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Mary Mack and Kaylee Walstad acquire the EDRM from Duke Law: eDiscovery Breaking News

It’s a rare two-post day for us at eDiscovery Daily, but this news is worth it.  Mary Mack and Kaylee Walstad, the former executive director and former vice president of client engagement, respectively, of The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) today announced that they have acquired the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) from the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.

Here is the text of the press release issued earlier this morning.  Also, Zach Warren of Legaltech News covered the story here.

Minneapolis, MN – October 18, 2019 – Mary Mack (CISSP, CEDS, CIAM) and Kaylee Walstad (CEDS, CIMP), the former executive director and former vice president of client engagement, respectively, of The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) today announced that they have acquired the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) from the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.

The EDRM is the leading global framework organization for the e-discovery community. The organization developed the ubiquitous EDRM model to provide a global language for understanding the intricate steps in the e-discovery process and to communicate them effectively. George Socha and Tom Gelbmann founded the EDRM in 2005, and Duke Law acquired it in 2016. The terms of the acquisition transaction are not being disclosed.

For the past four years, Mack and Walstad led ACEDS, the leading global provider of ediscovery certification and education, stewarding the growth of the association, its certification program, and its chapters to international status and recognition. In their new roles, Mack will serve as the chief executive officer and chief legal technologist, and Walstad will serve as the chief strategy officer for the EDRM. The Bolch Judicial Institute will remain involved in the work of the EDRM community as a valued partner.

“Mary and Kaylee bring a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the e-discovery industry, as well as strong connections to e-discovery and legal leaders and innovators,” said David Levi, Levi family professor of law and judicial studies, and director of the Bolch Judicial Institute. “Their collective vision and creativity will guide the EDRM into a new and exciting chapter.”

“Kaylee and I are so excited about the prospect of building on the amazing work that George, Tom and the Duke team, advisory council, project leads, sponsors and contributors have done, as well as the ability to shepherd the EDRM to its next evolution,” said Mack. “Partnering with David Levi and his fantastic team at the Bolch Judicial Institute, as well as George Socha and so many EDRM supporters is our dream opportunity. The EDRM is a place where our global community can get involved immediately and meaningfully. Kaylee and I are honored to have the opportunity to take the EDRM into the future and to collaborate with such outstanding people.”

“When Tom Gelbmann and I founded the EDRM in 2005, we sought to create a resource that would help folks to better understand e-discovery and its potential,” said George Socha. “I am thrilled that Mary and Kaylee will be taking the helm at the EDRM, guiding it and its community to the next level. I have worked with Mary and Kaylee for many years and eagerly look forward to working closely with them as they advance and expand the EDRM.”

“I am excited to learn that Mary and Kaylee, who together helped build ACEDS into a powerhouse institution that is respected across the globe, will be launching this new chapter that provides a new look and new home to EDRM,” said Mike Quartararo, the recently named president of ACEDS. “We have already had discussions about how ACEDS and EDRM will complement one another, building on a partnership that already exists, and delivering high-quality and meaningful content to the ACEDS membership and community.”

“Law and technology are, of course, key components of the Bolch Judicial Institute’s mission, and we will remain closely involved in the EDRM’s work,” said Levi. “We think that the EDRM’s future is very bright with Mary and Kaylee at the helm, and we intend to be a part of that future.”

The EDRM organization currently has nine active projects through which legal professionals, such as judges, attorneys, e-discovery experts, and technology and support providers, work together to create new resources and frameworks that serve as guides and touchstones for the rapidly shifting world of e-discovery. Mack and Walstad will quickly engage with the EDRM project leaders and teams, as well as the EDRM’s advisory council and partners, to collaboratively develop next steps and future plans for the EDRM’s global community.

So, we now not only know who has taken over ACEDS, but also what Mary and Kaylee will be doing next!  Exciting news for the eDiscovery community and we at CloudNine look forward to working with Mary and Kaylee on exciting EDRM initiatives!

So, what do you think?  How do you think this acquisition will impact EDRM?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Want to Start Planning for eDiscovery Events in 2020? Here’s a Preliminary List of Events: eDiscovery Trends

It’s budget season, which means it’s never too early to start planning for next year’s eDiscovery events.  Thanks to Rob Robinson’s Complex Discovery blog, you can once again find all the notable events that are scheduled so far in one place!

In his post On Your Mark? An Early Working List of 2020 eDiscovery Events, Rob once again provides not just a list of events, but also provides links to each of them so that you can check them out for more info.  Here are a few highlights:

Of course, as you can imagine in the middle of October, the timing of several events is still to be determined and some events may not yet be listed (Rob lists several that don’t have dates yet, including next year’s Relativity Fest and the annual Masters Conference events).  Hey, we don’t even know who’s going to win the World Series yet! (though you know who I’m rooting for).  Regardless, if you know of an event that needs to be listed or any corrections or other updates to be made, Rob provides a mechanism on his post to send him an email to let him know the event name, date, location and URL for the event.  So, this post will continue to reflect an updated list of events over time.  And, no matter how bad your eyesight is, next year you’ll be able to see 2020.  ;o)

Also, tune in soon for the Fall results of Rob’s quarterly eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey.  As usual, we will cover the results here as we have done for the previous 15 surveys to complete coverage for the fourth year.

So, what do you think?  How many events do you plan to attend next year?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

M&M Are Looking to Update Their eDiscovery Rules: eDiscovery Trends

And, by “M&M”, I mean Missouri and Michigan.  ;o) Here is some important information regarding the impending eDiscovery rules changes in these two states.

On Thompson Coburn’s site (What you need to know about Missouri’s updated discovery rules, written by Rachel Harris), the author notes that Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed into law Senate Bill 224, which limit the scope of discovery and address electronically stored information (ESI) for the first time.  Welcome to the party, Missouri!

The amended rules went into effect on August 28th. Under Missouri Supreme Court Rule 41.06, the changes likely apply not only to actions filed after August 28th but also to civil actions pending as of August 28th, unless a court finds that applying the revised rules to a pending action “would not be feasible or would work injustice.”

Senate Bill 224’s changes attempt to bring Missouri’s discovery rules closer to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) in several ways, such as:

  • Scope of discovery and proportionality: Missouri’s amended Rule 56.01(b)(1) will now limit the scope of discovery to information that is not only relevant but “proportional to the needs of the case.” This language mirrors the language of FRCP 26.
  • Electronically stored information: Rules 56.01(b)(3) and 58.01 now expressly permit discovery of ESI and permit a party to request that ESI be produced in native format. However, a responding party is not required to produce ESI that is not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost. A court may nonetheless order the ESI produced if the requesting party shows good cause.
  • Protection of privileged or work product material: Rule 56.01(b)(9) provides a procedure for clawing back information produced in discovery that is subject to a claim of attorney-client privilege or work-product protection. If the producing party gives notice, the receiving party must promptly return, sequester, or destroy the specified information. An attorney receiving what he or she reasonably believes to be privileged or protected information must stop reading the document, promptly notify the involved attorney, return the document, and delete it. Production of privileged or work-product protected information, whether inadvertent or otherwise, will not be a waiver of the privilege.

Additional impacts are discussed within the article.

In Legaltech News® (Michigan Is Getting Prepared for Its Biggest Discovery Rules Changes in 30+ Years, written by Zach Warren), the author notes that the latest state to update their rules to reflect the 2015 Federal rules changes is Michigan, which recently made the largest change to its civil discovery rules in 35 years(!) in a bid to increase “everyone’s access to our courts to resolve their civil legal dispute in a cost-effective manner,” the state bar said. The new rules go into effect Jan. 1.

Within the new rules, there is an increased importance on planning.  For example, judges will be placing a greater emphasis on discovery earlier in the case with required initial disclosures within Rule 2.302(A)(1). This may sound like it’s ported from FRCP Rule 26, and to some extent it is—but it also borrows from the recently amended Rule 26.1(a) of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure.

So, where can you go to learn more about and understand the changes?  At michbar.org/civildiscovery, the Michigan bar has set up a website going through the changes, as well as a calendar of events to help explain the changes throughout the state. This website also includes a link to a guidebook that runs through not only the changes, but also the relevant laws federally and in other jurisdictions that they are drawn from.

Michigan’s judiciary will take a central role in this education; it’s instructive that the guidebook begins with a forward from Chief Justice Bridget M. McCormack. B. Jay Yelton III, a partner at Warner Norcross + Judd, explained that judges were supportive of the committee and its changes for a rather simple reason: They want trials.

“People aren’t filing lawsuits because they can’t afford this system, and I think it strikes all of us that that’s a shame, that the system’s not working as well as it should,” he explained. “People are avoiding the system because of the use of outdated discovery rules that end up burdening the whole process to the point that you never get to a trial, you never resolve the issues.”

It was this sort of buy-in that made the rules process not only successful, but easier to understand, Yelton added. The committee brought in lawyers, judges and other stakeholders in early in the process, and the result was a rules package that elicited very few comments against and very few objections at live hearing.

So, what do you think?  What do you think of the changes?  Will more states follow suit?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image Copyright © Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Goodbye Columbus, Hello Relativity Fest!: eDiscovery Trends

Today may be Columbus Day, but it’s also six days until the 2019 Relativity Fest conference!  In case you didn’t already know, Relativity Fest is an annual conference designed to educate and connect the eDiscovery community and features panel discussions, hands-on labs, breakout sessions, and insights from Relativity staff, Relativity users, and industry leaders.  It’s a big show with over 2,000 attendees and a lot going on.

Once again, Relativity Fest is in Chicago at The Hilton Chicago (which was the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1927 and cost ten times to build than the original Yankee Stadium) and it starts on Sunday, October 20 and runs through Wednesday, October 23.  As a development partner in the Relativity ecosystem, CloudNine will once again be the conference and will be there to provide demonstrations of our LAW Integration with Relativity via Compiled’s ReadySuite that enables customers to import and export data between these products with ReadySuite.  We will also be demonstrating a couple of other exciting upcoming capabilities as well, so come by and see us!

Also, I will be covering the show for eDiscovery Daily, and I’m delighted to say that I will also once again be speaking at a session at the conference.  My session is e-Discovery Disasters and How to Avoid Them: Don’t Let This Happen to You, on Tuesday, October 22 at 8:30am, with Kelly Twigger, Principal at ESI Attorneys, Salvatore Mancuso, Vice President of Client Solutions at BlueStar Case Solutions, Inc. and (my partner in crime on CloudNine webcasts) Tom O’Connor, Director at Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center.

In addition to that session, there are several other interesting looking sessions at the conference.  Some major discoveries here!  Here are a few of them:

  • Is It Time to Rethink the EDRM?, Tuesday (10/22) at 8:30am with Michael Quartararo – Managing Director, eDPM Advisory Services , Darcie Spruance – Senior Project Manager, Ms., George Socha – Managing Director, BDO, Constantine Pappas – Senior Manager, Relativity Solutions, Relativity, Philip Favro – Consultant, Driven, Inc. With one of the founders of EDRM, this should be interesting.  :o)
  • Talk Discovery to Me: How to Conduct Effective Interviews with IT and Custodians, Tuesday (10/22) at 2:45pm, a panel of three experts from McDermott Will & Emery (Erica Noel – Discovery Counsel, Alex Godofsky – Discovery Consultant and Tim Gleason – Discovery Counsel) will talk about conducting effective interviews with your client’s IT administrators and custodians.
  • The Judicial Panel, Monday (10/21) at 1:15pm, with the ubiquitous David Horrigan moderating discussions with Pennsylvania Judge Nora Barry Fischer, Texas Judge Xavier Rodriguez, New York Justice Tanya Kennedy and Florida Judge William R. Matthewman to discuss the latest legal developments in eDiscovery.
  • State of the e-Discovery Union: The Roundtable on the Industry and the Profession, Tuesday (10/22) at 2:45pm. David leads a discussion with Hon. Andrew J. Peck – Senior Counsel, DLA Piper, Zach Warren – Editor-in-Chief, Legaltech News, Mary Mack – CLO, MaryMack.com, Ryan O’Leary – Senior Research Analyst, IDC, Kelly Twigger – Principal, ESI Attorneys, Hon. James C. Francis IV – Distinguished Lecturer, City University of New York School of Law and Ari Kaplan – Principal, Ari Kaplan Advisors.
  • e-Discovery Cost Recovery: 5 Considerations for Law Firms, Monday (10/21) at 11:00am, with Daniel Pelc – Senior Manager, Industry Marketing, Relativity, John Koss – Special Counsel, Mintz Levin, Kimberly Fisher – Senior Practice Support Manager, Dickinson Wright PLLC and Kevin Clark – Litigation Support Manager, Thompson & Knight LLP.

To register to attend Relativity Fest, click here.  It’s not too late!  No Cubbies in the baseball playoffs this year, but the Astros are going to win it all this year (I hope!).  :o)

So, what do you think?  Are you attending Relativity Fest this year?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

ACEDS Announces its New Leadership: eDiscovery Trends

Ever since the BARBRI Group announced back in July that Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) Executive Director Mary Mack and Vice President Client Engagement Kaylee Walstad were departing from their roles at the end of October, a lot of people in the eDiscovery community have been waiting to see who would take over leadership of ACEDS.  We now have our answer.

In an email to the ACEDS community on Monday, BARBRI Group Chairman and CEO Stephen Fredette announced that “Mike Quartararo, a long-time ACEDS member, former law firm eDiscovery director, author and community leader has joined us as President of ACEDS and Professional Development. Additionally, leading legal industry strategist, consultant and author, Ari Kaplan, will apply his talents on a consulting basis to help build a new ACEDS Global Advisory Board and act as Chairperson for that group.”

In making the announcement, Fredette indicated that “Mike will be assuming the responsibilities of executive director Mary Mack, continuing to build on the tremendous foundation she established, leading the global ACEDS community, growing and supporting the members and local chapters, and reinforcing the best-in-class reputation of the CEDS certification. Additionally, Mike will work to leverage BARBRI’s diverse suite of legal education talent and professional development resources to create new education solutions and certificate programs for ACEDS members and the legal community.”

Of course, many of you know that Mike was the Director of Litigation Support for Stroock, that prior to that he led eDiscovery projects at Skadden Arps and that he is the author the 2016 book Project Management in Electronic Discovery (which you can buy here).  You may not know that Mike has been a member of ACEDS since its founding, helped shape portions of the original CEDS exam, and is part of the inaugural class to take and pass the exam.  So, Mike is as qualified as anybody to continue to build on the great work that Mary and Kaylee have done in building the ACEDS brand over the past few years.

In addition, many of you know Ari Kaplan, of Ari Kaplan Advisors, who is an attorney, a leading legal industry analyst and an author of several books on the business of law. He is also the principal researcher for several well-known and widely distributed benchmarking reports, is a frequent writer and speaker, and is the founder of Lawcountability, a business development platform for lawyers and law firms.

Having worked with (and been on panels with) both Mike and Ari in the past, I can certainly say that ACEDS has made great selections to keep the positive momentum going that Mary and Kaylee started.

So, what do you think?  Will this announcement mean good things for ACEDS and for the eDiscovery community?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Nine is Divine! eDiscovery Daily is (Cloud)Nine Years Old!

Our “nine clouds” logo is making a one-day comeback!  If you read our blog yesterday, you probably noticed that our Throwback Thursday post was from the day eDiscovery Daily was launched.  That was nine years ago today!

We launched nine years ago on September 20, 2010.  Back then, we told you to not get “wild” with wildcards (and repeated that message yesterday).  And, we published our first case law post about a case where the spoliator of data was actually threatened with jail time –  our first of 701 posts about case law to date, covering more than 540 distinct cases!  We’ve published over 2,269 lifetime posts, and every post is still available on the site for your reference.  We’ve been around for so long and published so much, we don’t even bother with the six month milestones anymore!

And, as always, we have you to thank for all of that success!  Thanks for making the eDiscovery Daily blog a regular resource for your eDiscovery news and analysis!  We really appreciate the support – you make us feel like we’re on CloudNine!

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

Here’s an evidence story that only a word geek like me can appreciate.

How many states have Security Breach Notification Laws? You might be surprised.

When does a party fight NOT to have a claim against them dismissed?  When they think it keeps their sanction possibility alive – at least in this case.

Phishing emails can be so deceiving these days.  Here’s an example of one and what you can do about them.

Do you still use the Enron data set for testing?  Maybe you shouldn’t.

Should a judge accept a Facebook friend request from a litigant?  Maybe not always.

If you’re going to fire your IT guy, you might want to change the passwords on your servers.  All 23 of them.

Significant spoliation sanctions may be more difficult to get now, but “it’s never over ‘til it’s over” as this case shows.

Just because you have a Motion to Dismiss pending doesn’t mean you can stay discovery until it’s decided.

Why do hackers hack?  For the money, of course.

Here’s a “cautionary tale about how not to conduct discovery in federal court”.  ‘Nuff said.

How many times do you have to spoliate ESI before you receive case termination sanctions?  In this case, more than three.

There are plenty of reasons that organizations experience a data breach: unpatched vulnerabilities in your software is only the latest one to worry about.

Not since Clubber Lang predicted “pain” in Rocky III has the state of legal tech consolidation seen such “carnage”.

Data privacy fines keep going up.  This proposed fine was for $230 million.  This one was approved for more than 20 times that.

If you keep track of Hollywood news, you probably already know this story.  But, you may not know the eDiscovery significance of the Kevin Spacey harassment cases.

Here are some of my observations regarding this year’s ILTACON conference using the theme of the classic spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Sure, we’ve been talking a lot the past couple of years about GDPR and CCPA.  But, “COPPA” just cost YouTube and Google $170 million.

In this case regarding spoliation of cell phone data, the judge recommended that the intent to deprive question be left up to the jury.  So did this one.

This is just a sampling of topics that we’ve covered.  Hope you enjoyed them!

Thanks for the interest you’ve shown in the topics!  We will do our best to continue to provide interesting and useful eDiscovery, cybersecurity and data privacy news and analysis.  And, as always, please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic!  On to 10 years!  Do it again at ten!  :o)

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Fall 2019 Predictive Coding Technologies and Protocols Survey Results: eDiscovery Trends

So many topics, so little time!  Rob Robinson published the latest Predictive Coding and Technologies and Protocols Survey on his excellent ComplexDiscovery site last week, but this is the first chance I’ve had to cover it.  The results are in and here are some of the findings in the largest response group for this survey yet.

As Rob notes in the results post here, the third Predictive Coding Technologies and Protocols Survey was initiated on August 23 and concluded on September 5 with individuals invited to participate directly by ComplexDiscovery and indirectly by industry website, blog, and newsletter mentions – including a big assist from the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS).  It’s a non-scientific survey designed to help provide a general understanding of the use of predictive coding technologies and protocols from data discovery and legal discovery professionals within the eDiscovery ecosystem.  The survey was designed to provide a general understanding of predictive coding technologies and protocols and had two primary educational objectives:

  • To provide a consolidated listing of potential predictive coding technology and protocol definitions. While not all-inclusive or comprehensive, the listing was vetted with selected industry predictive coding experts for completeness and accuracy, thus it appears to be profitable for use in educational efforts.
  • To ask eDiscovery ecosystem professionals about their usage and preferences of predictive coding platforms, technologies, and protocols.

There were 100 total respondents in the survey (a nice, round number!).  Here are some of the more notable results:

  • 39 percent of responders were from law firms, 37 percent of responders were from software or services provider organizations, and the remaining 24 percent of responders were either part of a consultancy (12 percent), a corporation (6 percent), the government (3 percent), or another type of entity (3 percent).
  • 86 percent of responders shared that they did have a specific primary platform for predictive coding versus 14 percent who indicated they did not.
  • There were 31 different platforms noted as primary predictive platforms by responders, nine of which received more than one vote and they accounted for more than three-quarters of responses (76 percent).
  • Active Learning was the most used predictive coding technology, with 86 percent reporting that they use it in their predictive coding efforts.
  • Just over half (51 percent) of responders reported using only one predictive coding technology in their predictive coding efforts.
  • Continuous Active Learning (CAL) was (by far) the most used predictive coding protocol, with 82 percent reporting that they use it in their predictive coding efforts.
  • Maybe the most interesting stat: 91 percent of responders reported using technology-assisted review in more than one area of data and legal discovery. So, the uses of TAR are certainly expanding!

Rob has reported several other results and provided graphs for additional details.  To check out all of the results, click here.  Want to compare to the previous two surveys?  They’re here and here.  :o)

So, what do you think?  Do any of the results surprise you?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image Copyright © FremantleMedia North America, Inc.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Weekly Trends From a Name and an Organization You Know Well: eDiscovery Trends

I’m shocked – shocked! – that I haven’t covered this before now.  What if I told you there is a single place you can go to get a list of weekly trends on eDiscovery – everything from articles to case law to announcements and even upcoming events and webinars?  And that it’s available from an organization you probably know well and an author you probably know even better?  You’d probably want to check that out, right?

Indeed, you should.  It’s the Weekly Trends Report compiled by none other than EDRM co-founder and BDO Managing Director George Socha, available on the blog page of the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) website or directly from the weekly trends page here, which also includes previous weekly trends reports, back to December of last year.  The weekly trends report delivers:

“Insight into where e-discovery, information governance cybersecurity, and digital transformation are heading – who is doing what now or in the future, what works and what doesn’t, and what people wish they could do but can’t – gleaned from recent publications”

Here are examples of the types of topics that George covers on his weekly trends report:

  • An Above the Fold section where George touches on some of his upcoming speaking engagements (he has a new webinar series coming up with Mary Mack and will be speaking – 3 times! – at Relativity Fest).
  • An Electronic Discovery section where he links to interesting articles related to eDiscovery.
  • A Cybersecurity & Data Privacy section where he does the same for those topics, breaking it down into subcategories for things like CCPA and GDPR.
  • A Legal Technology & Digital Transformation section where he links to interesting articles that tie into those topics.
  • An E-Discovery Case Law section with a brief blurb on recent cases and links to coverage/case opinions.
  • An Announcements section where he links to announcements by companies in the eDiscovery space.
  • An Additional Articles section where he links to other notable articles not covered above.
  • An Upcoming Events section where he provides a list of notable webinars, conferences, podcasts and meetings over the next month, with (of course) links for more info on how to register, etc.

In short, it’s a great summary of what’s going on in eDiscovery from a standpoint of notable articles, cases, company announcements and events.  Now, you know – if you didn’t before!

So, what do you think?  Where do you get your weekly trends for eDiscovery?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Here’s a Webcast to Learn How to Think Like a Millennial When Addressing eDiscovery Needs: eDiscovery Webcasts

As we learned in Tom O’Connor’s recent five part blog series, millennials, with their focus on mobile devices and social media sites, may be changing eDiscovery (depending on your point of view).  Regardless, eDiscovery is changing and millennials may be a BIG part of that change.  Here’s a webcast that will help you think like a millennial to address your eDiscovery needs.

On Wednesday, September 18th at noon CST (1:00pm EST, 10:00am PST), CloudNine will conduct the webcast Thinking Like a Millennial in eDiscovery.  This CLE-approved* webcast session will discuss how evolving technology trends are impacting eDiscovery today and how to think like a millennial to stay on top of those developing trends. Key topics include:

  • Understanding Millennials and How They Differ from Previous Generations
  • Drivers for Millennials’ Thinking Today
  • How Litigation Support and eDiscovery Has Evolved Over the Years
  • Challenges Posed by BIG Data and Variety of Data Sources
  • Ethical Duties and Rules for Understanding Technology
  • Impact of Millennials on Legal Technology and eDiscovery
  • Your Clients May Have More ESI Than You Think
  • Recommendations for Addressing Today and Future Technology Challenges

As always, I’ll be presenting the webcast, along with Tom O’Connor.  To register for it, click here.  Even if you can’t make it, go ahead and register to get a link to the slides and to the recording of the webcast (if you want to check it out later).  If you want to learn how the habits of millennials will impact your eDiscovery processes, this is the webcast for you!

So, what do you think?  Are you concerned about how the habits of millennials will impact your eDiscovery processes?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.

Here’s My Observations of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (IMHO) of ILTACON 2019: eDiscovery Trends

Sure, I might be a little later on this than intended (wanted to cover some other topics earlier this week and also allow some time to organize my thoughts), but we’re still within a week(ish) of the conference wrap up, so here are some of my observations regarding this year’s conference using the theme of the classic spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Litigation Support Focus: One complaint that I’ve certainly heard about legal technology conferences is that they just don’t cover enough general eDiscovery or litigation support topics anymore.  That was certainly not the case at this year’s ILTACON.  In addition to the all day Litigation Support Day, which featured 30 speakers over 23 different mini-sessions and “SPARK” (Short, Provocative, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Knowledgeable) talks by thought leaders in the industry, there were several other litigation support related sessions.  Adding in Pitch Your Litigation Support Challenges on Monday and 10 Litigation Support Tips in 60 Minutes on Thursday made this a litigation support heavy conference for those interested in lit support.  Keep it up, ILTA!

The Volunteers: The people who coordinate the sessions (among many other things at the show) all have very busy day jobs, yet they put in a lot of additional time to coordinate speakers for sessions at the conference and do an excellent job.  Last year, the coordinator for the session I spoke at was Stephanie Clerkin; this year, it was Shawn McClurg and David Horrigan (for the Lit Support Day session that he also moderated the entire day).  Working with people like that who do everything they can to help ensure a session that provides great speakers discussing interesting topics makes it very easy for people like me to want to speak again (if I’m lucky enough to be asked).

Nobody Got Fired! (that I know of): Houston, we have a CEO!  After shuffling key personnel the past three years, ILTA selected Joy Heath Rush as its CEO (first as interim CEO, then the interim tag was later removed).  Joy, who’s a long-time participant at ILTA (I believe she said 24 years at the start of Litigation Support Day) is widely respected within the industry, so that’s promising for the future.

CloudNine Also Had a Great Show (shameless plug warning!): ;o)  We had a lot of new enhancements to showcase in our CloudNine Explore™, LAW™, Concordance® and Review™ products (some of which we highlighted in this press release here) which were very well received in our meetings with customers and partners.  And, we also announced an exciting partnership with Oasis Discovery (details here).  We also co-sponsored a party with Oasis at the conference – more on that below.  And Legal IT Insider published an article by our CEO, Tony Caputo, here.  Hey, Tony, if you ever want to pitch hit for me on the blog, let me know!  ;o)  Thanks To Bob Ambrogi (who covered both announcements on his LawSites blog here and here), Mike Quartararo (who covered us in Above the Law here) and Legal IT Insider and Legal IT Professionals for their coverage!

The Length of the Conference: One of my biggest issues with ILTACON over the years has been the length of it – essentially five days when you count the pre-conference events on Sunday.  Sure, people could attend for part of it, but which part do you pick.  Thursday sessions – even with excellent topics and speakers – suffer in attendance as the conference winds down (we only had about 50-60 attendees for the excellent Predictive Coding session that I moderated on Thursday at 11:30 in a room that seated about 200).  I’m sure part of the concern on ILTA’s part might be ability to charge the same amount for conference registration, but I think shortening the conference by a day might (in turn) add some attendees who may not be able to break away for five days.  Worth considering, at least.

Exhibitors Are People Too: Unlike Legaltech, we do get to attend the sessions, so that’s good.  But, we don’t get to participate in the meals at the conference, which is a prime networking opportunity and community building opportunity.  I’ve been to other conferences where exhibitors are also included in the meal breaks and I haven’t seen exhibitors take advantage and turn it into a sales pitch opportunity; instead, it’s a great time to get to know colleagues on a personal level and build community within the industry.  Hey, ILTA, maybe you could throw us a bone next year and include a couple of meal passes with each booth reservation?  After all, we’re helping to pay for those meals, just sayin’…

The Venue: Despite Bob Ambrogi’s observation in his excellent write-up of the conference (where he indicated that he actually liked the venue), I (and many others I spoke with) did not.  Splitting the conference across the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin separate hotels, requiring people to walk outdoors in Orlando heat and humidity to go from place to place wasn’t great.  Even if there was a golf cart service to get you between hotels more quickly, you had to wait for them often enough that it was usually preferable (for me at least) to just go ahead and walk it.  The venue wasn’t also very easily accessible, with events on different floors with minimal escalator or elevator availability, so that was another complaint that was mentioned.  Oh, and BTW, having a party in a suite in a family hotel next to guest rooms apparently gets your party shut down early as Oasis and CloudNine found out (at least it makes for a great story now!).  I heard from a couple of people that ILTA reserved the Swan and Dolphin a whopping 11 years ago(!) for this year’s event; hopefully, that was a one-time trial.  We’ll see.

Next year, the conference is back at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville (August 23-27), so many of this year’s issues shouldn’t be a problem at that proven venue.

So, what do you think?  Did you attend ILTACON this year?  If so, what were your highlights and lowlights of the show?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Movie Images Copyright © MGM/UA

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

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.