I took part in a webinar yesterday organised by Consilio whose theme was the metrics of eDisclosure / eDiscovery with particular reference to the budgets and cost estimates now required in UK civil litigation. The star turn in the webinar was Marla Bergman of Goldman Sachs whom I came across whilst moderating a panel in Washington last year.

I will point you to the recording when it is published, but there is one point made by both Marla and me which I am keen to emphasise. The need to present costs estimates is primarily a rules-driven requirement. It has two other benefits, however, which are nothing to do with the demands of any court or judge. Clients quite like the idea that their lawyers are on top of the prospective costs of this most expensive component of litigation. As a quite separate matter, the lawyer who is armed with information about the different ways of tackling the problem and the costs of doing so has a significant tactical advantage over less well-informed opponents.

Marla Bergman said of this that “you can’t be pushed around” when disputes arise about the scope or method of giving discovery / disclosure. If one wanted a single message from this webinar, this was it.

As I say, I will point you to the recording in due course.