eDiscovery Daily Blog

What’s Changed and What’s Next for EDRM at Duke: eDiscovery Trends

As we’ve discussed (here, here and here), EDRM was recently acquired by Duke Law School’s Center for Judicial Studies. How will this new partnership change EDRM?  Yesterday, EDRM and Duke Law conducted a webinar to discuss the future of EDRM at Duke, what’s changed and what’s next.

The webinar was conducted by George Socha, co-founder of EDRM (and now managing director in BDO’s Forensic Technology Services practice) and Jim Waldron, the new EDRM Director.  Jim isn’t just new to EDRM, he’s new to Duke, having started February 1st after more than 30 years as Clerk of the US Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey and having served on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules since 2010.

Duke Law School’s Center for Judicial Studies is designed to bring together the bench, bar, academy, and other professionals to facilitate educational opportunities and develop practical resources, guides and other materials.  In addition to EDRM, it includes The Duke Conference and Judicature, a quarterly journal publication for judges.

As for EDRM, some of the things that have changed as a result of the Duke acquisition include:

  • New relationship with academy and judiciary that broadens EDRM’s reach and opportunities for collaboration;
  • New audiences for EDRM materials;
  • New team to support EDRM activities (as George noted, with Duke’s support, EDRM no longer has to be the “George and Tom show”);
  • New focus with one major project per year to ensure deliverables;
  • The opportunity to collaborate with The Duke Conference, which will start with the TAR project (this year’s major project) in September; and
  • The opportunity to publish in Judicature.

Speaking of the TAR project, it’s already underway with three teams led by Mike Quartararo, of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; Gareth Evans, of Gibson Dunn; and Adam Strayer, of BDO Consulting.  Those teams will meet at the EDRM annual workshop from May 15 to 17 in Durham.  Email edrm@law.duke.edu if you’re interested in joining the project (to join, you have to be an EDRM member, click here for more information on how to join EDRM).

EDRM is also in the early stages of a project related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the impacts of it on cross border discovery and there will be a breakout session on that during the annual workshop as well.

Not everything has changed at EDRM.  It will still be a member-driven organization, efforts on past projects will continue, and all of the models, publications and other materials that were available to the public will continue to be available.

EDRM will also be conducting a webinar, tentatively scheduled for later this month, on the new Security Audit Questionnaire rolled out last month.  Sounds like business as usual at EDRM with plenty of activities happening post acquisition.

So, what do you think?  Will the acquisition by Duke Law be a positive influence for EDRM?  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.

print