Our Insights on eDiscovery

Read on to learn more about the latest trends and insights in the world of digital discovery.

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eDiscovery Trends: For an Appropriate eDiscovery Outcome, Call the Master

Special Master, that is. Last week, Fios sponsored a webcast entitled Special Masters & e-Discovery with Craig Ball, who, in addition to being a prolific contributor to continuing legal and professional education programs throughout the US (and previous thought leader interviewee on this blog) has served as court-appointed special master in 30 cases (including at least one case covered here). Not surprisingly, the webcast was very informative, reflecting Craig’s considerable experience and knowledge in having served in that role in so many cases. Here are a few highlights.

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eDiscovery BREAKING Case Law: Judge Carter Upholds Judge Peck’s Predictive Coding Order

A few weeks ago, in Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe & MSL Group, Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion accepting the use of computer-assisted review of electronically stored information for this case. However, on March 13, District Court Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. granted plaintiffs’ request to submit additional objections to the ruling and in that briefing, the plaintiffs claimed that the protocol approved for predictive coding “risks failing to capture a staggering 65% of the relevant documents” and questioned Judge Peck’s relationship with defense counsel and with the selected vendor for the case, Recommind. On Friday, April 13, the plaintiffs took things a step further by formally requesting the recusal of Judge Peck. Now, Judge Carter has issued an opinion and order in the case, upholding Judge Peck’s opinion approving computer-assisted review.

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eDiscovery Case Law: Is the Third Time the Charm for Technology Assisted Review?

A few weeks ago, in Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe & MSL Group, Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck issued an opinion making it the first case to accept the use of computer-assisted review of electronically stored information (“ESI”) for this case. Or, so we thought. Now, the plaintiff has objected to the plan and even formally requested the recusal of Judge Peck. Conversely, in Kleen Products LLC v. Packaging Corporation of America, et al., the plaintiffs have asked Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan to require the producing parties to employ a technology assisted review approach (referred to as “content-based advanced analytics,” or CBAA) in their production of documents for discovery purposes, and that request is currently being considered. Now, there’s a third case where the use of technology assisted review is actually being approved in an order by the judge.

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eDiscovery Careers: Achieving Success as a Non-Attorney in a Law Firm: Find/Make the Right Environment, Part 1

Last week, I introduced a new series regarding achieving success as a non-attorney in a law firm. One key to achieving success is being in an environment that permits it. In the next posts I’m going to talk about the type of environment that fosters growth and success. Let me make it very clear, however, that I am NOT suggesting you look at these posts and decide that it’s time to call a recruiter! There are a few things you should keep in mind as you read the first few posts in this series.

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eDiscovery Best Practices: After Production, Your eDiscovery Obligations Are Not Necessarily Over

While a number of attorneys have yet to still embrace and fully understand eDiscovery best practices, most at least understand that there are (since 2006) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that address discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) and (for most, but not all) similar rules at the state level. More are learning to conduct an initial discovery conference (a.k.a., “meet and confer”) with opposing counsel to address eDiscovery requirements at the beginning of a case and more now not only understand the requirements to preserve potentially responsive data once it is clear that litigation is imminent but also how to conduct the review and production in a defensible manner. However, as noted in this Texas Lawyer article, How to Prepare for E-Discovery Supplementation Obligations (written by Ross Cunningham and published in Law Technology News), an attorney’s eDiscovery obligations are not necessarily over after production.

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Social Tech eDiscovery: Twitter Law Enforcement Policies Revisited

Back in January, we revisited Facebook’s Law Enforcement policies and found that they had changed quite a bit from the original post we published back in September 2010 (shortly after the blog was launched). Even the link was no longer active, so we had to “go hunting” for the new location for the law enforcement page. It seems appropriate to take an updated look at Twitter’s policies to see if anything has changed there from the post we published back in September 2010 regarding those policies.

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eDiscovery Case Law: Friday the 13th Is Unlucky for Judge Peck

The latest in in Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe & MSL Group? This past Friday, April 13, the plaintiffs filed a formal motion for recusal of Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after he issued an opinion approving the use of predictive coding in this case. So, what were the plaintiffs’ arguments for recusal?

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eDiscovery Careers: Achieving Success as a Non-Attorney in a Law Firm — Introduction

Today, I see more and more non-attorneys attaining senior level positions and high compensation levels in law firms. I see non-attorneys treated as equals by senior partners in law firms. I have also, though, seen very talented people who haven’t climbed that ladder of success in a law firm. The difference doesn’t always come down to knowledge and skills. To achieve that success, we have to do more than be good at our jobs. That’s what I’ll be focusing on in this blog series. I’ll walk you through some steps you can take and techniques you can employ that will increase your odds of grabbing that brass ring.

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eDiscovery Case Law: The Other Technology Assisted Review Case

We’ve covered the Da Silva Moore case quite a bit over the past few weeks, but that’s not the only case where technology assisted review is currently being considered and debated. On February 21, in Kleen Products LLC v. Packaging Corporation of America, et al., the plaintiffs asked Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan to require the producing parties to employ a technology assisted review approach (referred to as “content-based advanced analytics,” or CBAA) in their production of documents for discovery purposes.

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