Industry Trends

EDRM Participant Profile, Crystal O’Donnell: eDiscovery Trends

When EDRM announced eDiscovery Daily as an Education partner last March, EDRM agreed to publish our daily posts on the EDRM site and it has been great to publish our content via the leading standards organization for the eDiscovery market!  However, another part of our agreement was for eDiscovery Daily to provide exclusive content to EDRM, including articles sharing real-life examples of organizations using EDRM resources in their own eDiscovery workflows.  Our latest participant profile is available on the EDRM site and we’re looking for other organizations to share their EDRM experiences!

These profiles are designed to illustrate how participants and their organizations contribute to the success of EDRM as well as how those organizations use EDRM resources in their own businesses.

Our latest EDRM Participant Profile Interview is with Crystal O’Donnell. Crystal is Founder and President of Heuristica Discovery Counsel.  She has a diverse and relevant professional history, with extensive experience as litigation and e-discovery counsel having practiced with a leading litigation firm and the Ministry of the Attorney General (Ontario). Crystal has represented clients in a number of complex matters at all levels of the Ontario courts as well as in regulatory proceedings and investigations.

Crystal’s range of expertise includes legal, strategic and software aspects of e-discovery, which are critical components of all legal proceedings and evidence-based proceedings. She also has experience with cross-border and conflicts of laws issues which arise in multi-jurisdiction and multi-forum matters.  Her years of experience as litigation counsel give her a keen appreciation and understanding of clients’ needs and allows her to deliver defensible, proportionate and cost-effective legal advice and solutions.

Crystal is also currently the Vice-Chair of the Ontario E-Discovery Implementation Committee, (“EIC”); Chair of the EIC Precedents Subcommittee; and, a Steering Committee member of Working Group 7, of the Sedona Conference (Sedona Canada).

In my interview with Crystal, she discussed why Heuristica decided to join EDRM, how EDRM compares to the Sedona Conference and she discussed several ways in which the discovery process is handled differently in Canada (as compared to the USA).  Very interesting stuff!

The link to Crystal’s interview on the EDRM site is here.  I hope you will check it out.

If you are a participant of EDRM and would like to be profiled (or would like to recommend a current EDRM participant to be profiled), please contact George Socha (george@edrm.net), Tom Gelbmann (tom@edrm.net) or me (daustin@cloudnincloudnine.comm) to arrange a profile interview with me to be published on the EDRM site.  We would love for you to share your experiences with EDRM and its resources!

So, what do you think?  Are you an EDRM member and want your organization to be profiled?  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.

Thursday LTNY 2016 Sessions: eDiscovery Trends

As noted yesterday and Tuesday, LegalTech® New York 2016 (LTNY) is happening this week and eDiscovery Daily is here to report about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  This is the last day to check out the show if you’re in the New York area with a number of sessions (both paid and free) available and over 174 exhibitors providing information on their products and services.

While at the show, we will (for the sixth year in a row!) be interviewing several industry thought leaders to see what they think are the significant trends for 2016 and, which of those are evident at LTNY.  After the show, we will announce the series of thought leader interviews and identify when each will be published.  Mark your calendars!

Perform a “find” on today’s LTNY conference schedule for “discovery” or “information governance” and you’ll get 41 hits.  So, there is plenty to talk about!  Sessions in the main conference tracks include:

9:00 – 10:00 AM:

Keynote Panel Discussion – Private Network Servers, Deleted Emails & Texts and Other Controversies in the News

  • Investigations into the State Department’s emails, the Fort Lee lane closure controversy and Deflategate: What do we know, and what would eDiscovery experts have advised to avoid each of these issues?
  • What laws apply to public records on private networks?
  • How should we deal with shadow IT applications (the use of commercial services for corporate and government business), beyond just having a BYOD policy?
  • Are institutions losing control of their ability to find and access records?
  • Comingling business, personal and public records: Can the knot be untied? Where is the line separating personal data?

Speakers to include: Daniel J. Capra (Discussion Leader), Reed Professor of Law, Fordham Law School; Jason R. Baron, Information Governance and eDiscovery Group, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Former Director of Litigation, National Archives and Records Administration; Edward B. MacMahon, Jr., Attorney, Edward B. MacMahon, Jr., PLC Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin, United States District Judge , United States District Court , Southern District of New York.

10:30 – 11:45 AM:

Civil Litigation: Unique Considerations of a Federal Civil Investigation and Impact of Revised FRCP

There are legal and strategic e-discovery challenges at each stage of an investigation.  The government stresses communication, expertise, and planning.  Understanding of the scope of claims, preservation issues, and search strategies can often set the tone for an entire case.  This panel will address how the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will affect litigation with the federal government, how new technology is changing old discovery, and provide practical suggestions on how to engage the government if you become involved in a civil investigation.

Speakers to include: George Kiersted (Discussion Leader), President, Kiersted Systems; Christopher Belen, Senior Litigation Counsel for E-discovery , US Department of Justice-Civil Division; Robert L. Levy, Counsel – Civil Justice Reform and Law Technology, Exxon Mobil Corporation; Allison Stanton, Director of E-Discovery, FOIA and Records, US Department of Justice-Civil Division, Joshua Wood, Director, Office of Litigation Support, US Department of Justice-Civil Division.

What Happened to the US/EU Safe Harbor?  The Tension Between Privacy and Business Efficiency for Multinational Corporations

  • Overview of the CJEU’s Safe Harbor ruling and its impact on multi-national corporations
  • Common-sense, practical steps that can help an organization deal with the current ambiguity and to mitigate exposure of EU resident data housed in the US
  • What’s on the horizon – will there be a Safe Harbor 2.0? What will it look like?

Speakers to include: Robert D. Brownstone, Technology & eDiscovery Counsel and Chair, Electronic Information Management (EIM) Group, Fenwick & West LLP; Chris Dale, The e-Disclosure Information Project; Kenneth N. Rashbaum, Partner, Barton LLP; Amie Taal, Vice President of Digital Forensics and Investigations, Deutsche Bank; Richard Vestuto, Director – Deloitte Discovery, Deloitte Advisory.

Dancing with the Stars of eDiscovery: Case Studies in eDiscovery Powered by Analytics

eDiscovery practitioners have paired up with their software vendors to show their best litigation dance steps as they each present case studies in eDiscovery powered by analytics. See how clients saved millions of dollars and countless person-hours by putting analytics in motion with the grace and elegance of Fred Asaire and Ginger Rogers.

Hear firsthand how iControl ESI danced through 5.5 million documents partnered with Ipro Eclipse to reduce the corpus to a few thousand.  See how Paragon two-stepped a single 7 TB data set for two different cases using iCONECT Xera to save $1.5 million in review costs for the second case. Marvel at how McDermott Will & Emery tangoed with kCura’s Relativity to save millions in review fees during the Anheuser-Busch InBev merger investigation by the Department of Justice. And awe at Altep’s effortless legwork as Denton LLP reduced a 35k document set to less than 1% in less than 20 days, all with the sophisticated capabilities of advanced analytics.

Speakers to include: Ari Kaplan (Discussion Leader), Founder, Ari Kaplan Advisors; Iram Arras, Vice President, Product Strategy, iCONECT; Jacob Cross, Customer Success Workflow Consultant, kCura; Michelle Drucker, Litigation Paralegal, Dentons; Drew Lewis, Vice President of Innovation, General Counsel, Paragon; Hunter McMahon, JD, CIPT, Vice President of Legal & Consulting Services, Altep; Mike Schubert, Chief Operational Officer, Ipro; Alison Silverstein, Managing Director, McDermott Discovery; Mark G. Walker, Sr., eDiscovery Consultant, iControl ESI.

12:15 – 1:30 PM:

How E-Discovery is Different and How Social Media and Recent Decisions Affect the Landscape

The rules, risks, and responsibilities for Criminal investigations are different from E-Discovery in Civil Cases. Emerging trends in technology and in particular the impact of social media present challenges and opportunities.  This panel will address recent developments including the Second Circuit’s decision in Ganais. It will provide practical suggestions on how to engage the government if you become involved in an investigation, how to navigate the unique rules and e-discovery issues involved in criminal investigations, and why you need to be prepared.

Speakers to include: George Kiersted (Discussion Leader), President, Kiersted Systems; Curt Bohling, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Monetary Penalties Unit, United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri; Tracy Greer, Senior Litigation Counsel for E-Discovery, US Department of Justice- Antitrust Division; John Haried, Assistant US Attorney, Colorado and Senior Litigation Counsel for Criminal eDiscovery, EOUSA, US Department of Justice; Kathleen Stimpson, Litigation Technology Manager, US Attorney’s  Office, District of Massachusetts.

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

  • How will the FRCP changes alter 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 litigation.
  • Navigating potential ethical challenges with regard to advice on data retention and disposition in light of the updated Rules.

Speakers to include: Robert D. Brownstone, Technology & eDiscovery Counsel and Chair, Electronic Information Management (EIM) Group, Fenwick & West LLP; Julie Colgan, CRM, IGP, Head of Information Governance Solutions, Nuix; John Isaza, Partner, Rimon PC, Jason Stearns, Director, Legal and Compliance Group, Blackrock.

Consumerization and eDiscovery: How Pandora, Netflix and Amazon are Changing eDiscovery Expectations through Analytics

Consumer applications such as Pandora music service, Netflix and Amazon have changed the way we expect information to be presented to us as consumers. We expect them to know what we’re looking for, anticipating our needs based on what we’ve liked in the past, powered by advanced analytics.

Litigation practitioners and corporate counsel should expect the same from their eDiscovery software – finding what they’re looking for without having to specifically ask for it by name.  Use predictive coding to find similar documents and tag them as responsive or privileged.  Come see real life examples of how sophisticated advanced analytics are used in eDiscovery much like they are with consumer applications used by hundreds of millions of people every day, to more intelligently and efficiently process massive amounts of data into manageable and cost-effective collections.

Speakers to include: Ari Kaplan (Discussion Leader), Founder, Ari Kaplan Advisors; Jeff Fehrman, Chief Strategy Officer, Mindseye; Jawahar Jaddu, Director, Product Management, Consilio; Collin Miller, Director of RiskcoveryServices, Altep.

2:00 – 3:00 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: Robert D. Brownstone, Technology & eDiscovery Counsel and Chair, Electronic Information Management (EIM) Group, Fenwick & West LLP; James Arnold, Managing Director, Forensic Services, KPMG LLP; Ari Kaplan, Founder, Ari Kaplan Advisors, Peter Miller, Senior Counsel, Crowell & Moring LLP, Chris Pogue, Senior Vice President, Cyber Threat Analysis , Nuix.

In addition to these, there are other eDiscovery-related sessions today.  For a complete description for all sessions today, click here.

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

Wednesday LTNY 2016 Sessions: eDiscovery Trends

As noted yesterday, LegalTech® New York 2016 (LTNY) is happening this week and eDiscovery Daily is here to report about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  There’s still time to check out the show if you’re in the New York area with a number of sessions (both paid and free) available and over 174 exhibitors providing information on their products and services.

While at the show, we will (for the sixth year in a row!)  be interviewing several industry thought leaders to see what they think are the significant trends for 2016 and, which of those are evident at LTNY.  After the show, we will announce the series of thought leader interviews and identify when each will be published.  Mark your calendars!

Perform a “find” on today’s LTNY conference schedule for “discovery” or “information governance” and you’ll get 54 hits.  So, there is plenty to talk about!  If you get a chance, come check out the session 25 Ediscovery Warnings in 75 Minutes: Common Blunders that Befall Litigation Teams at 3:45pm today where several eDiscovery professionals (including me) will give you tips on eDiscovery issues to avoid!  Other sessions in the main conference tracks include:

10:30 – 11:45 AM:

Questions and Answers: Analytics for Investigations & Compliance

Investigating is about asking questions and finding answers—and analytics can hold the key. Communications mapping, phrase and entity extraction, conceptual groupings, and more are powerful vehicles to help you get where you need to go. Learn from experienced attorneys and data scientists how they’re successfully using a range of data analytics to expedite fact finding, inform decisions, and better support their clients. This session will present practical strategies and real life success stories that you can start replicating right away.

Speakers to include: Alexis Clark (Discussion Leader), Data Scientist, Recommind; Bennett Borden, Chief Data Scientist and Chair of the Information Governance & eDiscovery Group , Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; Avi Gesser, Partner, Davis Polk and Wardwell; Alex Ponce de Leon, Discovery Counsel, Google.

Intelligent Cloud: Ensuring Governance, Risk, Compliance & e-Discovery in Cloud-Based Applications

Cloud-based applications have exploded over the last few years. These applications allow companies to reduce infrastructure costs, gain flexibility and access enhanced functionality. Without adequate oversight and governance though, companies face increased risks of unauthorized access, theft of IP, and discovery and compliance failures. This panel will take an in-depth look at the risks associated with cloud-based apps and the emerging approaches and technologies being used to mitigate these risks and improve functionality.

Speakers to include: John Loveland (Discussion Leader) , Managing Director, Huron Legal; Peter Baumann, CEO and Co-Founder, Active Navigation; Dean Gonsowski, Vice President, kCura; Mark Jenkins, Sr. Director, Strategic Alliances, Skyhigh Networks; Mike Silano, Lead Solution Architect, Box.

The Science of Predictive Coding: How Has TREC Changed Ediscovery and What Have We Learned From the 2015 TREC Total Recall Track?

Have you heard of TREC – the Text Retrieval Conference? Are you familiar with its research under TREC’s “Legal Track” and its successor, the “Total Recall Track”? Perhaps you are not exactly familiar with TREC’s mission and research activities? How does TREC relate to ediscovery and predictive coding?

This panel will be comprised of TREC veterans and predictive coding gurus. They will provide a summary of the history and purpose of the TREC program and dive deep into ediscovery lessons learned from participating in this scientific research program. Anyone who uses – or is thinking about using – predictive coding in their next ediscovery review project will benefit from learning more about TREC’s research.

Speakers to include: Emily Cobb (Discussion Leader), Associate, Ropes & Gray; Jason R. Baron, Information Governance and eDiscovery Group, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Former Director of Litigation, National Archives and Records Administration; Ralph Losey, Shareholder, Jackson Lewis; Jim Sullivan, Senior Discovery Services Consultant, Kroll Ontrack.

12:30 – 1:30 PM:

Mitigating Risk with Information Governance and Insight – Open To All

In spite of stepped up efforts by most IT departments, organizations continue to face increased risk exposure from gaps in compliance, security and illegal behavior. Unfortunately much of this risk stems from what a company doesn’t know about their data both inside and outside their walls.

In this session, information governance experts will discuss:

  • The importance of gaining insight across your enterprise information
  • How this insight directly impacts your ability to achieve compliance, mitigate risk, and avoid costly penalties
  • The growing expectation of predictive analytics in governance
  • Perspectives on the right strategies, processes, and tools that can help you proactively take action with big data to reduce risk

Speakers to include: Matthew Levy (Discussion Leader), Vice President, eDiscovery, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Wayne Matus, Managing Director, Global Head of eDiscovery, UBS AG; Robert D. Owen, Partner, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan; Hon. Andrew J. Peck, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of New York; Judy Selby, Partner and Co-leader, Information Governance Team, BakerHostetler.

2:00 – 3:15 PM:

Survey Results: How Legal Ops, Analytics, and the Cloud are Reinventing Corporate Legal

Legal operations leaders are driving an unprecedented focus on discovery processes, data security, and the efficiency of outside litigation teams. Ari Kaplan, Hal Marcus, and guest speakers will present findings from the benchmark 2015 Corporate Legal Operations Survey by Ari Kaplan Advisors, featuring insights into cloud readiness, investigations activity, discovery consolidation, performance metrics, and more. Come learn what legal operations leaders are doing (and not yet doing) to optimize security, visibility, and efficiency.

Speakers to include: Ari Kaplan (Discussion Leader), Founder, Ari Kaplan Advisors; Hal Marcus (Discussion Leader), Product Marketing Manager, Recommind; Brent Holmes, eDiscovery Program Director, Siemens Corp.; Alex Ponce de Leon, Discovery Counsel, Google; Dawn Radcliffe, Manager, Discovery & Legal Support, TransCanadaPipelines, Ltd; Rick Schoeneck, Director of Electronic Discovery, Accenture.

Aligning New Technology, Data Protection, and E-Discovery

To be successful, companies must leverage new technologies. However, those great new tools and gadgets often bring complicated risk management issues. How do you effectively meet e-discovery obligations in an evolving world that includes different forms of collaboration, cloud services, BYOD, system upgrades and migrations, and increased compliance requirements? What about the challenges of identifying and preserving data when new technologies are introduced and new sources and types of data are revealed? How far should you dig to find data? Have you had to play catch up to understand the e-discovery impact after rolling out something new? This panel will help you look at ways to help defend the corporation without causing unnecessary backlogs and balance the sometimes competing interests of progress and protection.

Speakers to include: Joanne Lane (Discussion Leader), Associate Director, Investigations & eDiscovery, Merck & Co., Inc.; Jennifer Hamilton, Global eDiscovery Counsel, Deere & Company; Sadie Khodorkovsky, Executive Director, Legal Discovery Management, JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Eric Lieber, Director of Legal Technology, Toyota Motor Sales, USA; Tracey Garland Vinson, Senior Counsel and Director of E-Discovery , Bayer Corporation.

Turning on the Lights in a Dark [Data] Room

Companies, business units and individuals are all amassing huge volumes of disparate data.  One way or another, we are paying for it or not recognizing the opportunity cost associated with all that data.  This is what has led to the term “dark data.” Some organizations are masterfully using dark data to build their business. Yet, others succumb to the costly pains of trudging through small percentages of data amongst their huge data stores in reaction to a legal event.

It’s time for the convergence of expertise and resources in information governance, data analytics, business intelligence, risk management and electronic discovery to build true information intelligence.  This interactive session will enable you to understand what dark data is, why it’s not the same for everyone, and how you can use it to your organization’s benefit without breaking the bank.

Speakers to include: Tom Barce (Discussion Leader), Director of Consulting Services, Kroll Ontrack; Vincent M. Catanzaro, Of Counsel, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP; James L. Michalowicz, Senior Manager – Legal Operations Business Performance, TE Connectivity; Clifford E. Nichols, Senior Counsel , Day Pitney.

Slashing E-Discovery Costs: Innovative Approaches and New Alternative Fee Arrangements

In today’s era of cost-cutting, many corporations have begun internalizing key functions that they used to outsource to law firms and service providers. In fact, in 2014 corporations reallocated approximately $1.1 billion from outside legal support to in-house operations to reduce costs. One main area that is ripe for reduction is e-discovery – the largest single litigation cost. This panel will showcase how law firms and service providers can dramatically reduce e-discovery costs and, at the same time, accelerate trial preparedness for their clients, without being forced to in-source this traditionally outsourced function. The session discusses how the “old way” of pricing e-discovery services (per-gigabyte pricing, hourly rates and unrealistic estimates) is being replaced by the “new normal”: a focus on total project cost, fixed fees and performance guarantees.

Speakers to include: Dave Deppe (Discussion Leader), President, UnitedLex; Brian E. Chebli, Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, Legal Discovery Management, JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Christine Hasiotis, Executive Counsel & Director, Legal Support Solutions, Electric Insurance Company; Anthony S. Lowe, Managing Attorney Litigation Operations, Associate General Counsel, Freddie Mac; Farrah Pepper, Executive Counsel – Discovery, General Electric Company; Greg Witczak, Vice President, Deutsche Bank.

3:45 – 5:00 PM:

The New Attorney Experience:  Understanding the Litigation Landscape in 2016 & Beyond

This will be a panel discussion moderated by LexisNexis Application Architect Mike Etgen that will briefly discuss the current state of affairs for litigation, but then quickly move into a discussion of what the Litigation Attorney’s experience will look like over the next 5 years. This session will include valuable market insight into what Attorneys want in their litigation technology and tools, and the impact of the user experience on use and adoption of those tools.  The panel of experts will share their real-world experience around workflow challenges and software adoption. The session will also discuss an array of solutions in the market and offer ways we intend to better support them.

Speakers to include: Michael Etgen (Discussion Leader), Senior User Experience Architect, LexisNexis; Ron Best, eDiscovery Counsel and Director of Legal Information Systems, Munger, Tolls & Olson; David Cowen, President and Managing Director, The Cowen Group; Scott Milner, Partner, Morgan Lewis.

25 Ediscovery Warnings in 75 Minutes: Common Blunders that Befall Litigation Teams

Educational and entertaining!  Join experienced ediscovery moderators in a fast-paced series of live stories from audience members, who will share examples from their own experiences of ediscovery situations gone wrong, explain how the issue was ultimately resolved and share their lessons learned.

From tips to save on monthly data hosting costs and avoid over-collection to knowing what de-duplication protocol to follow, this session will share tactical, practical examples of ediscovery gotchas –in 3 minutes or less each!

Speakers to include: George Socha (Discussion Leader), EDRM Consultant, Socha Consulting LLC; Josh Zybershlag (Discussion Leader), Vice President, Client Experience, Kroll Ontrack.

In addition to these, there are other eDiscovery-related sessions today.  For a complete description for all sessions today, click here.

eDiscovery Daily will also be “tweeting” periodically throughout LTNY, so feel free to check out our updates at twitter.com/Cloud9Discovery.

So, what do you think?  Are you planning to attend LTNY 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 New York 2016!: eDiscovery Trends

Today is the start of LegalTech® New York 2016 (LTNY) and, for the sixth(!) year in a row, eDiscovery Daily is here to report about the latest eDiscovery trends being discussed at the show.  Over the next three 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 New York area, I encourage you to check out the show – there are a number of sessions (both paid and free) available and over 174 exhibitors providing information on their products and services.

While at the show, we will (also for the sixth year in a row!)  be interviewing several industry thought leaders to see what they think are the significant trends for 2016 and, which of those are evident at LTNY.  After the show, we will announce the series of thought leader interviews and identify when each will be published.  Mark your calendars!

Perform a “find” on today’s LTNY conference schedule for “discovery” or “information governance” and you’ll get 75 hits.  So, there is plenty to talk about!  Sessions in the main conference tracks include:

9:00 – 10:00 AM:

Keynote Panel Discussion – How is Technology Being Used in Today’s Court Rooms and Cases?

In this session, our panel of United States judges describes what they are currently seeing in their courts regarding big data, analytics, eDiscovery and other technologies.  Discussion points include:

  • How are today’s attorneys incorporating these technologies into their cases?
  • How does managing big data and analytics proactively and employing eDiscovery benefit the litigation process?
  • How do judges view emerging technologies such as products that provide judicial intelligence, including the use of predictive analytics in order to gain insight into judicial behavior?
  • What does the future legal technology landscape look like and how should we prepare?

Speakers to include: Erin E. Harrison (Discussion Leader), Editor-in-Chief, Legaltech News, ALM; Hon. James C. Francis, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of New York; Hon. Lorenzo F. Garcia, Chief Magistrate Judge Emeritus, United States District Court, District of New Mexico; 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; Hon. Pamela Meade Sargent, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Western District of Virginia.

10:30 – 11:45 AM:

Taking a Step Back Could Leap You Ahead of eDiscovery

While the best of intentions are there, most of us still wait for a lawsuit, investigation, or data breach before we think about eDiscovery.  In fact, 50% of us still manually search across electronic and paper records when it happens.  Just a little bit of proactive planning can go a long way to help you more efficiently access, evaluate, and respond to legal matters.  Join these experts to learn the baby steps you can take towards more holistic information governance.

Speakers to include: Matthew Levy (Discussion Leader), Vice President eDiscovery, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Gareth Evans, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Marty Provin, Executive Vice President, Jordan Lawrence; Michael Simon, Principal, Seventh Samurai.

Protecting the Company’s Crown Jewels in the Age of Information Security Threats

Is all enterprise data created equal? If not, should all enterprise data have the same protections? The ethical pitfalls of well-publicized data breaches, from customer credit card data to employee health records, highlight the increasing need for companies to better secure truly sensitive data. Developing a tiered approach to protecting the company’s “crown jewels” can help reduce costs as well as reduce the risk of future breaches. Hear from a panel of industry experts, including in-house legal and information governance executives, as they discuss the different strategies at work with a “crown jewels” approach and practical steps your organization can take to minimize information security threats.

Speakers to include: Jake Frazier (Discussion Leader), Senior Managing Director, FTI Technology; Michael Lisi, Director of Litigation Support, Fidelity Investments; Sylvan “Sibito” H Morley III, Vice President of IT Infrastructure and Operations, DaVita Kidney Care; Gail Rodgers, Partner, DLA Piper, Jason Stearns, Director, Legal and Compliance Group, Blackrock.

Controlling the Total Cost of Discovery: Tools, Rules, and Accruals

The Great Recession may be over, but the pressure on corporate counsel to keep reducing litigation costs has not subsided. And as volumes of electronic information grow, the expense of dealing with that information in discovery remains a substantial portion of litigation budgets. In this CLE program, legal department professionals will explore three strategies for controlling discovery costs –

  • Tools: How to cut the cost of e-discovery programs by incorporating efficiency-boosting analytics tools into standardized, routine workflows.
  • Rules: How to leverage new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which hold the promise of reducing costs by increasing the focus on proportionality in discovery.
  • Accruals: How to better understand—and contain—discovery costs by strategically collecting and analyzing discovery-related fees billed by law firms and other service providers.

Speakers to include: Jeanne Somma (Discussion Leader), Discovery Practice Director, DiscoverReady; Marla Bergman, Vice President, Associate General Counsel , Goldman Sachs; Scott Coonan, Senior Director of IP, Litigation & Strategy, Juniper Networks; John Marchese, Executive Director & Associate General Counsel , CME Group; Thane Vallette, Associate General Counsel, HP.

How is the New What:  Re-Thinking Legal Work

This CLE session will address a fundamental shift caused by the impact of technology on the practice of law.  The real technology innovations today are not about the speed, efficiency, or cost of what lawyers do.  They are all about re-thinking how legal work is delivered in the first place.   It will take a long-term view of a wide variety of technologies and aspects of change in the industry, including the structure of legal work and legal services organizations.

It will address aspects of change including:

  • The legal tech startup landscape, and the areas where they are having most impact
  • The new structure of the industry, with more players that aren’t traditional law firms
  • The rise of the legal operations function in in-house law departments and its impact
  • The impact of technology on courts and access to justice
  • Blockchain technology and the prospect of smart contracts
  • The evolving design of legal services and business models in the industry

Speakers to include: Joe Borstein, Esq., Global Director, Pangea3, Thomson Reuters Legal, David Curle, Director, Strategic Competitive Intelligence, Thomson Reuters Legal.

12:30 – 1:30 PM:

TAR 2.0 for Smart People: Moving Beyond E-Discovery Review

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 early case assessment, inbound productions, privilege protection and more.

Smart legal professionals are using a new protocol called Continuous Active Learning (CAL), which has proven more effective than first-generation TAR engines. With CAL, the system gets smarter as review progresses. That means you find relevant documents more quickly and at lower cost. In addition, CAL is simpler and more flexible, solving TAR 1.0 limitations in dealing with rolling deliveries and low-richness collections.

Join our panel of e-discovery veterans for an informative look at how corporations, government agencies and their law firms are taking advantage of the power of TAR 2.0 with CAL to move beyond simple e-discovery review. Topics include:

  • An introduction to CAL: How it works with TAR 2.0 and why it matters
  • Making TAR 2.0 the standard at your law firm: An e-discovery lawyer’s perspective
  • TAR 2.0 for corporate litigation: in-house and outside counsel’s views, and
  • TAR 2.0 for government agencies: Adapting new procedures in a government setting.

In this hour, we 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: John Tredennick (Discussion Leader), CEO and Founder, Catalyst Repository Systems, Inc.; Diane Barry, Assistant Attorney General/eDiscovery Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 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.

2:00 – 3:15 PM:

Ditch That Data to Mitigate Risk and Reduce Legal Spend

The volume of your data increases 40% every year.  Manual processes and legacy systems simply can’t keep up.  Learn practical knowledge on how people, process, and technology can help your organization create a leaner, more value driven information store while mitigating risk and reducing legal spend.

Speakers to include: Greg Clark (Discussion Leader), Chief Field Technologist, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Barclay T. Blair, Founder & Executive Director , Information Governance Initiative; Mark W. Cowing, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP; Michael Simon, Principal, Seventh Samurai.

Using Analytics in E-Discovery; Swim Instead of Sink in the Era of Big Data

Many generally understand the concept of analytics, but don’t know how to apply these technology advancements to achieve practical benefits during the e-discovery process. Data mining technology, and the visual representation of mined data, offer a paradigm shift for how legal teams can uncover key facts. These technologies can quickly and effectively reveal the small subset of critical data in a universe of hundreds of millions of emails, effectively circumventing comprehensive review or greatly accelerating the review process. Attendees will learn about common analytical and visualization technology and how practitioners are applying these tools to speed fact-finding, reduce e-discovery costs and avoid ethical pitfalls.

Speakers to include: Kathryn McCarthy (Discussion Leader), Senior Managing Director, FTI Technology; Nia Castelly, E-Discovery Counsel, Google; Sandra Rampersaud, Litigation Attorney, Cravath; Jessica Ross, Vice President, Litigation & Regulatory, Deutsche Bank.

Innovation or Inertia in eDiscovery: How Far Have We Come and Where Do We Need to Be?

Once, the very idea of eDiscovery itself was innovative. Today, we are years beyond eDiscovery as a novel concept, but some would argue that true innovation in the industry has been slow to arrive. Yet, innovation is critical to our ability to meet increasingly demanding regulatory requirements, manage constantly escalating costs, and control ever-evolving risks. The panel will discuss innovation in eDiscovery from the perspective of corporate users. Panelists will discuss how their current workflows have kept up with rapidly changing technology and increasingly stringent cost pressures. The discussion will address some of the key challenges facing the industry in the next five years and what types of innovation will be needed to overcome them, as well as the factors that will enable or stifle that innovation.

Speakers to include: Priya Keshav (Discussion Leader), Managing Director, KPMG LLP; Jeff Nass, Senior Counsel, eDiscovery, Boehringer Ingelheim, Kara Ricupero, Head of eDiscovery and Records and Information Management, eBay, Brett Tarr, Counsel and Director of Ediscovery, Caesars Entertainment Corporation.

Away With Words: The Myths and Misnomers of Conventional Search Strategies

Unparalleled advances in computing power and the ability to rapidly analyze data have been major drivers of business growth in the information economy. Traditional businesses have also come to rely heavily on analyzing data rapidly to make business decisions. This—while the volume, variety and velocity of data is increasing exponentially. One sector that has noticeably lagged behind is the legal industry. Relying on decades-old tools, technology and processes will not meet the challenges of finding, analyzing and deriving knowledge from the data deluge we are experiencing. This has to change. Fortunately, it is about to.

Speakers to include: Tom Barnett, Special Counsel eDiscovery and Data Science, Paul Hastings LLP; Ed Sohn, Sr. Director, Client Services, Thomson Reuters Legal.

3:45 – 5:00 PM:

Don’t Let Your Information Undermine Cybersecurity

Security is not a corporate IT problem, and failure to address it risks not just fines and financial loss, but long-term brand erosion.  The information governance you implement provides a critical understanding of the what, where, and who of your or your clients’ data that can move you closer to preemptive cybersecurity.  This session discusses how an end-to-end information governance strategy can help you protect your data assets and ethical obligations to your clients’ security.

Speakers to include: Doug Weiner (Discussion Leader), Senior Counsel, Cyber Security, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Joseph S. Abrenio, Vice President, Delta Risk LLC, A Chertoff Group Company; Martha Berek, Associate General Counsel, IT & Corporate Operations, United Technologies Corporation; James A. Merrifield, Information Governance Manager , Robinson & Cole LLP; Julia Montgomery, Solution Architect, Onguard Security Awareness, Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Advice from Counsel: How Legal Departments are Innovating & Disrupting the E-Discovery Process

Alternative billing models. Microsoft Office 365 and other cloud data sources. Cross-border litigation. The rise of machine learning and AI. From technical needs to business processes, the legal industry is riding the wave of innovations affecting the greater technology landscape. How are leading in-house legal teams adapting and evolving in their strategies to handle or even drive these disruptive forces? And what implications do these innovations have for the law firms that serve them? This session will feature results from the 2016 Advice from Counsel study on the disruptive forces affecting corporate counsel as well as strategies and hacks for embracing changes in legal technology for 2016 and beyond.

Speakers to include: Sophie Ross (Discussion Leader), Senior Managing Director, FTI Technology; Marla Bergman, Vice President, Associate General Counsel, Goldman Sachs; Kelly Clay, Senior Counsel and Director of Information Management , GlaxoSmithKline; Magistrate Judge Paul Singh Grewal, United States District Court , Northern District of California; Dera J. Nevin, Director, eDiscovery Services, Proskauer Rose LLP; Jessica Richheimer, Associate, Ropes & Gray.

Information Governance in Action: Data Reduction

This panel of distinguished information governance leaders will detail drivers for defensible data reduction and how its link to larger data governance and big data concerns make data reduction corporate requirement. Actual global governance designs, implementations and use cases will be detailed. The presentation and discussion will include details on secure, compliant data reduction around the full universe of information governance needs, and how to justify budget. The presentation will incorporate specific industry knowledge, experience and leading practices that have led to actionable recommendations for Fortune 100 global organizations. It will detail how data reduction is a mitigating factor against privacy, confidentiality and intellectual property breaches due to large and unmanageable information volumes. It will also include a discussion of how organizations have benefitted from Information Governance development and implementation.

Speakers to include: Steve Stein (Discussion Leader), Principal, KPMG LLP; Richard P. Kessler, Executive Director, Information Lifecycle Governance, UBS, David Smythe, Information Lifecycle Management; Firmwide Data Management, JPMorgan Chase, Jason Stearns, Director, Legal and Compliance Group, Blackrock.

Managing Data Security and Privacy in Litigation: Securing Every Link in the Chain

It’s difficult enough to effectively secure private and sensitive information within a company’s own four walls; when information flows into litigation discovery, weak links in the data security chain create substantial additional risk. In this CLE program, in-house counsel and e-discovery professionals will discuss how they manage this risk and protect the company’s valuable data assets. The panelists will address:

  • Data security expectations for e-discovery providers and law firms;
  • Measures to protect information turned over to opposing parties and the court; and
  • Effective ways to screen for uber-sensitive information like trade secrets, source code, unreleased products, and personally identifying information.

Speakers to include: Amy Hinzmann (Discussion Leader) , EVP, DiscoverReady; Ruth Hauswirth, Special Counsel and Director of Litigation and E-Discovery Services and Senior Attorney, Cooley LLP, Allan Hsu, Director, eDiscovery/Litigation, Fannie Mae, Chris Sitter, EnCE, eDiscovery & Digital Forensics Senior Manager, Juniper Networks, Michelle Spak, Associate General Counsel, Duke Energy Corporation.

The Ediscovery Question Challenge, If You Choose to Accept

Do you have an ediscovery ‘headache’ that will not subside?  Are you perplexed by an ediscovery question that seems to have no answer? Do you want expert advice, but don’t want to pay consultancy rates?  Join our session to ask the assembled panel of ediscovery experts the seemingly impossible and difficult questions.  They like a challenge, so if you are currently dealing with pricing or budgeting issues, poorly managed processes, or just have a complex data nightmare – submit your toughest questions to our panel of ediscovery experts (they can handle it).  Maybe you don’t have an impossible question, that’s great!  You are welcome to ask a random ediscovery question, or request more information around a nuanced ediscovery topic during this interactive session.  The most-challenging question just might win a prize.  Is this a challenge you are willing to accept? If so submit your questions here:  http://lms.tr.com/LTNY2016

Speakers to include: Greg McPolin (Discussion Leader), COO, Thomson Reuters; Scott Reents, Senior Associate and Discovery Counsel, Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; Ed Sohn, Sr. Director, Client Services, Thomson Reuters Legal; Martin Tully, Partner, Akerman LLP, Skip Westfall, FVS Managing Director – FTS Practice Leader, Grant Thornton LLP.

In addition to these, there are other eDiscovery-related sessions today.  For a complete description for all sessions today, click here.

eDiscovery Daily will also be “tweeting” periodically throughout LTNY, so feel free to check out our updates at twitter.com/Cloud9Discovery.

So, what do you think?  Are you planning to attend LTNY 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.

Thanks to ACEDS and Rob Robinson, I Have a LegalTech “Travel Day” Topic to Cover: eDiscovery Trends

LegalTech® New York 2016 (LTNY) starts tomorrow!  As I painfully learned a couple of years ago, travelling to LTNY can sometimes be challenging, so I’m leaving plenty of time to get there this year, which leaves me little time to write a post for today.  Thankfully, the New York Metro Area chapter of ACEDS and Rob Robinson (author of the terrific Complex Discovery site) have just published a podcast about eDiscovery trends that I think you will find quite informative!

Joe Bartolo of Kiersted Systems and Bradley Schaffel of Wilmer Hale host this latest edition of the ACEDS New York Metro Area podcast series, which is an interview with Rob covering a variety of topics, including his thoughts on the automation trend within the eDiscovery industry, a discussion of the four generations of eDiscovery technology (which we covered previously here), the emergence of SaaS providers in the industry, requirements for a complete eDiscovery solution and Rob’s take on various useful industry resources.  Well worth a listen if you can find a free 16:16 (i.e., 16 minutes and 16 seconds) during your day.  :o)

A link to the podcast can be found on the Complex Discovery site here.  Thanks guys, I owe you one!

So, what do you think?  Are you attending LegalTech this week?  If so and if you see me, say “hi”!  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.

LegalTech Preview: Is Predictive Coding Not “Cool” Anymore?: eDiscovery Trends

Believe it or not, but LegalTech® New York 2016 (LTNY) is just one week away!  eDiscovery Daily will be covering the show for the sixth year in a row.  And, also for the sixth year in a row, we will be conducting our annual thought leader series at the show.  More on that later.

Anyway, we thought we would take an advanced look at the show and make a couple of initial observations.  If you’re attending the show next week, let us know if you have any additional thoughts or particular areas of interest that you will be checking out next week.

Where Have all the Predictive Coding Sessions Gone?: In the past few years, sessions about predictive coding or technology assisted review (TAR) were plentiful, with two to three sessions per day at last year’s show.  This year, there appears to be only two sessions related to PC and TAR overall, with a third session discussing analytics in general.  Conversely, there are about 2-3 sessions per day discussing cybersecurity.  Is predictive coding not “cool” anymore?  I’m curious as to whether the lack of sessions is because it’s no longer “trendy” to talk about predictive coding, or that it’s assumed that most attendees already use some form of predictive coding or that it’s assumed that most do not use predictive coding?  I will be interested to get some thoughts from attendees at the show about this trend.

Number of Exhibitors Continues to Drop: Every year, I go to the exhibitor’s page of the LTNY site and count the number of exhibitors listed for the show.  Here are the counts for the past five years: 2012 – 225, 2013 – 225, 2014 – 218, 2015 – 199, this year – 174.  See the trend?  That’s a 22.7% drop in number of exhibitors since 2013.  Is that because more providers are choosing not to exhibit at LTNY?  Or there are less providers in the legal technology industry due to consolidation?  Or are more exhibitors simply opting for larger double booths, so there is less total booths available for exhibitors?  Perhaps it’s possibly a combination of all of the above factors.

There are tracks each day related to information governance and eDiscovery, so there should be plenty of interesting sessions to attend.  On Tuesday, there are three tracks related to IG and ED: Track 1 (Information Governance and Big Data), Track 2 (Disruptive eDiscovery and Data Security Trends) and Track 6 (Change is Coming: Exploring the Now and the Near of Ediscovery and Legal Services).  On Wednesday, there is one track related to ED: Track 5 (Ediscovery in Action) and on Thursday,  there are two tracks related to IG and ED: Track 3 (2016: Information Governance Challenges) and Track 4 (eDiscovery Breakthroughs: Analytics and the Changing Face of Discovery).

Here are three sessions of particular interest that I recommend checking out if you can:

  • How is Technology Being Used in Today’s Court Rooms and Cases?: The opening keynote presentation on Tuesday at 9:00am. Five US judges describe what they are currently seeing in their courts regarding big data, analytics, eDiscovery and other technologies.
  • 25 Ediscovery Warnings in 75 Minutes: Common Blunders that Befall Litigation Teams: Wednesday at 3:45pm. Expanded version of the session that was presented at ILTACON last year.  Great opportunity to hear from your colleagues (including yours truly) about real-world problems experienced in eDiscovery and how to address them.
  • Private Network Servers, Deleted Emails & Texts and Other Controversies in the News: Thursday keynote at 9:00am. Great opportunity to hear from experts Jason R. Baron, Judge Shira Scheindlin and Edward B. MacMahon, Jr. (hiyo!) on newsworthy eDiscovery challenges, such as the State Department emails and “deflategate”.

So, what do you think?  Are you attending LegalTech next week?  If so and if you see me, say “hi”!  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.

More Questions to Answer Before Selecting Your Next eDiscovery Platform: eDiscovery Best Practices

Yesterday, we covered the first four questions that you should ask when considering selection of an eDiscovery platform for a case or for your entire organization to use, as discussed in a recent article on Legaltech© News.  Today, we’ll cover the remaining four questions.

To recap: In Buying a New E-Discovery Platform? 8 Questions You Need to Ask First, the author (Zach Warren) reaches out to two prominent e-discovery attorneys: Gareth Evans of Gibson Dunn and John Rosenthal of Winston & Strawn, to get their takes on eight questions that firms should ask themselves before investing in an eDiscovery platform.  We’re covering them here and I’ll provide some of my own thoughts, as well.

Should I choose just one platform, or should I look at multiple to handle different parts of the process?

Rosenthal stated “No brainer – one platform – one process. Volume is the enemy. Only through using people, process and technology at each stage of the EDRM can you ultimately reduce the volume that is subject to review and, thus, the overall cost of the review.  By using one platform with a consistent tool set you have the ability to develop work flows to develop a consistent, repeatable and defensible process for attacking the volume.”  I would add that the age of eDiscovery automation is upon us and it’s no longer necessary (in most cases) to have a different platform for processing, review and production.  Choosing a single platform to handle the bulk of the eDiscovery workflow is easier than ever before.

What cost does the firm prefer, and what costs are actually present?

Rosenthal stated that “Cost is a deceptive term when it comes to e-discovery platforms because there are components to cost that may not be obvious in the vendor’s proposal”.  When it comes to software, the ability to predict costs has become more important as data volumes have made eDiscovery more expensive.  It’s important to understand whether the eDiscovery platform provider assesses charges for each user or limits the number of cases that are included, whether they charge for training and support and whether they offer options to even waive processing charges.  All of those charges make it more difficult to predict costs for the software, whether hosted or in-house.

How long is the contract for?

As the article notes, locking into a contract “can go one of two ways – it creates a partnership between the vendor and firm which leads to more specialized service, or it locks the firm into a contract while technological advances happen all around them.”  That’s assuming, of course, that your provider isn’t keeping up with those technological advances, which they may be.  If not, it may be an issue whether you’re locked into a contract or not (switching eDiscovery platforms always comes with challenges such as moving data and training users on the new platform).

Locking into a contract can also result in loyalty discounts for your firm’s commitment and it’s also a benefit to the provider because it enables their revenue to be more predictable from month to month.  It’s a true “win-win” for both parties.  But, locking into a contract is not for all firms, so it’s important to know whether you can opt for shorter term commitments or even a no-commitment, pay-as-you-go plan.

Where will the data reside?

Evans noted that in order to properly assess the firm’s capabilities, decision makers should engage a knowledgeable expert – either internally or externally if need be – to ask some key questions: “What will make more economic sense and data security sense? Is your data security robust enough to protect your clients’ data, or are you better off hosting it in the cloud with the security of a vendor?”

It’s not just eDiscovery cloud providers that are advocating cloud-based over in house solutions, law firms are beginning to do so as well.  And, it’s also important to note that not all cloud storage is the same.  Some providers use public cloud storage, such as Amazon AWS where the data could be located anywhere in the world, for their data storage while others use a protected cloud data center approach where the data resides on their servers in a known location.  How important is it for you to know where your data is located?

So, what do you think?  What questions did (or would) you ask in selecting your eDiscovery technology solution?  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.

Questions to Answer Before Selecting Your Next eDiscovery Platform: eDiscovery Best Practices

Considering selection of an eDiscovery platform for a case or for your entire organization to use?  A recent article on Legaltech© News provides some useful questions to ask to help select the solution that best meets your needs.

In Buying a New E-Discovery Platform? 8 Questions You Need to Ask First, the author (Zach Warren) reaches out to two prominent e-discovery attorneys: Gareth Evans of Gibson Dunn and John Rosenthal of Winston & Strawn, to get their takes on eight questions that firms should ask themselves before investing in an eDiscovery platform.  We’ll cover them here and I’ll provide some of my own thoughts, as well.

What do your attorneys actually use?

In the article, Evans discussed polling his own attorneys – with something as simple as a SurveyMonkey poll – to determine what platforms they like and dislike and why.  That’s certainly important information to gather.  It has also been my experience that the more attorneys you have, the less likely they are to agree on a preferred platform, so it makes sense to get a sense of the features that are most important to them as well (which conveniently leads right into the next question).  :o)

How will people use the technology?

As the author notes, “it’s important to nail down how the attorneys are actually planning on using the platform”.  Do they require sophisticated analytics capabilities?  Or an easy to use platform that mostly requires baseline functionality.  Rosenthal also notes that much of the evaluation may be done by non-attorneys, so it’s important for those non-attorneys need to spend time to understand the objectives of the case team to select technology that enables the case team to expedite the review.

It’s also important to understand the role of each person using the platform and what their proficiency level is.  Will the firm be using an experienced in-house litigation support person or outside vendor to load data?  Or will attorneys want to manage that process themselves?  With automation tools available today, more attorneys are beginning to actually load their own data.

What are the platforms’ data analytics capabilities, and do we need them?

Both Evans and Rosenthal indicated that the latest and greatest analytics capabilities are often not needed; Evans noted that high-powered analytics could be “overkill” for most users, and Rosenthal noted that “For overwhelming majority of reviews, the most sophisticated analytics such as predictive coding will not be used”.  Some analytics capabilities can be useful in all cases (e.g., domain categorization, thread identification, near-duplicate identification, clustering, etc.) and others are only occasionally needed.  Evans noted that his firm “went with a more basic platform, with the opportunity to use a more robust platform as needed for those more familiar with the technology or as a larger case demands”.  In other words, don’t buy more technology than you need.

Can the firm’s preexisting technology handle the new platform?

Evans says that bringing the firm’s IT department into the process is important.  What if you’re considering a cloud-based eDiscovery solution?  Is it still important?  Absolutely.  At CloudNine, we once had a client that was experiencing all sorts of issues accessing our cloud-based review platform – as it turned out, they had a highly secured network environment that was rather restrictive in access of sites that weren’t “whitelisted” (i.e., registered to allow full access).  Once their IT department whitelisted our site, those issues disappeared immediately.  So, it’s always important, regardless of the type of solutions you’re considering.

Those are the first four questions; tomorrow, we will take a look at the remaining four.

So, what do you think?  What questions did (or would) you ask in selecting your eDiscovery technology solution?  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.

The Fourth Generation of eDiscovery Offerings is Upon Us as Well: eDiscovery Trends

If you read this blog regularly, you know that we’re big admirers of Rob Robinson’s Complex Discovery site, from his software and services “mashup” to his running 14+ year list of mergers, acquisitions and investments in the eDiscovery industry.  Now, Rob provides a generational breakdown of eDiscovery technology offerings, giving organizations out there useful information to differentiate offerings in the eDiscovery marketplace.

Last week, we noted that the age of eDiscovery automation is upon us.  This week, Rob undertakes providing “comparison frameworks to help eDiscovery practitioners systematically evaluate the technology in available offerings” in his two part article Considering Fourth Generation eDiscovery Technology Offerings: Two Approaches.  In true Netflix binge watching style, Rob gives you part one and part two at once.  :o)

So, what are the two approaches for comparing eDiscovery offerings?  Rob lays them out at the start, as follows:

“The first approach, based on Geoffrey Moore’s whole product concept, consists of taking into account all elements of a technology offering to help create a complete offering comparison.

The second approach, based on a generational model view of eDiscovery technology, helps individuals compare offerings’ value based on their capability, flexibility, delivery method, and security.”

Rob then goes on to discuss the elements of a complete technology offering, complete with easy to understand graphics that help explain that the complete technology offering should include.  I particularly like Figure 2, which illustrates the Complete Discovery Offering as including Enabling Elements, Complimentary Elements and Complimentary Services (in my opinion, any offering without accompanying services is not a complete solution).

Having discussed the complete technology offering, Rob then provides a generational model of eDiscovery classification, keeping in mind design, integration, and automation (there’s that word again!) attributes in comparing the different generations as follows:

Rob continues by pointing out generational differences in design focus, integration approach and automation approach.  And, all of that is covered in just the first part!  In part two, Rob asks a series of questions (that organizations should be asking) about the technology offering’s capabilities in addressing planning, preservation, preparation, review and sharing requirements as well as its flexibility in integrating and automating eDiscovery tasks, its pricing model and its security approach.  Rob then ties it all together with his Generational Model of eDiscovery Technology Offerings (which we show at the top of this post).

I’ve hit the highlights, but only by reading the article can you get the details.  I recommend that you check it out.

So, what do you think?  What factors do (or did) you consider in selecting your eDiscovery technology solution?  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.

Not Only is the Age of eDiscovery Automation Upon Us, But So is the Age of Cloud-Based eDiscovery: eDiscovery Trends

That may be the first time I’ve ever put the word “eDiscovery” into the blog post title three times… :o)

On Monday, I declared that, in 2016, the age of eDiscovery automation is upon us.  So, who are these “jokers” asking if 2016 is the year of cloud-based eDiscovery?  The nerve!

I’m kidding, of course.  But, in the Bloomberg BNA article 2016 – The Year of Cloud-Based E-Discovery? (written by Daniel Garrie and Yoav M. Griver of Zeichner, Ellman & Krause), the authors note that “cloud-based computing will become more fully enmeshed in the e-discovery marketplace”.

For those of us that think that cloud-based computing already is fully enmeshed in the eDiscovery marketplace, here are some notable comments in the article from these two partners at a 50 attorney firm based in Manhattan:

  • “Some law firms feel that having a hosted solution on-site is more practical than a cloud-based solution. This is no longer true.”
  • “[O]ne thing the emerging players share is that they are finally aligning their cost with what the cost should be, which is not something often seen in the past with current entrenched solutions providers. This means that a firm can more easily find a cloud-based solution that is right for it, while paying a price that is likely less than the cost of maintaining the solution in-house.”
  • “Almost every e-discovery platform in the marketplace today requires some sort of connectivity to the Internet to obtain software updates, be it for the platform or the solution operating the platform. Consequently, law firms that elect to avoid cloud-driven solutions with the intention of offering clients greater security may not actually be providing greater security. Odds are that your security isn’t bulletproof, you don’t have 100 percent systems uptime, and you may not have the necessary amount of staff resources dedicated to IT management.”
  • “In short, cloud-based solutions are now mature enough that law firms should begin to evaluate e-discovery cloud solutions for the potential cost savings to the firm, the increased cyber security over their clients data, and for the decrease to their clients of the exorbitant costs that can often be associated with the discovery process. Each of these is not only a potential benefit to the law firm, but a potential selling point to a client.”

These words advocating cloud-based over on-site solutions within a law firm are not coming from an eDiscovery cloud provider, they are coming from two partners at an actual law firm.  That says a lot.  Of course, I’ve been saying that for over five years now:o)

In this day of mounting cybersecurity concerns, when it comes to evaluating eDiscovery solution providers, here are some questions to ask the provider regarding how they handle your clients’ data:

  • Where will my data be stored? Will it be on servers dedicated to your platform?  Can you access those servers physically is there is a need to copy large amounts of data to them quickly?  Will the data be stored within the US or could it be stored internationally?
  • What certifications has your data center earned? Is it ISO 27001 compliant?  Is it HIPAA compliant?  Is the data center compliant with any other certifications?
  • Does your data center have an uptime service agreement?
  • What physical security mechanisms are in place?
  • Does your data center provide multiple levels of redundancy?
  • Does the data center have backup power capabilities when main power goes out?

These are just a few of the questions to ask your eDiscovery cloud provider.  It’s important to be as informed as possible in this age of the routine cybersecurity breach before selecting your eDiscovery platform.  You don’t want to be these guys!

So, what do you think?  Do you think that cloud-based solutions for eDiscovery are more secure than in-house solutions?  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.