eDiscovery Daily Blog

• February 3, 2016

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.