Our Insights on eDiscovery

Retired Washington DC superior court judge Richard Levie was recently appointed as a special master to oversee the eDiscovery demands of an ongoing high profile acquisition case. The DOJ and AT&T have jointly requested (and US district Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle appointed) Levie as special master to resolve any matters involving electronic evidence in the case focused on the $39 billion proposed acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T. The assignment of special masters has become a growing trend to help streamline the discovery process.

Yesterday, we concluded our discussion about getting new customers. Today, we begin discussing how to keep the customers you already have. Getting repeat business from your clients is essential. If every client only used your services once, at some point you’d be out of business. You need to focus, therefore, on getting repeat business. Here’s how.

Last week, we started talking about techniques and mechanisms for one-on-one marketing to individual attorneys and litigation teams in your firm. Here are a few more tips.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently ordered all of its enforcement staff attorneys to cease the destruction of documents from investigative files after criticism that the SEC wrongfully destroyed thousands of documents associated with high profile enforcement matters, including investigations into Wall Street banks. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the SEC’s inspector general are currently examining whether the organization’s document destruction policy requires revision. This cease order comes in the wake of information provided by a SEC whistleblower, indicating that the SEC wrongfully destroyed thousands of documents from preliminary investigations.

Successful marketing efforts have two components – ‘big picture’ marketing aimed at spreading the word about what you offer, and one-on-one marketing to individual attorneys and litigation teams. In the last several posts in this series, we covered ‘big-picture’ marketing. Now let’s move on to techniques and mechanisms for one-on-one marketing. Here are some suggestions aimed at doing one-on-one marketing that work.

Last week, we covered several ‘big-picture’ marketing mechanisms and techniques that work well in a law firm. There are just a few more I want to mention.

Yesterday, we considered a recent article about the use of predictive coding in litigation by Judge Andrew Peck, United States magistrate judge for the Southern District of New York. The piece has prompted a lot of discussion in the profession. While most of the analysis centered on how much lawyers can rely on predictive coding technology in litigation, there were some deeper musings as well.

There are a handful of judges whose pronouncements on anything eDiscovery-related are bound to get legal technologists talking. Judge Andrew Peck, United States magistrate judge for the Southern District of New York is one of them. His recent article, Search, Forward, published in Law Technology News, is one of the few judicial pronouncements on the use of predictive coding and has sparked a lively debate.