair, Vice President for Innovative Strategies, DiscoverReady.

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM:

Moving Beyond E-Discovery Review: TAR for Smart People

Once controversial, technology assisted review (TAR) has gained judicial acceptance and is increasingly used for production reviews. Today, the challenge is to take TAR to the next level, using it for a variety of purposes including investigations, early case assessment, criminal matters, inbound productions, privilege protection and more.

Smart legal professionals are using a new TAR protocol called continuous active learning (CAL), which has proven more effective because the system gets smarter as a review progresses. Now you find can relevant documents faster—at lower cost. CAL also handles rolling deliveries and works with low-richness collections.

Join our panel of e-discovery veterans for an informative look at how corporations and their law firms are moving beyond simple e-discovery review with the power of TAR and CAL. Our panelists will discuss:

  • How CAL works and why it matters
  • A trial lawyer’s perspective on using TAR within a law firm
  • An in-house counsel’s view of TAR for corporate litigation
  • Using TAR for criminal matters and for civil investigations

In this hour, we’ll take a hard look at the future of TAR for 2016 and beyond. Attendees will receive a free copy of the newly released second edition of Catalyst’s popular book, “TAR for Smart People: How Technology Assisted Review Works and Why It Matters for Legal Professionals.”

Speakers to include: Russell M. Aoki, Partner, Aoki Law PLLC; Dera J. Nevin, Director, eDiscovery Services, Proskauer Rose LLP; Daniel J. Polatsek, Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP; Sharyn M. Procaccio, Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, Hunt Companies Inc.  Discussion Leader: John Tredennick, CEO and Founder, Catalyst Repository Systems, Inc.

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM:

The Latest US-EU Cross-Border Privacy Issues

In the wake of the invalidation of the US-EU Safe Harbor Agreement, this panel of experts will explore the current state of affairs for cross-border data transfers and discovery, including:

  • Viable alternatives for transferring data from the EU
  • Ethical and legal considerations in the new EU-US Privacy Shield
  • The new EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement
  • The new EU General Data Protection Regulation and the “Right to be Forgotten”
  • Effective strategies for cross-border discovery
  • Effective strategies and ethical obligations for cross-border discovery
  • Updates on recent high-profile cases

Speakers to include are: David R. Cohen, Partner and Practice Group Leader Records & E-Discovery , Reed Smith LLP; Sylvie Stulic, Manager, Legal Operations and Litigation, Electronic Arts, Inc.; Brock A. Wanless, Assistant General Counsel – Government, Regulatory, and Privacy, Groupon.  Discussion Leader: Jeanne Somma, Discovery Practice Director, DiscoverReady.

3:45 PM – 5:00 PM:

Judicial Perspective: Six Months In, Are the New Federal Rules Having the Intended Effects?

In what promises to be one of most informative sessions at Legaltech, a panel of the most well-respected and experienced judges in legal technology will examine the impact of the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including:

  • What themes are emerging in judicial decisions under the new Rules?
  • How has the emphasis on proportionality changed discovery?
  • Has amended Rule 34 really changed the way parties respond to discovery requests?
  • Are proportionality motions the new Daubert?
  • What issues do judges think will impact discovery in the next year?

Speakers to include are: Hon. Mitchell D. Dembin, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of California; Hon. Elizabeth D. Laporte, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Northern District of California; Hon. Andrew J. Peck, United States Magistrate Judge , United States District Court, Southern District of New York.  Discussion Leader: Maureen O’Neill, Senior Vice President, DiscoverReady.

In addition to these, there are other sessions today that might be of interest.  For a complete description for all sessions today, click here.

So, what do you think?  Are you planning to attend LTWC 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 How You Can Catch our Webinar on How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery: eDiscovery Trends

We had a terrific turnout for our special webinar on Wednesday conducted by Rob Robinson and me titled Faster, Cheaper, Better: How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery, hosted by the Organization of Legal Professionals (OLP)!  But, not all of you could make it.  We get it – you’re busy.  No worries, you can check it out on demand within this post!

During the webinar, we started off with a history lesson as I discussed the historical application of automation in the discovery process, focused on the application of artificial intelligence technology through the evolution and judicial acceptance of technology assisted review.  I then talked about the emergence of artificial intelligence technology in other areas, including pre-litigation.

Rob then discussed the drivers for eDiscovery automation in terms of the biggest challenges faced by organizations today in managing eDiscovery, as well as the business opportunity of where the eDiscovery market is heading and how automation is helping drive the growth in the market.  Rob also discussed the evolution of eDiscovery technology and he walked through a brief exercise on how to consider and compare eDiscovery offerings to meet your needs.

Having set the framework for understanding the drivers and offerings in the market, Rob then defined eDiscovery automation, explaining the difference between task automation and process automation and providing examples of each.

With that framework established, I then walked through an example of task and process automation using CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation platform to demonstrate the automation of signing up for an account, uploading data for processing, as well as culling, searching and reviewing that data – all without any human interaction required!  We finished the webinar by sharing references to several good articles on the topic of eDiscovery automation and answering several good questions from the audience about the state of automation in the industry and other related topics.

If you’re interested in learning more about how automation is revolutionizing eDiscovery, or are simply interested in checking out a good, high-level demo of CloudNine’s platform (shameless plug warning!), I encourage you to check it out below (thanks, Rob!).

Also, if you did not sign up for the webinar and may not be able to check out the video right away, but would like a copy of the slides and the references to the eDiscovery automation articles, feel free to email me at daustin@cloudnincloudnine.comm and I would be happy to send you a copy.

Finally, if you’d simply like to sign up for a free account and try CloudNine for yourself, click here!

So, what do you think?  Do you think that automation is revolutionizing eDiscovery?  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.

Live Webinar Tomorrow! How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery: eDiscovery Trends

I’ve spoken a number of times about how automation is revolutionizing eDiscovery over the past few months, but tomorrow, you get an opportunity to see eDiscovery automation in action!

Tomorrow, Rob Robinson, legal technologist and author of the Complex Discovery blog, and I will be conducting a special webinar titled Faster, Cheaper, Better: How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery.  This 60-minute presentation and discussion hosted by the Organization of Legal Professionals (OLP) is designed to inform and educate attendees on topics such as:

  • How eDiscovery Technologies Have Evolved Over the Years
  • How to Compare Technology Providers in the eDiscovery Market
  • What You Need to Know about Today’s eDiscovery Automation Technologies

Our presentation will provide an overview of the evolution of electronic discovery technologies and we will also share with ways that you can consider and compare technology offerings from the large ecosystem of providers supporting litigation, investigations, and audits. Our webinar will also include an overview of the attributes of fourth generation eDiscovery automation technology as well as a short demonstration on an eDiscovery automation platform.

Key questions we plan to answer during the presentation include:

  • How do I categorize and compare the different types of technologies and providers in the field of eDiscovery?
  • What is eDiscovery automation and what eDiscovery tasks can be automated?
  • How is eDiscovery automation being used in litigation, investigations, and audits?

It’s not too late to register for tomorrow’s webinar!  Here is the link to register.  Hope you can make it!  We will do our best to make it educational!

So, what do you think?  Do you think that automation is revolutionizing eDiscovery?  Whether you do or not, feel free to join us tomorrow!  And, 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.

Confidence in eDiscovery Business is Still Strong: eDiscovery Trends

The results are in from Rob Robinson’s Spring 2016 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, which he conducted last month and the results are published on his terrific Complex Discovery site.  Are individuals working in the eDiscovery ecosystem still as confident in the business as they were in the first quarter?  Let’s see.

This time, there were 76 total respondents to the survey, which is almost the same number of respondents as the first survey back in February.  Here are some notable results:

  • Providers Were Still the Majority Respondents, But Not as Much: Of the types of respondents, 47 out of 76 were either Software and/or Services Provider (39.5%) or Consultancy (22.4%) for a total of 61.9% of respondents as some sort of outsourced provider (down from 68.8% last time). Law firm respondents were actually the second most represented group with 23.7%.
  • Even More Respondents Consider Business to Be Good: Over 60% (61.8%, to be exact) of respondents rated the current general business conditions for eDiscovery in their segment to be good, with only 3.9% rating business conditions as bad. Last time, those numbers were 58.8% and 10% respectively.
  • Almost Everyone Expects eDiscovery Business to be as Good or Better Six Months From Now: Almost all respondents (97.3%) expect business conditions will be in their segment to be the same or better six months from now, with 57.9% of respondents expecting higher revenue six months from now and 51.3% of respondents expecting higher profits six months from now. Only the revenue percentage shows a slight drop from the last survey (that time, 60% of respondents expected higher revenue in six months).
  • Budgetary Constraints and Increasing Volumes of Data are Expected to be Most Impact eDiscovery Business: A couple of issues that you feel will most impact the business of eDiscovery over the next six months swapped rankings. Budgetary Constraints (28.9%) still led the way, this time closely followed by Increasing Volumes of Data (26.3%), with Data Security (15.8%) dropping to third, Lack of Personnel (13.2%), Increasing Types of Data (10.5%) and finally, Inadequate Technology (5.3%), rounding out the field.  With recent stories such as the resolution of the Apple v FBI dispute (at least temporarily), the Verizon 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report and the “Panama Papers”, I was surprised that Data Security actually went down in the rankings.  The graph below illustrates the distribution.

Rob has published the results on his site here, which shows responses to additional questions not referenced here.  Check it out.  It will be interesting to see how these numbers trend over time.

So, what do you think?  What’s your state of confidence in the business of eDiscovery?  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.

Google Beats Oracle (Again): eDiscovery Trends

In a litigation that has been going on since 2010 (we started covering it in 2011), a federal jury concluded last Thursday that Google’s Android operating system does not infringe Oracle-owned copyrights because its re-implementation of 37 Java APIs is protected by “fair use.”

As reported by Ars Technica (Google beats Oracle—Android makes “fair use” of Java APIs, written by Joe Mullin), there was only one question on the special verdict form, asking if Google’s use of the Java APIs was a “fair use” under copyright law. The jury unanimously answered “yes,” in Google’s favor. The verdict ends the trial, which began earlier this month. If Oracle had won, the same jury would have gone into a “damages phase” to determine how much Google should pay. Because Google won, the trial is over – for now, at least.  Oracle vowed to appeal the decision as it did after the decision in 2012 where Google was found not to have infringed Oracle’s patents, despite inadvertent disclosures of draft emails (where recipients and the words “Attorney Work Product” hadn’t yet been added) in which a Google engineer discussed the need to negotiate terms with Oracle.

Oracle’s previous appeal was heard in December 2013 and the appellate court reversed the district court on the central issue in May 2014, holding that the “structure, sequence and organization” of an API was copyrightable.  The case was remanded to the district court for reconsideration only the basis of the fair use doctrine.

This time, prior to the trial starting earlier this month, U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s submitted an order urging both sides to respect the privacy of jurors after it became clear that both sides wanted that time to “scrub Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other Internet sites to extract personal data” and when asked about it, “counsel admitted this.”  Ultimately, as a result of Judge Alsup’s order, both sides agreed not to mine the jurors’ social media data.  Maybe Oracle wishes they had?  It will be interesting to see if Oracle can obtain another reversal on appeal.

So, what do you think?  Is this case finally over?  Or, will it keep going and going and going?  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.

Faster, Cheaper Better: How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery: eDiscovery Trends

We had a terrific session on Tuesday discussing how automation is revolutionizing eDiscovery at The Masters Conference Windy City Cybersecurity, Social Media and eDiscovery event.  If you’re disappointed that you missed it, you’re in luck – there’s a recording of the session!

The Masters Conference brings together leading experts and professionals from law firms, corporations and the bench to develop strategies, practices and resources for managing the information life cycle.  There were a number of terrific sessions this Tuesday and a wonderful speech from (nearly 82 year old) Jesse White, the Illinois Secretary of State.  What an amazing life he has had – from being a paratrooper in the Army to playing minor league baseball with the Cubs to founding the Jesse White Tumbling Team to serve as a positive alternative for children to his time as a Chicago schoolteacher and his long tenure as Illinois Secretary of State.  He says he can still do a hand stand today.  I hope I have that much energy when I am his age.

Anyway, CloudNine sponsored the session Faster, Cheaper, Better: How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery at 4:15 and the panelists, Rob Robinson, Managing Director of Complex Discovery, Kevin Clark, Executive Managing Director of Discovery Service for Hire Counsel, Jay Lieb, Founder and Managing Member of NexLP and I discussed a variety of current and emerging eDiscovery automation technologies.  The attendees were engaged and asked several good questions, so it was a very interesting free-form discussion regarding eDiscovery automation such as Technology Assisted Review, automated processing and pre-litigation artificial intelligence analysis.

Rob arranged for Kaylee Walstad of ACEDS to record the session and Rob has posted it on his Complex Discovery site here.  Thanks so much to Kaylee for recording the session!  Feel free to check it out.

The Masters Conference also has an event coming up in New York City in July and Washington DC in October.  Click here for more information on remaining scheduled events for the year.

So, what do you think?  Do you think that 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.

Today’s the Day to “Master” Your Knowledge of eDiscovery in Chicago!: eDiscovery Trends

Today’s the day!  If you’re in the Chicago area today, join me and other legal technology experts and professionals at The Masters Conference Windy City Cybersecurity, Social Media and eDiscovery event for a full day of educational sessions covering a wide range of topics!  It’s not too late to register and attend!

The Masters Conference brings together leading experts and professionals from law firms, corporations and the bench to develop strategies, practices and resources for managing the information life cycle.  This year’s Chicago event covers topics ranging from vendor selection to benefits and challenges associated with creating an Information Governance (IG) program to how to handle cross-border data in the wake of the Schrems decision and the new privacy shield.  The Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity and social media discovery are covered too.

The event will be held at the Metropolitan Club, 233 South Wacker Drive, 67th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606.  Registration begins at 8am, with sessions starting right after that, at 8:30am.

CloudNine will be sponsoring the session Faster, Cheaper, Better: How Automation is Revolutionizing eDiscovery at 4:15.  I will be moderating it with Rob Robinson, Managing Director of Complex Discovery, Kevin Clark, Executive Managing Director of Discovery Service for Hire Counsel and Jay Lieb, Founder and Managing Member of NexLP, as panelists.

Our panel discussion will provide an overview of the evolution of electronic discovery technologies and also share with attendees ways that they can consider and compare technology offerings from the large ecosystem of providers supporting litigation, investigations, and audits.  It should be a very informative discussion with a very knowledgeable panel!  Hope you can join us!

Click here to register for the conference.  If you’re a non-vendor, the cost is only $100 to attend for the full day!

The Masters Conference also has an event coming up in New York City in July and Washington DC in October.  Click here for more information on remaining scheduled events for the year.

So, what do you think?  Are you attending today’s conference?  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.