On 2 December I will be taking part in eDiscovery 2016, the largest annual gathering in Ireland of those whose work involves some aspect of eDiscovery.

US Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte, always a welcome addition to eDiscovery conferences, will bring us a talk called US developments in eDiscovery.

Ireland is interesting to eDiscovery people for multiple reasons. Irish Bank Resolution v Quinn is, to my eye, the most interesting of the predictive coding cases outside the US. The successful appeal in the Microsoft Dublin case has, for the moment at least, reduced the scope for US courts to demand data held in non-US servers. And Brexit offers great opportunities to Ireland as its consequences encourage UK lawyers, businesses, and those whose business involves data movement, to set up operations there.

The significance of the Irish Bank Resolution case was clear to those who attended the predictive coding panel which I moderated at Relativity Fest. One of the panel members was Karyn Harty of McCann Fitzgerald, who ran the successful arguments in favour of predictive coding in that case. Also on the panel were Ed Spencer of Taylor Wessing and Dan Wyatt of RPC, the protagonists in the UK Pyrrho case. Ed Spencer and Dan Wyatt will be discussing collaboration and the use of technology assisted review with me at one of the Dublin sessions. My interview with Karyn Harty about that case is here.

I am also chairing a discussion with the interesting title Peruvian Guano – a costly relic from a bygone age? Roddy Bourke from McCann FitzGerald and Andrew Fitzpatrick, Senior Counsel, will take opposite sides in a debate about the 19th century English case which gave such breadth to discovery – and which has been ditched by common law jurisdictions except Ireland.

Keith Cottenden of CYFOR will talk about the importance of digital forensics in eDiscovery. Karyn Harty will talk about the growing use of AI in contract generation, commercial transactions, procurement and due diligence. Other sessions will cover a range of eDiscovery-related topics relevant to Irish legal practice and business.

To round things off, I am chairing the closing panel which will review current cases, activities and trends across the UK, US and Irish jurisdictions.

This is always an interesting event and I very much look forward to it. There is information about booking here.

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