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eDiscovery Professional Profile: Do you know Cheryl Garner?
 

Cheryl Garner is the Practice Support Manager at Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP – a 150 attorney law firm with six offices in the U.S. Cheryl is located in the firm’s main office in Los Angeles, but has firm-wide responsibility. She joined the firm in December 2012, after a long and diverse career in the legal field.

As Practice Support Manager, Cheryl is responsible for litigation support, paralegal staff, the Docket Department, and the Workers Compensation Hearing Representatives. She spends most of her time coordinating the work of those departments, reaching out to attorneys to ensure they have the support they need, marketing the services of the departments for which she is responsible, and educating attorneys regarding best practices and making optimal use of the technology available to them.  She describes herself as a ‘Jack of all trades’ and often steps in with rolled-up sleeves to complete tasks alongside team members. She also directly handles firm-wide litigation support and eDiscovery, working closely with service providers that process data and provide hosting platforms for large cases.

Cheryl’s first legal position was with the US Attorneys office in Chicago.  She was a member of a word processing pool for the civil and criminal teams. From there she went to work for the American Bar Association as a word processing operator, and later worked in law firms as a legal secretary and word processing operator.  As technology advanced, Cheryl recognized that opportunities in word processing would diminish, and she developed a plan for her future.  While working full-time, she completed her undergraduate studies in 2000 and in 2002 she completed an ABA-approved paralegal program.  Armed with a background that included hands-on government and law firm experience, as well as paralegal and technology experience, career opportunities broadened.  Up until 2008 she worked for large law firms providing secretarial, paralegal, technology, and trial support.  In 2008 when she moved to a smaller firm, she soon recognized it was the perfect fit for her at that stage of her career. She believes that the experience she got at the smaller firms after working primarily in larger firms has been invaluable.

In 2012, Cheryl joined Manning & Kass as Practice Support Manager, a recently created position.  The position was still in its infancy when Cheryl came on board, and she saw this as a logical progression in her career.  Cheryl enjoys her work because it incorporates – and requires – the skills she has honed and the interaction she enjoys.  The firm’s structure, having paralegals report to Practice Support, increases opportunities to introduce litigation technology to the litigation teams.  It’s a model that works well for Cheryl.

When asked about her greatest professional accomplishment, Cheryl quickly answered “Getting to where I am now in my career”.  Through hard work, foresight of the use of law firm technology, and education, Cheryl planned and crafted a career that she is proud of, one that she is good at, and one that she thoroughly enjoys.

Throughout her career, Cheryl has been active in professional organizations. While still a paralegal student, Cheryl joined the Los Angeles Paralegal Association (LAPA). Later, she sat on LAPA’s Board of Directors and was Chair of the Litigation Committee.  She is still a member today.  She is also a member of NALA (National Association of Legal Assistants), and recently earned the Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP) designation in discovery.  She is a member of ACEDS (Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists) and plans to sit for the CEDS certification exam in the near future.

Cheryl is also an instructor in the technology track of the ABA-approved paralegal program at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA).  Since 2011 she has taught the introductory course Law Office Technology, and more recently, Trial Technology.  She will teach Applied Technology in the Fall of 2014. Cheryl enjoys teaching because it offers her an opportunity to equip paralegals entering the field with the legal technology foundation they will need to succeed as legal professionals.

Cheryl is originally from Chicago, Illinois and started her professional career there.  She moved to Los Angeles 22 years ago with her son, who today also works in the legal industry.  While her work at Manning & Kass and teaching at CSULA take up most of her time, Cheryl finds time to enjoy ‘Chicago Style Stepping’, an urban dance that originated in Chicago and is similar in movements to’ West Coast Swing’ and Lindy Hop.  Cheryl travels to different cities to attend dancing events.  There’s a lot of camaraderie among attendees from different cities, but the dance has recently re-emerged in popularity as a competitive dance, providing attendees an opportunity to showcase stylings from their region of the country.  Although Cheryl hasn’t competed yet, she keeps the possibility open for the future.  Jazz and other styles of music are important to Cheryl and she often attends local jazz concerts and art events around Los Angles.  She’s currently looking forward to a cruise she’s planning with her sister, to an island ‘to be determined’.

Please let us know if there are eDiscovery topics you’d like to see us cover in eDiscoveryDaily.

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

300,000 Visits on eDiscovery Daily! – eDiscovery Milestones

While we haven’t served over 300 billion burgers like McDonald’s, we have provided something to digest each business day for over 43 months.  We’re proud to announce that on Friday, eDiscovery Daily reached the 300,000 visit milestone!  It took us a little over 21 months to reach 100,000 visits and just over 22 months to triple that to 300,000!  On to 500,000!

When we reach key milestones, we like to take a look back at some of the recent stories we’ve covered, so, in case you missed them, here are some recent eDiscovery items of interest from the past six weeks.

After 2,354 Public Comments, One Major Change to the Proposed Federal Rules: By the February 15 deadline for the comment period, no less than 2,354 public comments had been filed regarding the proposed Federal Rules amendments.  Much of the controversy related to Rule 37(e)(1)(B), which included a hotly debated amendment that the court may impose sanctions or order an adverse jury instruction, but only if it finds that the failure to preserve caused “substantial prejudice” in the litigation and was “willful or in bad faith,” or that the failure to preserve “irreparably deprived a party of any meaningful opportunity” to litigate the claims in the action.  Since then, Rule 37(e) has been modified, not just once, but twice.

Government Attorneys Have eDiscovery Issues Too: From a confidence standpoint, 73% of respondents feel as confident or more confident in their ability to manage eDiscovery in their cases.  But, 84% of respondents feel somewhat or not at all effective in their agency’s ability to deal with the challenges of eDiscovery and 80% of respondents feel somewhat or not at all confident that if challenged their agency could demonstrate that their ESI was “accurate, accessible, complete and trustworthy.  These and other survey findings are available here.

Cloud Security Fears Diminish With Experience: According to a recent survey of 1,068 companies conducted by RightScale, Inc., concern about cloud security diminish as users gain more experience using cloud-based services.  Learn more about organizations’ cloud habits here.

Daughter’s Facebook Post Voids $80,000 Settlement: As reported a few weeks ago on CNN, the former head of a private preparatory school in Miami lost out an $80,000 discrimination settlement after his daughter boasted about it on Facebook.  That’s why it’s important to think before you hit send.  Even if you’re still in grade school.

New California Proposed Opinion Requires eDiscovery Competence: If a new proposed opinion in California is adopted, attorneys in that state had better be sufficiently skilled in eDiscovery, hire technical consultants or competent counsel that is sufficiently skilled, or decline representation in cases where eDiscovery is required.

Predictive Analytics: It’s Not Just for Review Anymore: One of the most frequently discussed trends in this year’s annual thought leader interviews that we conducted was the application of analytics (including predictive analytics) to Information Governance.  A recent report published in the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology (and discussed here) addresses how analytics can be used to optimize Information Governance.

How Do You Dispose of “Digital Debris”? EDRM Has Answers:  Those answers can be found in a new white paper discussed here.

Also, hackers took Typepad, our platform for hosting the blog, down for a bit.  But, we’re back and better than ever!

Want to get to know some of your litigation support colleagues better?  Leave it to Jane Gennarelli, who has provided profiles here, here, here, here, here and here.

We’ve also had 11 posts about case law, just in the last six weeks (and 296 overall!).  Here is a link to our case law posts.

Every post we have ever published is still available, so the blog has become quite a knowledge base over the last 43+ months.  Sometime this summer, we will publish our 1,000th post!

On behalf of everyone at CloudNine Discovery who has worked on the blog and other publications that have picked up and either linked to or republished our posts, thanks to all of you!  We really appreciate the support!  Now, on to the next topic.  🙂

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 Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Professional Profile: Do You Know Duane Lites?

This blog is the first in a series aimed at helping you to get to know your peers better.  Each week I’ll give you career highlights of a law firm or corporate law department eDiscovery professional.  Today’s profile is on Duane Lites – an eDiscovery and Litigation Support veteran.

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Duane is the Director of Litigation Support at Jackson Walker LLP, located in the firm’s Dallas office.  Jackson Walker is one of the largest ‘all Texas’ firms with 350+ lawyers in seven offices located throughout the state.  Duane has been with the firm since 2007.

Duane manages the firm’s Litigation Support department, which offers litigation support and eDiscovery services to all the firm’s litigators.  The department does its own eDiscovery processing, manages document reviews, provides trial graphic services, provides litigation support consulting services and on occasion provides forensics services. Duane manages the day-to-day operations of the department, trains and manages the staff (located in 4 of the firm’s offices), develops and implements department policies and procedures, consults with litigators, and procures and implements technology based on the practices and needs of the litigators.

In the mid 1980s Duane worked as a computer programmer at an oil and gas company in Dallas.  His boss left to take a position at a litigation support vendor, and convinced Duane to join him there in 1986.  Duane’s first work in litigation support was on a large asbestos case, working with a paper collection of about 500,000 documents (that was a huge case in the 1980s!). He worked converting key-punched data into load-ready form for the vendor’s timeshare system. Over time, he moved into working more with the databases and was heavily involved with integrating images with databases when that technology was first implemented in the industry. Between then and starting at Jackson Walker, Duane worked at two other law firms in Dallas and also spent some time with a few Litigation Support vendors and consulting organizations to round out his experience.  Over time he realized that his preference was being in a firm, assisting and working directly with litigation teams, understanding their needs, and finding solutions to their problems.

The move to Jackson Walker was a good one for Duane. He has buy-in at all levels. Litigators through the firm’s executive managers support his efforts, trust his judgment, and provide the resources he needs to optimize the department’s value to the firm.

One of the most valuable things Duane has learned in his years as a litigation technology professional is that ‘relationship’ is critical to the success of a litigation support department and to effectively marketing litigation support and eDiscovery services within a firm. To be successful you really need to understand what the lawyers are doing and what they need.  The best way to do that is to develop good relationships with them.

His biggest challenge today is managing resources with workflow — the workflow is increasing at a faster pace than the resources are, and managing that can be tricky.  One of his initiatives for this year is to get everyone in his department cross-trained, thereby giving him more flexibility in allocating resources.

Throughout his career, Duane has been active in professional organizations and endeavors.  He is a past president of the Dallas Fort Worth Association of Litigation Support Managers, a member of ILTA, on the editor board of the Litigation Support Today publication, and a co-founder of the popular Yahoo Group, The Litigation Support List.  Started in 1998, the list has grown its membership to over 9,000 litigation technology professionals. Duane still maintains and monitors the list.

Duane was born and raised in Texas and has been in Dallas for almost 30 years.  He is a history buff.  In his spare time he researches American history, builds military dioramas, and enjoys antique shopping with his wife. He has recently taken up restoring antique desk fans, circa the early 1900s. He also enjoys golf, sporting events, and spending time with his family.

He’ll be at the upcoming annual ILTA conference in Nashville in August.  Say hello or introduce yourself if you haven’t yet met him. Duane always enjoys meeting peers in the litigation support and eDiscovery community.

Please let us know if there are eDiscovery topics you’d like to see us cover in eDiscoveryDaily.

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

Someone Else’s Money – eDiscovery Best Practices

Leave it to Craig Ball to liken lawyers’ delegation of eDiscovery to Prince Akeem’s “royal backside wipers” in the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America.

In Craig’s blog post E-Discovery and the Zamundan Royal Backside Wipers, he notes “everywhere I’m met with the attitude that electronic discovery isn’t a lawyer’s concern:  ‘It’s something you hire people to do,’ they say.”

“Certainly, we must hire people to do things we cannot possibly do.  But I contend that we hire people to do many things we could learn to do ourselves, and do economically.  Remember Eddie Murphy’s royal backside wipers in Coming to America? All it takes is money to burn; and if it’s someone else’s money, who really cares?”

The problem, as Craig notes, is that lawyers who refuse to educate themselves on eDiscovery and IT concepts run the risk that they may “go the way of the local bookseller and video rental shop”.  “Clients will not pay for Royal Wipers forever, and we should not ask them to do so.”

Craig then proceeds to provide five categories (with over 40 sub-categories) of “top-of-my-head list of lawyer duties” for eDiscovery.  It’s a great list and I won’t steal his thunder – you can click on the link above to view his post and the list.

Working for an eDiscovery provider, you might think that we prefer lawyers to remain ignorant regarding eDiscovery and turn everything over to us.  In fact, I find we get more work from attorneys that understand and appreciate the importance of managing eDiscovery effectively.  Those who understand the issues associated with electronic files, that processing files require a sound process, that you should test your search terms early and that cloud-based eDiscovery is secure are the attorneys who make the best clients as they understand the benefits of the services we provide.  Knowledge is power!

Craig finishes his post relaying the story of a recent speech, where afterward, he was approached by a woman who had expressed “frustration that IT folks use a lot of jargon and initialism when they discuss their work”, to which Craig noted that “perhaps lawyers should learn to speak a little geek”.  “[I]f you’re going to live in France, it makes sense to gain a little fluency in French.”

If not, you may find yourself a bit behind.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

So, what do you think?  What do you do to educate yourself on eDiscovery best practices?   Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

For more of Craig’s thoughts about lawyers and eDiscovery education, check out his three-part thought leader interview from earlier this year.

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

New Survey Sheds Light on How Corporate Legal Departments Handle Outsourcing – eDiscovery Trends

These days, it seems as though every company is outsourcing work overseas.  Are corporate legal departments following suit?

Only to a point, according to a new survey available from ALM Legal Intelligence and discussed on David Hechler’s article on Corporate Counsel (The 2013 Legal Process Outsourcing Survey).  According to the article, “The LPO industry is like sex: There’s plenty of talk about it, but no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. Vendors will tell you that it’s really taking off—or is about to. They cite numbers in the billions of dollars, but these always seem to be projections.”

So, as the author notes, “we decided to ask corporate law departments (but not their law firms) to tell us about their experiences. We created an online survey and sent it out to lots of departments. We also posted links on CorpCounsel.com and invited readers to click in. And we asked not only whether they’ve made the leap, but, for those who have, where they’re sending work, what kind of work they outsource, what motivated them, and how they feel about the results.”

Here are some of the published results:

  • 54 percent of the respondents have outsourced legal work at some point;
  • Of the respondents who have outsourced legal work, 26 percent were “very satisfied” with the results, 41 percent were “satisfied”, 29 percent were “somewhat satisfied” and only 3 percent were “not at all satisfied” – meaning that over 2/3 of the respondents were at least satisfied with the work performed;
  • 65 percent of the respondents who have outsourced legal work have only done so within the US, while 35 percent have outsourced abroad (64 percent of those have sent work to India);
  • Document review and electronic discovery were the most frequently cited types of work being outsourced;
  • Asked why they outsourced legal work, fully 35 percent said “to test the idea.” This was the third most common reason, behind “lowering costs” and “reducing the time required to complete the work.”

Based on the survey, it appears that, while more organizations outsource legal work than don’t, most still haven’t dipped their toe in overseas waters (at least yet).

The full survey is available from ALM Legal Intelligence here for $599.

So, what do you think?  Did you expect overseas outsourcing to be more prevalent?   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 Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Need to Better Understand Litigation? This White Paper is for You – eDiscovery Best Practices

If you enjoyed Jane Gennarelli’s Litigation 101 for eDiscovery Tech Professionals series that was published recently on this blog, now you can get that same information (and more) in a consolidated, easy-to-reference white paper!

The white paper, entitled An Introduction to Litigation for eDiscovery Professionals, covers many of the things that litigation support professionals need to know to provide greater value to the attorneys that they support, including:

  • Bare-Boned Basics of different types of litigation;
  • Types of Legal Documents;
  • Types of Parties involved in a case;
  • Determining Jurisdiction for the case;
  • Initiating the Case and Defendant’s Response, which could include their own claims filed;
  • Establishing Guidelines via Meet and Confer and Case Management Conference;
  • Vehicles for Gathering Information during discovery;
  • What gets Turned Over and What is Withheld;
  • A review of the EDRM steps for Handling Discovery Documents;
  • Information about Settlements, Pre-Trial Motions and Pre-Trial Conference;
  • A comprehensive look at the components and phases of a Trial;
  • Circumstances for Appeal and process for proceeding with an appeal;
  • Appendices for mechanisms for Alternative Dispute Resolution and also Types of Litigation.

The white paper presents many of the topics covered in Jane’s ‘Litigation 101’ series, as well as some additional material not previously presented.  In addition to being a terrific resource for eDiscovery professionals, the white paper also covers the eDiscovery life cycle, making it a useful resource for all legal professionals.  Enjoy!

To download a copy of the white paper, click here.

So, what do you think?  Do you understand the “ins and outs” of litigation?   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 Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

Five More Things to Know Before Moving eDiscovery to the Cloud – eDiscovery Best Practices

Yesterday, we covered the first five items in Joel Jacob’s article in Information Management.com (10 Things to Know Before Moving E-Discovery to the Cloud), which provides an interesting checklist for those considering a move to cloud computing.  Here are the remaining five items, with some comments from me.

6. Assess potential – and realistic – risks associated with security, data privacy and data loss prevention.  The author notes the importance of assessing security risks, and, of course, it’s important to understand how the cloud provider handles security and that there are clear-cut policies and objectives in place.  It’s also important to compare the cloud provider’s security mechanisms to your own security mechanisms.  Any cloud provider “worth their salt” should have a comprehensive security plan that meets or exceeds that of most organizations.

7. Develop an implementation plan, including an internal communication strategy.  The author advocates getting legal and IT on the same page, testing and conducting a proof of concept on work procedures and identifying quantifiable metrics for evaluating the system/service.  All solid ideas.

8. Leverage the success or adoption of other SaaS solutions in the organization to lessen resistance.  The author notes that “process of moving to the cloud and/or moving e-discovery to the cloud will need to be driven through cultural change management”.  However, they already likely use several SaaS based solutions.  Here are some of the most popular ones: Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, eBay and YouTube.  Oh, and possibly Google Docs and SalesForce.com as well.  That should address resistance concerns.

9. Run a pilot on a small project before moving to larger, mission-critical matters.  The author advocates finding a test data set or dormant case that has known outcomes, and running it in the new cloud solution.  The cloud provider should enable you to do so via a no risk trial (shameless plug warning, here’s ours), so that you can truly try it before you buy it, with your own data.

10. Understand you are still the ultimate custodian of all electronically stored information.  As the author notes, “The data belongs to you, and the burden of controlling it falls on you. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure state that no matter where the data is hosted, the company that owns it is ultimately responsible for it.”  That’s why it’s critical to address questions about where the data is stored and mechanisms for securing your company’s data.  If you can’t answer those questions to your satisfaction with the cloud provider you’re evaluating, perhaps they’re not the provider for you.

So, what do you think?  Have you implemented a SaaS based solution for 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 Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

10 Things to Know Before Moving eDiscovery to the Cloud – eDiscovery Best Practices
 

Software as a Service (SaaS) accounted for 49 percent of all eDiscovery software revenues tracked in 2011, according to Gartner’s report, Market Trends: Automated, Analytical Approaches Drive the Enterprise E-Discovery Software Market.  Joel Jacob’s article in Information Management.com (10 Things to Know Before Moving E-Discovery to the Cloud) provides an interesting checklist for those considering a move to cloud computing.  Here they are, with some comments from me.

1.     Actively involve all stakeholders across multiple departments.  The article promotes involving “as many stakeholders and members of management as possible, typically from legal, IT, compliance, security and any other department that may be impacted by a new model”.  Legal should also include outside counsel when appropriate – they will often be the heaviest users of the application, so it should be easy for them to learn and use.

2.     Document and define areas of potential cost savings.  Jacob advocates considering the eDiscovery process as defined by the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM).  It’s easy to forget some of the cost savings and benefits that cloud computing can offer – not only reduction or elimination of hardware and software costs, but also reduction or elimination of personnel to support in-house systems, as well.

3.     Evaluate the e-discovery platform first and the cloud options second.  Clearly, the eDiscovery platform must meet the needs of the organization and the users or it doesn’t matter where it’s located.  However, it seems counter-productive to spend time evaluating platforms that could be ruled out because of the cloud options.  At the very least, identify any cloud “deal breakers” and eliminate any platforms that don’t fit with the required cloud model.

4.     Benchmark your existing e-discovery processes including data upload, processing, review and export.  This, of course, assumes you have an existing solution that you are considering replacing.  You will compare those benchmarks to those of the potential cloud solution when you perform a small pilot project (as we will discuss in an upcoming step).  The eDiscovery platform that you choose should ideally give you the option to load and export your own data, as well as providing good or better turnaround by the vendor (when compared to your internal staff) for performing those same functions when needed.

5.     Learn the differences between public and private clouds.  As the article notes, “[c]ompanies need to understand where there [sic] data will go, how it is protected, and if it is secured according to any industry specific regulations that apply (e.g., HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.).”  It’s especially important to know where your data will go – if it’s stored internationally, access to it may be subject to different rules.  As for how it is protected, here is some more information regarding how data can be protected in a cloud environment.

Tomorrow, we will cover items 6 through 10 of the checklist.  Oh, the anticipation!

So, what do you think?  Have you implemented a SaaS based solution for 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 Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Daily is Three Years Old!

We’ve always been free, now we are three!

It’s hard to believe that it has been three years ago today since we launched the eDiscoveryDaily blog.  We’re past the “terrible twos” and heading towards pre-school.  Before you know it, we’ll be ready to take our driver’s test!

We have seen traffic on our site (from our first three months of existence to our most recent three months) grow an amazing 575%!  Our subscriber base has grown over 50% in the last year alone!  Back in June, we hit over 200,000 visits on the site and now we have over 236,000!

We continue to appreciate the interest you’ve shown in the topics and will do our best to continue to provide interesting and useful posts about eDiscovery trends, best practices and case law.  That’s what this blog is all about.  And, in each post, we like to ask for you to “please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic”, so we encourage you to do so to make this blog even more useful.

We also want to thank the blogs and publications that have linked to our posts and raised our public awareness, including Pinhawk, Ride the Lightning, Litigation Support Guru, Complex Discovery, Bryan College, The Electronic Discovery Reading Room, Litigation Support Today, Alltop, ABA Journal, Litigation Support Blog.com, Litigation Support Technology & News, InfoGovernance Engagement Area, EDD Blog Online, eDiscovery Journal, Learn About E-Discovery, e-Discovery Team ® and any other publication that has picked up at least one of our posts for reference (sorry if I missed any!).  We really appreciate it!

As many of you know by now, we like to take a look back every six months at some of the important stories and topics during that time.  So, here are some posts over the last six months you may have missed.  Enjoy!

Rodney Dangerfield might put it this way – “I Tell Ya, Information Governance Gets No Respect”

Is it Time to Ditch the Per Hour Model for Document Review?  Here’s some food for thought.

Is it Possible for a File to be Modified Before it is Created?  Maybe, but here are some mechanisms for avoiding that scenario (here, here, here, here, here and here).  Best of all, they’re free.

Did you know changes to the Federal eDiscovery Rules are coming?  Here’s some more information.

Count Minnesota and Kansas among the states that are also making changes to support eDiscovery.

By the way, since the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) annual meeting back in May, several EDRM projects (Metrics, Jobs, Data Set and the new Native Files project) have already announced new deliverables and/or requested feedback.

When it comes to electronically stored information (ESI), ensuring proper chain of custody tracking is an important part of handling that ESI through the eDiscovery process.

Do you self-collect?  Don’t Forget to Check for Image Only Files!

The Files are Already Electronic, How Hard Can They Be to Load?  A sound process makes it easier.

When you remove a virus from your collection, does it violate your discovery agreement?

Do you think that you’ve read everything there is to read on Technology Assisted Review?  If you missed anything, it’s probably here.

Consider using a “SWOT” analysis or Decision Tree for better eDiscovery planning.

If you’re an eDiscovery professional, here is what you need to know about litigation.

BTW, eDiscovery Daily has had 242 posts related to eDiscovery Case Law since the blog began!  Forty-four of them have been in the last six months.

Our battle cry for next September?  “Four more years!”  🙂

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

200,000 Visits on eDiscovery Daily! – eDiscovery Milestones

While we may be “just a bit behind” Google in popularity (900 million visits per month), we’re proud to announce that yesterday eDiscoveryDaily reached the 200,000 visit milestone!  It took us a little over 21 months to reach 100,000 visits and just over 11 months to get to 200,000 (don’t tell my boss, he’ll expect 300,000 in 5 1/2 months).  When we reach key milestones, we like to take a look back at some of the recent stories we’ve covered, so here are some recent eDiscovery items of interest.

EDRM Data Set “Controversy”: Including last Friday, we have covered the discussion related to the presence of personally-identifiable information (PII) data (including social security numbers, credit card numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and phone numbers) within the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Enron Data Set and the “controversy” regarding the effort to clean it up (additional posts here and here).

Minnesota Implements Changes to eDiscovery Rules: States continue to be busy with changes to eDiscovery rules. One such state is Minnesota, which has amending its rules to emphasize proportionality, collaboration, and informality in the discovery process.

Changes to Federal eDiscovery Rules Could Be Coming Within a Year: Another major set of amendments to the discovery provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is getting closer and could be adopted within the year.  The United States Courts’ Advisory Committee on Civil Rules voted in April to send a slate of proposed amendments up the rulemaking chain, to its Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, with a recommendation that the proposals be approved for publication and public comment later this year.

I Tell Ya, Information Governance Gets No Respect: A new report from 451 Research has indicated that “although lawyers are bullish about the prospects of information governance to reduce litigation risks, executives, and staff of small and midsize businesses, are bearish and ‘may not be placing a high priority’ on the legal and regulatory needs for litigation or government investigation.”

Is it Time to Ditch the Per Hour Model for Document Review?: Some of the recent stories involving alleged overbilling by law firms for legal work – much of it for document review – begs the question whether it’s time to ditch the per hour model for document review in place of a per document rate for review?

Fulbright’s Litigation Trends Survey Shows Increased Litigation, Mobile Device Collection: According to Fulbright’s 9th Annual Litigation Trends Survey released last month, companies in the United States and United Kingdom continue to deal with, and spend more on litigation.  From an eDiscovery standpoint, the survey showed an increase in requirements to preserve and collect data from employee mobile devices, a high reliance on self-preservation to fulfill preservation obligations and a decent percentage of organizations using technology assisted review.

We also covered Craig Ball’s Eight Tips to Quash the Cost of E-Discovery (here and here) and interviewed Adam Losey, the editor of IT-Lex.org (here and here).

Jane Gennarelli has continued her terrific series on Litigation 101 for eDiscovery Tech Professionals – 32 posts so far, here is the latest.

We’ve also had 15 posts about case law, just in the last 2 months (and 214 overall!).  Here is a link to our case law posts.

On behalf of everyone at CloudNine Discovery who has worked on the blog over the last 32+ months, thanks to all of you who read the blog every day!  In addition, thanks to the other publications that have picked up and either linked to or republished our posts!  We really appreciate the support!  Now, on to 300,000!

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 Discovery. eDiscoveryDaily is made available by CloudNine Discovery solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.