Twitter Takeover on 18 October for Technology in Practice in Toronto

Posted on October 17, 2017 by Chris Dale

Technology in Practice is a large event dedicated to eDiscovery and related topics. It is run by Ricoh and by Commonwealth Legal, and takes place in Toronto between 8 and 10 November.

Tomorrow, 18 October, I will be taking over the Twitter accounts of @RicohLegal and CL_Legal in order to promote this event. Its agenda is here and the aim of the Twitter Takeover is to encourage people to ask questions about it.

I am enthusiastic about Technology in Practice not least because I have two interesting panels to moderate, one on technology-assisted review with Judge Peck and Maura Grossman, and one on changes in rules relating to discovery in the company of Judge Peck and Justice Myers of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. I have written about these panels here. Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Courts, Commonwealth Legal, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Ricoh, Ricoh USA, Technology in Practice | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Putting the spotlight back on disclosure in England and Wales

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Chris Dale

A couple of articles, both published today, deserve attention from those interested in disclosure in England and Wales and, specifically, in the courts’ approach to it.

One, by Kerry Underwood, is headed Disclosure cut by 90% by Commercial Court. The headline puts us on notice of some fierce court control. The other, called Electric Reams, is by Rachel Rothwell in the Law Gazette. It is a wide-ranging survey of disclosure, based on interviews with a number of people, including me. I will come back to both articles below.

After the excitement (a relative term, I appreciate) of last year’s judgments in Pyrrho and in BCA Trading, the law reports have not troubled us much in recent months. ICI v Merit Merrill (I wrote about that with the title What will your disclosure conduct look like under the judicial spotlight?) gave us another example of the court generally dissatisfied with a party’s conduct of disclosure. Tchenguiz v Grant Thornton (I wrote about that with the title Tchenguiz v Grant Thornton – proper use of the “menu” and the overriding objective) gave us a judge lamenting that no one was taking much notice of the opportunities offered by Lord Justice Jackson’s 2013 reforms, specifically in relation to the Menu Option. I will not stop now to list the narrower and more specific cases (I have an article coming up with a survey of these). We have not seen much about big issues of principle. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Predictive Coding, Technology Assisted Review | Leave a comment

Interview: Judge Peck on the sharing of ideas and practice between jurisdictions

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Chris Dale

I recently interviewed US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck, one of a series of interviews at ILTA in Las Vegas. We covered two subjects, one of which is an example of the other. The narrower topic was the international spread of the acceptance of technology-assisted review in litigation; the wider subject is the increasing willingness of jurisdictions to watch what happens elsewhere and to consider adopting at least some of the ideas which seem to work.

https://vimeo.com/233191871

The context was provided by two forthcoming events in which Judge Peck and I are to be involved. The first is Relativity Fest, taking place in Chicago from 22-25 October, when I will be the moderator of a panel called the United Nations of TAR. The panel members are Judge Peck himself, Justice Peter Vickery of Victoria in Australia, and Karyn Harty of McCann FitzGerald in Dublin. If the rest of the world has been unwilling to adopt the general US approach to litigation and to discovery, it has certainly looked to the US, and to Judge Peck’s opinions in particular, for encouragement to bless the use of technology-assisted review. Continue reading →

Posted in Commonwealth Legal, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Relativity, Ricoh | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Fighting the good fight at the Nuix User Exchange 2017

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Chris Dale

You take your optimism where you can find it these days. Few of us can feel very cheery about the political or economic future on either side of the Atlantic. At times like this, optimism lies in hoping that your own corner of the world is making some headway or, at least, holding the line. Churchill’s speech after Alamein comes to mind:

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

The war, in this context, is that fought against cyber criminals and against those who would infringe our privacy. We are not yet winning the war nor, perhaps, even holding the line, but there is at least a sense that we are fighting back and may be at the end of the first phase of the battle. The tone at the Nuix User Exchange at Huntington Beach in California was one of cautious optimism, both as to that wider war and as to the future of Nuix’s market. The two go together. Continue reading →

Posted in Cyber security, Data privacy, Data Security, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Information Governance, Nuix | Leave a comment

Non-conventional data sources and the crossover between litigation disclosure and privacy

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Chris Dale

Given a slot at last week’s Masters Conference in London, I chose to use it to talk about the sources of data which might easily be overlooked when giving or receiving data for disclosure / discovery. My subjects ranged from the metadata and EXIF data in photographs, to Google Maps tracking, to the Internet of things and social media.

I will do a post or a video on that in due course, but this article is about related subjects which have turned up since I prepared that talk – only last Thursday.

iOS gives access to photograph metadata

The first was an article in The Register called iOS apps can read metadata revealing user’s location histories, with the subtitle Access through a gift shop full of personal data. “EXIF” stands for Exchangeable Image File, and is a standard format for data ancillary to multimedia files.

Most of us have come across apps which ask for permission to access the pictures in our photo libraries. There is often good reason for this – if I want to send one of my pictures to Twitter or Facebook then those apps must have permission to access the image store. iOS 11, it seems, captures more than just the photograph, and hauls in the location data and other information stored with the image. This may or may not matter to you but it seems important to know. Continue reading →

Posted in Data privacy, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Evidence, Metadata, Multi-media discovery, Social Media | Leave a comment

Nuix webinar on 4 October: Left and Right Breach

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Chris Dale

Nuix is presenting a webinar on 4 October with the title Left and Right Breach. Right of breach is the detection of activity after it has happened; left of breach involves getting ahead of the breach and pre-empting and preventing it.

The key takeaways from the webinar are:

  • Understanding the impact of being right of breach
  • Exploring how endpoint technology and behavioural analysis can move us towards being left of breach
  • Learning how being left of breach can enable better visibility more effective use of intelligence

The speakers are Nick Pollard, Security Intelligence and Analytics Director at Nuix, and Stuart Clarke, Head of Security and Intelligence Solutions at Nuix. There is more information and a registration form here.

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Interview: David Horrigan of Relativity talks about Relativity Fest and RelativityOne

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Chris Dale

Relativity Fest is Relativity’s big conference, held this year in Chicago between 22 and 25 October. David Horrigan is eDiscovery counsel and Legal Content Director for Relativity, which gives him an important role in the preparation for Relativity Fest.

I will be there, mainly to take part in two panels with an international flavour, and these are the ones which David Horrigan mentions first in this interview.

https://vimeo.com/233191159

One of these is called International issues in eDiscovery and data protection. David will moderate and the speakers are Meribeth Banaschik of EY and Karyn Harty of McCann Fitzgerald, as well as me. We will look at international issues including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Privacy Shield, new data protection laws and regulations in the US, and updates on international issues around the globe. Continue reading →

Posted in Australian courts, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, GDPR, Privacy Shield, Relativity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Epiq-DTI webinar on 3 October: the Office 365 expert

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Chris Dale

Epiq and DTI are running a series of webinars for those responsible for eDiscovery and information governance in Office 365.

Called The Office 365 Expert, the series kicks off on 3 October with a webinar called Office 365 Fundamentals for the eDiscovery and information governance practitioner. The webinar will look at what Office 365 does, how it works, and the features and functions available within it. The webinar will also cover how in-house legal departments can prepare for adoption of Office 365.

There is more information and a registration form here.

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Posted in DTI, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Epiq | Leave a comment

Recommind | OpenText webinar on 28 September: 3 Key dashboards for eDiscovery success

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Chris Dale

OpenText Discovery, the new guise of Recommind and its flagship eDiscovery product Axcelerate, are presenting a webinar on 28 September called 3 key dashboards for eDiscovery success. The webinar’s aim is to go beyond the mechanics of eDiscovery and to look at key eDiscovery metrics used to decide (among other things) whether the exercise has been successful and efficient.

This goes beyond the mayor delivery of retrospective reports. Axcelerate allows legal departments to identify trends, inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the discovery process.

The webinar takes only 30 minutes. The speakers are Hal Marcus and Adam Kuhn of OpenText Discovery. There is more information and a registration form here.

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Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, OpenText, Predictive Coding, Recommind, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Masters Conference and Reed Smith event in London on 28 September

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Chris Dale

The Masters Conference has a long tradition of producing first-rate events on eDiscovery and the ever-widening range of subjects which surround it. Reed Smith is an international firm with a strong presence in London as well as the US and elsewhere.

On Thursday 28 September, the Masters Conference and Reed Smith come together to present an event called GDPR, Artificial Intelligence, Disclosure And Cybersecurity…What Lawyers Need To Know.

Speakers at the London event include Meribeth Banaschik of EY, Jonathan Armstrong of Cordery, Amie Taal of Deutsche Bank, Jennifer Hamilton of Deere & Co, David Cohen of Reed Smith, Nigel Murray and me. Following my webinar on multimedia with iCONECT last week, I have chosen to talk about that subject and more generally about non-text sources of data.

There is a registration form here.

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Posted in Cyber security, Data Security, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, iCONECT | Leave a comment

New and enhanced machine learning and visual analytics in Brainspace 6

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Chris Dale

Brainspace has announced a major new release of its flagship investigative analytics solution. Formerly called Brainspace Discovery, the new version is called Brainspace 6. The press release about Brainspace 6 is here and there is a webinar about the new version on 27 September – more on that below.

Discovery remains a major purpose for Brainspace but analytics tools like this can be used for much more than conventional litigation and investigations, and in very different ways.

PwC partner Umang Paw has written in an article called Are you using AI to your advantage in investigations about how powerful extensions to eDiscovery tools are “reinventing the art of the possible in complex investigations” . He says: Continue reading →

Posted in Brainspace, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure | Leave a comment

LawFest 2018 on 8 March in New Zealand and the NZ steps towards electronic courts

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Chris Dale

To my regret, I have never made it to LawFest, the legal technology and innovation conference founded in New Zealand by Andrew King of eDiscovery Consulting.

With five successful events under his belt, Andrew King can claim to be the main influence of legal technology progress in New Zealand. The target audience is lawyers, CEOs, CIOs, practice managers, IT professionals and government agencies. The programme is not limited to electronic discovery but extends to the use of technology by lawyers across a wide range of activities.

One year, perhaps, I will make it. Meanwhile, I draw it to your attention in the hope that you can attend. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic courts, Electronic disclosure, New Zealand | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Nuix User Exchange 2017 is nearly upon us

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Chris Dale

NuixMy next foreign trip is to the Nuix User Exchange running from 17 to 20 September at Huntington Beach California. I very much enjoyed last year’s event and look forward to taking part in this one.

300 participants are expected for 50 sessions, 20 labs and 65 speakers. My own sessions include one called GDPR privacy regulations: preparing for cross-border data management which I will do in the company of John Lapraik of Advanced Discovery in London (Millnet as was), Rebecca Beard of Shore Consulting, Inc, and James Arnold, Principal, Cyber Services at KPMG LLP. James Arnold is also taking part in a GDPR session called The practical practitioner’s guide to GDPR.

I am also part of a keynote panel called The future of decision-making along with Ron Hedges, Senior Counsel at Dentons US LLP and former US Magistrate Judge, Stephen Stewart, Chief Technology Officer at Nuix, Chris Pogue, Head of Services, Security and Partner Integrations at Nuix, and Craig Ball. Continue reading →

Posted in Cyber security, Data Security, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, GDPR, Nuix | Leave a comment

Technology in Practice in Toronto from 8 to 10 November

Posted on September 6, 2017 by Chris Dale

In my article about Ricoh’s sponsorship of the eDisclosure Information Project I mentioned in passing that I will be at the Technology in Practice event organised by Commonwealth Legal and Ricoh running from 8 to 10 November in Toronto.

The detailed programme for that event is now published. My main role is to moderate a discussion called TAR trends around the world with US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck and Maura Grossman, Research Professor at University of Waterloo and one of the best-known luminaries on the technology and practice of technology-assisted review.

I have done several such panels with Judge Peck over the years. The discussion points for this session come from an event I led with Maura Grossman and Gordon Cormack organised by Morgan Lewis in London recently. The opportunity to bring together both these experts is very pleasing.

The presentations are split into four main streams – eDiscovery and Beyond, Connecting to the Future, In the Trenches and Technology Showcase. It is invidious to pick out other sessions from this packed and interesting programme, but my eye falls on one headed Strategies for right-sizing your information governance framework with Eric Mandel of Ricoh USA and Mary Mack of ACEDS, on another Mary Mack session called Career strategies and eDiscovery, and on one called The GDPR Effect – Ripple or Tsunami on the likely effects of the GDPR and the practical implications for North America. Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How multimedia data is changing the way we win cases: webinar on 14 September with iCONECT and ACEDS

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

The expression “multimedia” still has the whiff of leisure about it – the once exciting idea that entertainment can be delivered to us in various active forms for us to watch and listen to.

A great deal of much more prosaic stuff is, however, recorded in multiple media formats. Almost any organisation these days warns you at the start of a telephone call that what you say may be recorded “for training purposes”. CCTV cameras owned and controlled by authorities, business organisations and individuals capture our every move and may be used against (or, indeed, for) us in criminal and civil proceedings. Social media gives us the opportunity to lay down a trail of our own movements as well as following those of others.

All these and many other kinds of non-text data sources are potentially discoverable. They may fall within the scope of our duty to disclose or, just as significantly, may contain the evidence which wins or loses cases for us. How and where will you find these files, and how will you review them? Continue reading →

Posted in ACEDS, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, iCONECT, iCONECT-XERA, Multi-media discovery | Leave a comment

ILTACON 2017 – and the ship sails on

Posted on September 4, 2017 by Chris Dale

Despite its title, this post is not about Fellini’s 1983 film And the Ship Sails On in which a great liner is unexpectedly attacked just before the big event which was the purpose of the voyage, leaving Freddie Jones sharing a rowing boat with a rhinoceros.

The nautical parallel here with ILTACON 2017 is less exact: a big ship, already set in the right direction, would maintain momentum into port even if key members of the crew were dropped overboard at the harbour mouth. The engines would turn, the deck events, entertainment and meals continue, and the passengers would just have to assume that the new crew had the next destination in mind, and some idea of how to get there. There was no rhinoceros at ILTACON, but there was a big elephant in the room.

If all that means nothing to you, a quick skim of this article on Legal IT Insider will fill in the gaps for you. The good ship ILTACON did indeed make it into port and the events all went entirely as planned, largely thanks to one or two surviving crew members and a lot of volunteers.  Where to next though, with a new crew and the comms systems apparently out of order?

__________

One year I contemplated skipping ILTACON, the big August event run by the International Legal Technology Association. “They will all think you have died”, my wife said, and she was (as usual) correct, so I went. Continue reading →

Posted in ACEDS, AI, Cross-border eDiscovery, Cyber security, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, iCONECT, ILTA, ILTA Insight, Privacy Shield, Relativity | Leave a comment

Standing by early ambitions as kCura changes its name to Relativity

Posted on August 30, 2017 by Chris Dale

kCura, developer of Relativity, has changed its corporate name to Relativity and its website name to www.relativity.com. There are several articles about the rebranding here, and CEO Andrew Sieja’s blog post explaining the change is here.

You don’t need me to summarise all that for you. Instead, I am going back nine years to look at what I said about kCura when I first came across it. Did my initial reaction stand the test of time? I am not talking about Relativity the software here – I had stopped being a user of any eDiscovery software by 2008 – but about the company and its commitment to discovery education, the place where its ambitions overlap with mine.

I can remember the first time I heard of kCura. I first met Andrew Sieja in July 2008, and said in the article I wrote afterwards (I will come back to that in a minute) “I first heard of kCura about four years ago”.  Assuming I was right about that, that means I first came across kCura in about 2004, before it had occupied the niche in which it is now famous. Someone had suggested to me that kCura’s then mixture of collaboration and knowledge management tools might be adaptable to electronic discovery, and that at least one major law firm was showing interest. I found an email address and wrote to the company, perhaps (I can’t now recall) in case they were looking for a reseller in the UK market (in which I then had a software product of my own). Somewhat to my surprise, I got a reply by return. Nothing came of it, but the name stuck in my head, perhaps because they were polite enough to reply (good manners go a long way). Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Relativity | Tagged | Leave a comment

FTI Consulting partnership with kCura offers Relativity alongside Ringtail

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Chris Dale

“Consolidation” in the eDiscovery software and services markets does not have to imply a merger or acquisition. It can also imply a partnership between two companies under which either can offer a broader range of solutions to their respective clients alongside their independent offerings.

This is what FTI Consulting and kCura intend with the partnership agreement announced at ILTA last week. The FTI press release is here.

FTI’s core software offering is its long-standing (and continually updated) eDiscovery platform Ringtail, now at Version 9.2 (the press release about that, also released at ILTA, is here). Ringtail has a strong visual focus both in its document review tools and in its visual analytics including Document Mapper, Cubes and Mines, all designed to accelerate case strategy and to put as much power as possible in the hands of the users.

FTI also has its scalable visual analytics platform Radiance designed to bring clarity and meaning, as quickly as possible, to very large volumes of data. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, FTI Technology, KCura, Relativity | Leave a comment

Thinking through the management of eDisclosure services – Eversheds Sutherland and OpenText

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Chris Dale

Back in June, I wrote about the agreement by Eversheds Sutherland to take OpenText’s Axcelerate to enable the firm to take control of its eDisclosure management without having to be responsible for the software and infrastructure. An opportunity arose shortly afterwards to hear about the decision-making process behind this and about the benefits which have resulted from it.

It is surprisingly rare for law firms to promote their use of technology in support of their eDisclosure / eDiscovery services. The main reason why law firms make an investment in technology and in the training which goes with it is to offer a better service to the clients at a lower cost, whilst ensuring that they make a profit at the same time. These are worthy ambitions, signs that the firm is bringing the same commercial nous to its own business as its clients expect for theirs. The handling of documents and data is one of the most expensive components of disputes and investigations. Why, then, are law firms traditionally shy in talking about it?

Part of the problem, perhaps, is that the mechanics of service delivery are not considered worthy of attention from marketing departments. I also hear from time to time of law firms and service providers who have client offerings of one kind or another – a technology package or an attractive pricing scheme – but do not promote it until the client connection is already made, so the only people who hear about this bait are the ones who have been hooked already. No, I don’t understand it either. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, OpenText, Recommind | Tagged | Leave a comment

Technology the dominant theme in the Lawyer Litigation 50 2017

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Chris Dale

It is not surprising to find that The Lawyer’s Global Litigation 50 2017 (registration required) has a strong emphasis on the use of technology in the management of litigation and other disputes. The introduction by Craig Earnshaw, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting (which sponsored the report) emphasises three things which make this inevitable:

The growing expansion of, and dependence on, the data underpinning global businesses;

The availability of new technology tools to manage that data efficiently and cost-effectively

A corresponding expectation on the part of clients that the lawyers will understand this technology and that they know how to use it to give strategic advice promptly (not just to proceed with the procedures required by courts or regulators).

Court acceptance of predictive coding, led by the Pyrrho case, is only the start, Craig Earnshaw says. The demands of regulators have increased along with the sharp rise in data volumes; eDiscovery skills and tools are adaptable for use with information governance programmes and the new focus on identification of personal data which the GDPR brings. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, FTI Technology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Welcome to Ricoh as new sponsor of the eDisclosure Information Project

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

There is more than one reason why I am very pleased to announce that Ricoh has become a sponsor of the eDisclosure Information Project. The most obvious reason is that Ricoh is a major force to be reckoned with in US eDiscovery; another is that Ricoh has a strong presence in Canada via its ownership of Commonwealth Legal. One of my themes in the last year has been the interchange of civil procedure rules and ideas between common law jurisdictions. The link with Commonwealth Legal brings an opportunity for me to speak at their Technology in Practice event in Toronto in November – I will come back to that below.

Ricoh eDiscovery Services is a comprehensive set of end-to-end solutions supported by a team of highly qualified eDiscovery experts. It includes digital forensics services, secure hosted technology based on Microsoft Azure, Managed Review Services (known as Intelligent Review in Canada), and a full Production and Presentation Service. Continue reading →

Posted in Commonwealth Legal, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Ricoh, Technology in Practice | Tagged , | Leave a comment

OpenText extends its reach again with the acquisition of Guidance Software

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Chris Dale

The once-straitforward business of eDiscovery has extended its reach, its software and its skills into related areas, embracing ever-wider concepts of information management. As it has done so, the market has seen increasing consolidation as bigger companies buy smaller ones or equals merge.

Fresh from its acquisition of eDiscovery and analytics company Recommind, OpenText has announced an agreement to acquire Guidance Software, makers of EnCase forensic and security tools.

The acquisition will complement and expand OpenText Discovery which already embraces search, the extraction of data, its classification, and its review and analysis. It will also be a boost to the OpenText’s information security capabilities by the addition of Guidance Software’s long-standing and respected forensic security and endpoint solutions. Continue reading →

Posted in Cyber security, Data Security, Discovery, eDiscovery, Forensic data collections, Guidance Software, OpenText, Recommind | Leave a comment

Webinar on 8 August from EDRM and NightOwl Discovery: practical tips for a successful first TAR project

Posted on July 31, 2017 by Chris Dale

NightOwlEDRM / Duke Law is running a series of webinars designed to help lawyers and judges on various aspects of technology-assisted review. It is part of preparation for the Duke Conference on TAR to be held in Arlington on 7 to 8 September.

The webinar on 8 August is called Practical tips for successful first TAR project and is being run in conjunction with NightOwl Discovery. George Socha will moderate and the participants are Kelly Atherton, Senior Analytics and Review Manager of NightOwl and Sam Merritt, Senior Portfolio Manager at NightOwl.

Their subject is low-risk use cases for a first predictive coding project, including practical suggestions on setting up a project and training the system to categorise and rank documents. Continue reading →

Posted in Analytics, Discovery, eDiscovery, Litigation Support, NightOwl Discovery, Predictive Coding, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged , | Leave a comment

FTI Consulting: how the general counsel can shape information governance

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Chris Dale

Ethical Boardroom carries an article called How the general counsel can shape information governance by Jake Frazier and Sonia Cheng of FTI Consulting. It focuses less on the IT, data security and regulatory aspects of IG and more on that often-overlooked aspect, reputational risk and ethical duties.

A perhaps exaggerated focus on fines and penalties has relegated the equally important matter of “trust in the brand”. There was a time when bad news about corporations was only to be found in the business sections of newspapers. Web sources, whether owned by responsible reporting organisations or populated by eager critics on Twitter or Facebook, mean that news, particularly bad news – and more particularly news affecting consumers – travels very quickly, and often inaccurately.

This affects the perception of a corporation by governments, regulators and shareholders and, equally importantly, by clients and customers. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDiscovery, FTI Technology, In-house counsel, Information Governance | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Off to ILTA in Las Vegas to talk about EU data and to do some interviews

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Chris Dale

ILTA is the International Legal Technology Association. ILTA works hard all year encouraging the sharing of ideas between those whose business involves (or should involve) the application of technology to a wide range of legal functions and issues.

For many, “ILTA” is synonymous with ILTA’s big annual conference held in August each year. This year ILTACON2017 is in Las Vegas, and I am going, as I always do.

I go there wearing my press hat and it is one of the few events I attend whether or not I am participating in a panel. Quite often, however, I end up taking part in something, and this year I am moderating a panel called Managing data from the EU during litigation. Continue reading →

Posted in Consilio, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDiscovery, GDPR | Tagged | Leave a comment

Interview: Max Cockerill of Blackdot Solutions talks about Blackdot’s integration with Relativity

Posted on July 26, 2017 by Chris Dale

One of the strengths of kCura’s Relativity is the flexible home it offers to other companies whose products involve the collection and use of data. An increasing number of niche products are extending their uses, and their user bases, by integration with Relativity.

One such is Blackdot Solutions, whose arrangement with kCura is described in this Legal IT Insider article. At Relativity Fest in London I interviewed Max Cockerill of Blackdot Solutions and asked him about Blackdot’s software integration with Relativity.

https://vimeo.com/215500316

Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Relativity, Relativity Fest | Leave a comment

Heart pacemaker data admissible in arson trial

Posted on July 25, 2017 by Chris Dale

I have made reference recently to various sources of data which potentially provide information for use in civil and criminal proceedings and which go well beyond conventional sources such as email.

One of those was the data created by a heart pacemaker in a case involving an allegation of arson in Ohio. A cardiologist who looked at the data found inconsistencies between the information returned by the device and the story told by its wearer. A judge in Ohio has now ruled that this data is admissible.

There is an article about it, appropriately enough in a website called Insurance Fraud News, which you can find here.

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ACEDS webinar with Ricoh on 26 July on eDiscovery hiring and careers

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Chris Dale

ACEDS, the Association of Certified eDiscovery Specialists, works to encourage and train people to acquire skills and certifications in eDiscovery.

On 26 July, Mary Mack, Executive Director of ACEDS, joins David Greetham, VP, eDiscovery Sales and Operations at Ricoh USA, Inc to look at the results of a survey covering many aspects of recruitment and employment in the eDiscovery industry.

Among other subjects, they will look at sources of information for those interested in boosting their knowledge, including conferences and other information sources.

There is more information and registration details here.

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Posted in ACEDS, Discovery, eDiscovery, Ricoh USA | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Managing data with Nuix Insight

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Chris Dale

NuixNuix brings together the disciplines of investigations, eDiscovery, cyber security and information governance, all of which involve extracting and managing useful information from data.

An article called Nuix Insight: a natural progression, traces the development of successive Nuix products to deal with a specific technical problem – how to process a range of file types quickly and accurately and make the resulting data available for searches.

Achieving that technical objective is one thing. Much of Nuix’s more recent work has been directed towards making both the searching and the interpretation more intuitive for users and in allowing them easily to manage tasks and collaborate as teams. A significant element of that is data visualisation. Continue reading →

Posted in Data visualisation, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Nuix, Regulatory investigation | Leave a comment

Consilio: can you trust law firms with your data?

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Chris Dale

ConsilioI remember as a young solicitor being at a meeting with a partner who was asked about the security of information held in the offices. The security, he said, lay in the fact that it was all too boring and too difficult to find within the office. He was, of course, being flippant, but his off-the-cuff answer is perhaps more-or-less accurate for many law firms, at least relative to the care which their clients take of their data while it is on their own systems.

eDiscovery and information management company Consilio has looked at this issue in an article called Can you trust your law firms with your data? This matters, partly because a recent survey suggests that one in four larger law firms has experienced a security breach; it also matters because, as the article puts it,:

…outside counsel possess a host of sensitive and invaluable data, such as trade secrets, patent applications, details about proposed business transactions and other valuable confidential information about their clients…”

This issue acquires greater focus when you appreciate that the business of giving legal advice generally involves collecting the most important documents together for analysis and review. That flippant answer about the data being “too boring” disappears when the raw data has been carefully filtered so as to leave just the most critical documents in one place. Continue reading →

Posted in Consilio, Cyber security, Data Security, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure | Leave a comment

Post-Brexit data flows between the UK and the EU

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Chris Dale

An article in The Register headed Another Brexit cliff edge: UK.gov warned over data flows to EU draws attention to a report by the House of Lords EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee called Brexit: the EU Data Protection package.

Just one paragraph will suffice to convey the message:

Although the government has made numerous pledges to retain “unhindered and uninterrupted” data flows after Brexit, the committee said it was “struck by the lack of detail on how the government plans to deliver this outcome”.

Leaving aside my own view that Brexit is a self-imposed disaster, this particular aspect of it has been causing deep concern. This is not just wearing my eDiscovery hat with its obvious focus on cross-border discovery, information management and GDPR compliance, but because of the our enormous dependence on data flows ancillary to trade, particularly transatlantic trade. Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data Protection | Leave a comment

Interview: David Wallack of NightOwl Discovery on the GDPR and the use of analytics beyond disputes discovery

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Chris Dale

NightOwlDavid Wallack is eDiscovery Counsel and Director of Legal Operations at NightOwl Discovery. NightOwl is particularly well placed to help its corporate clients with the implications of keeping and managing data in the EU because, in addition to its long-standing US eDiscovery practice, it has facilities in Dublin and in Düsseldorf.

Much of NightOwl’s business involves multi-year contracts with corporate clients to manage their information for a wide range of purposes, not just for disputes discovery.

With the General Data Protection Regulation getting closer, I asked David Wallack what NightOwl is doing to help its clients get ready for the GDPR, for the implementation of Office 365, and in connection with the use of analytics for information management.

Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDiscovery, NightOwl Discovery | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What will your disclosure conduct look like under the judicial spotlight?

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Chris Dale

Sometimes you look at a judgment and marvel that any human has got his or her head round the complexity of the subject matter, the law and the procedure involved in it. One such is Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd v Merit Merrell Technology Ltd which involved defects in an industrial process, complex contract terms, conflicting expert evidence, detailed allegations about breaches and defective work, arguments about repudiation and quantification of the cost of remedying defects; in addition, there were multiple procedural failures, disclosure defects, multiple changes of counsel and….well, you name it, this case had it.

Gordon Exall of the Civil Litigation Brief has already written four posts about it. The first was headed Deficiencies in disclosure: reading this judgment is not like watching paint dry. He is right – I would sit watching paint dry, grass grow or any similar process rather than read this judgment again, still less try to summarise it.

I don’t think you need to read it either if your primary interest is in disclosure. I don’t think you even need to read too closely the parts directly relating to disclosure: they did not involve analysis of any particular rule whose close interpretation will help you; they did not obviously involve a failure of eDiscovery technology; there may or may not have been bad faith involved here – it is hard to tell. It just all went wrong. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure | Leave a comment

Vince Neicho brings decades of law firm experience to Integreon

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Chris Dale

Vince Neicho, long-time Litigation Support Senior Manager at Allen & Overy in London, has joined Integreon as VP and Expert Legal Solutions Consultant. A day or two after the announcement, LinkedIn served up the information that Vince had been at Allen & Overy for 42 years. The press release about the appointment is here.

I knew Vince’s name for a long time before I met him. He was nicknamed “the Godfather of English litigation support”, and his name turned up whenever there were discussions about the civil procedure rules and, in particular, their inter-relation with the real-life business of managing disclosure. Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Integreon, Lord Justice Jackson | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Disclosure obligations include the form and substance of list as well as its completeness

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Chris Dale

Barrister Gordon Exall has just reached the fourth anniversary of his first publishing his Civil Litigation Brief, now an indispensable guide to civil procedure.

In one of his most recent reports (never say “the most recent” with Gordon, because he is bound to have published another one before you next look) he tells of a case called Powell -v- Watford Borough Council, in which he appeared for the ultimately successful appellant / claimant, where disclosure failures play a major part.

You can read Gordon Exall’s summary here (there is not yet a public version). The bit you might like to focus on is the commentary on the form and substance of the list. The response to a peremptory order for specific discovery came in the form of a letter simply stating that searches been made and that there were no documents of the kind referred to in the order. The extent of the defendants’ search can be judged by the fact that at least one such document was found by a search on the Internet. Continue reading →

Posted in CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure | Leave a comment

Cross-border discovery and data protection in Dublin with the Sedona Conference

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Chris Dale

I am back from the Ninth Annual Sedona Conference International Programme on Cross-Border Discovery and Data Protection Laws organised by The Sedona Conference Working Group 6 (Sedona Working Groups are explained here). It took place in County Kildare, just outside Dublin on 20 to 21 June, and if I seem slow at writing about it, that is not just because of the principle that “what is said at Sedona stays in Sedona”.

Just as compelling a disincentive to settle down and write about is the mass of useful material, both written and oral, which is made available to WG6 members. How can one start summarising all that? The whole thing is a deep immersion in cross-border discovery and data protection which is unmatched anywhere else. It serves both as a top-up and a stimulus, with a skilled faculty pointing the way forward as well as summarising what has already happened. Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, Consilio, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Epiq, FTI Technology, NightOwl Discovery, Sedona Conference | Leave a comment

ICO paper on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Chris Dale

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) publishes several short papers designed to increase awareness of the technical, security and legal implications of various aspects of data holding.

These documents are not, and do not purport to be, detailed explanations of their subject, but they are helpful reminders which may encourage organisations to seek more detailed advice or, at least, to consider things which have hitherto gone unregarded.

One such paper is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) . It is short and succinct on the risks faced by an organisation and its data controller in circumstances where organisational control is limited because the user owns, maintains and supports the device. Continue reading →

Posted in Data privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, GDPR, Litigation Support | Leave a comment

Interview: Jeff Schmidt of Park IP Translations talks about language management and its use with Relativity

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Chris Dale

One of the benefits of kCura’s Relativity is the ability it gives to specialist software companies to incorporate their own applications into it in a way which allows them to tap into Relativity’s core strengths.

One such speciality is the management of foreign languages in electronic disclosure. At Relativity Fest in London, I asked Jeff Schmidt of Park IP Translations to tell me about language management and how Park IP Translations works with Relativity.

https://vimeo.com/215245775

The term “language management”, Jeff Schmidt says, implies a considered approach to managing foreign languages within the case strategy from the very beginning of a case. Continue reading →

Posted in Audio discovery, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Relativity | Leave a comment

Awards and plaudits for iCONECT XERA

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Chris Dale

It may be a coincidence, but eDiscovery software company iCONECT seems to be hogging the eDiscovery limelight since the appointment of Lynn Frances Jae as marketing director (I wrote about that appointment here).

My own contribution was my article Netflix as a model for explaining technology assisted review. Platinum IDS followed with an article called Three XERA features that change the game in eDiscovery review. I like the sort of article which picks from hundreds of functions the handful which actually make a difference to the user – not always the ones which a demonstrator uses. (The three are Faceting, Document Compare and Xmplar, but I leave you to read about them for yourself). Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, iCONECT, iCONECT-XERA | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Following the Nuix Black Report on cybercrime: webinar and the 2018 survey

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

NuixI wrote recently about the Nuix Black Report on cybercrime. The main themes were the need to “know your enemy” and the critical importance of preparing for cyber attacks which are increasingly seen as both inevitable and destructive.

Nuix has an on-demand webinar covering the same ground as the Black Report and presented by Chris Pogue, Head of Services, Security, and Customer Integration at Nuix, who was responsible for the report itself. You will find that here.

Looking ahead, Nuix is now collecting information for its 2018 Black Report. In an article of last week, Calling all pentesters and hackers – 2018 Black report survey, Chris Pogue invites those with with knowledge and experience as a penetration tester, or offensive security professional, hackers and those with experience in digital forensics, instant response or related disciplines to answer the questions in an online survey. Continue reading →

Posted in Cyber security, Data Security, Nuix | Tagged | Leave a comment

FTI Consulting: issues and best practices for dealing with structured data

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

An article by David Turner, a Senior Managing Director in FTI’s Consulting’s Data and Analytics practice, summarises the things organisations ought to have in mind when preserving structured data for potential production in future litigation or investigations.

Called Structured data: issues and best practices, the paper first asks why structured data is important. In many organisations, particularly financial organisations, 70% of the information sits in a database of some kind, as opposed to the (no less important) unstructured data such as emails, word-processing or spreadsheet files and the like. The latter may tell you what people were discussing and who they were communicating with; the structured data often includes the transaction information which shows the effect of those communications. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, FTI Technology, Structured data | Tagged | Leave a comment

Interview: Melinda Kunjasich of Epiq on the use of predictive coding

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Chris Dale

I recently interviewed Melinda Kunjasich, Senior Director, Document Review Services at Epiq in London. I was interested to find out about the support which Epiq gives to clients using predictive coding and about how this fits into their analytics strategy in discovery review.

It is perhaps first worth looking at Epiq’s webpage about predictive coding – terminology varies from provider to provider, and Epiq sets out clearly what they mean by predictive coding. Epiq’s predictive coding is:

a prescriptive linear review workflow that is a mix of statistics, categorization and reporting that can decrease the cost of a review by amplifying the efforts of a small number of reviewers on a large dataset. Predictive coding is particularly useful in regulatory productions when the dataset is enormous and the production deadline is tight.

https://vimeo.com/211713814

Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Epiq, Predictive Coding, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hear OpenText and Eversheds Sutherland on bringing eDiscovery in-house in London on 6 July

Posted on July 3, 2017 by Chris Dale

I wrote recently about Eversheds Sutherland’s decision to take OpenText’s hosted Axcelerate Cloud solution to manage eDisclosure in-house

There is an opportunity this week to hear more about this from OpenText and Eversheds Sutherlands themselves at a discussion on Thursday morning in the Crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. The participants are:

Paul Worth, Partner, Co-Head of Global Litigation, Eversheds Sutherland
Nick Rundle, Partner, Eversheds Sutherland
Enzo Lisciotto, Head of Litigation Technology, Eversheds Sutherland
Simon Price, Managing Director, OpenText

They will talk about why the firm decided to take the management of their disclosure in house, and how OpenText Axcelerate Cloud solution can enable law firms, businesses and public organisations to manage their own eDiscovery projects without having to take responsibility for all the implications of managing the infrastructure, dealing with software updates, and handling all the other burdens usually associated with an in-house solution.

There is more information and a link to an application form here.

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Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, OpenText, Recommind | Tagged | Leave a comment

Interview: Damon Goduto of ThreadKM talks about ThreadKM’s integration with Relativity

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Chris Dale

ThreadKM is a Relativity partner, and I talked to Damon Goduto, VP of Sales at ThreadKM, at Relativity Fest in London.

https://vimeo.com/215246662

ThreadKM, he said, is a collaboration platform. Its purpose is to get lawyers out of email and into sharing multiple sets of sources such as document management systems, discovery software like Relativity, and things like time and billing or ethical wall software.

ThreadKM’s main market is large law firms, but anyone “burned by email” could make good use of it. Continue reading →

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Sonia Cheng of FTI Consulting on the GDPR: a challenge and an opportunity

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Chris Dale

Sonia Cheng is FTI Consulting’s European Information Governance Leader. In this short video, Sonia introduces some ideas for companies to consider when first tackling compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Quite a lot of GDPR summaries focus solely on the maximum financial penalties which may be imposed for breaches of the GDPR. Sonia Cheng begins, rightly, by stressing its benefits – increased personal control of information cannot be a bad thing.

It would be good, Sonia Cheng says, to begin by making yourself aware of what the regulation actually says. Sonia Cheng’s main focus here is on the positive effect of helping to identify obligations. I would add that reading the GDPR would help correct misapprehensions, not just about the penalties but about things which are easily misunderstood. The implications of consent, for example, are more subtle than the conventional shorthand implies, and even the most cursory read would stop people talking about “citizens’ data” which is not a concept expressed in the GDPR. Continue reading →

Posted in Data privacy, Data Protection, FTI Technology, GDPR | Tagged | 1 Comment

AccessData webinar series: navigating information risk, investigations and privacy

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Chris Dale

AccessDataAccessData is running a series of webinars under the umbrella title Information Overload: Navigating information risk, investigations and privacy in today’s regulatory environment. The overall theme is one of preparation – devising policies and techniques for investigating data and facing up to existing and new regulations applicable to data governance and compliance.

The first of these webinars takes place on 27 June. It is called Information risk and compliance in the digital age and will cover the challenges of information risk and the systems necessary for managing it across the enterprise. Continue reading →

Posted in AccessData, Discovery, GDPR, Information Governance, Information Governance Initiative | Tagged | Leave a comment

A few days in Ireland – cliffs, Brexit, cross-border discovery and the GDPR

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Chris Dale

The absence of new posts here sometimes leads to the assumption that I have died or retired. Nothing so exciting – I was in Ireland, mainly for the Sedona Conference Programme on Cross-Border Discovery and Data Protection Laws, held outside Dublin.

That is, by some margin, the most concentrated event of the year, and that’s just for the delegates, never mind the faculty. The days are long, as are the sessions, and the breaks are few and short. There was a lot to learn about and discuss this year, with the Privacy Shield, extraterritorial reach, and the GDPR among the agenda subjects, as well as new Sedona papers to discuss. I barely lifted my head to tweet, let alone write blog posts.

All good stuff, though, and the source of much useful material for the year ahead. I will write about it, and some of the things I missed, during next week – apart from a day trip to Germany to talk TAR, I am at my desk all week. Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Sedona Conference | Leave a comment

Eversheds Sutherland take OpenText Discovery in the cloud

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Chris Dale

The story underlying this article is that OpenText Discovery, has sold cloud licences to Eversheds Sutherland in London, enabling the firm to take control of the management of eDisclosure without having to be responsible for the software and infrastructure. There is a press release here with the story.

It is worth first looking at the context in which a large law firm makes such a decision. The wider story is to about law firms resisting the move towards sub-contracting the disclosure function to others, fighting back by effectively becoming eDisclosure providers in their own right. It is not size alone which makes this right for some firms, but any firm with a strong disputes department, and with a big involvement in regulatory matters and investigations, in cross-border disclosure, and the rest must surely be considering which of several possible routes they should choose for disclosure management. Continue reading →

Posted in Cloud, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, OpenText, Predictive Coding, Recommind | Tagged | Leave a comment

A wide range of topics at the AccessData User Summit

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Chris Dale

AccessDataI went last month to the AccessData User Summit at an attractive resort in San Diego. I moderated or took part in four panels, learnt a lot, met up with old acquaintances and made new ones. It was an extremely useful and enjoyable event, an impression which seemed to be shared by those I spoke to.

The Summit’s agenda illustrated the very broad range of subjects which now surround the “old” skills of forensics and eDiscovery. As well as providing information directly relevant to the delegates, it was designed to extend the understanding of AccessData’s users beyond their immediate responsibilities.

The last time I went to this event, some years ago, forensics and eDiscovery posed problems enough for businesses, and AccessData’s product range matched the issues. Since then the problems have expanded to embrace a much wider range; the “old” headings have expanded to take in Big Data, mobile forensics, new data types and sources – and new problems. AccessData’s range of forensics and eDiscovery products and services has marched with the times. Continue reading →

Posted in AccessData, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brainspace, Cross-border eDiscovery, Cyber security, Data privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Data visualisation, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Interview: Colin Shepheard of Lineal on the use of analytics in Relativity

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Chris Dale

One of the dominant themes at Relativity Fest in London (my report on that is here) was the increasing use of Relativity Analytics for solving electronic disclosure problems.

While there, I interviewed Colin Shepheard, Director of Project Management at Lineal, asking him to tell me about Lineal’s use of Relativity Analytics. Lineal is a provider of eDisclosure services in London. It is a Relativity Partner, with several Relativity certifications including Relativity Analytics Partner.

https://vimeo.com/215244955

Continue reading →

Posted in Analytics, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Relativity, Relativity Fest | Tagged | Leave a comment

On the iCONECT blog: Netflix as a model for explaining technology assisted review

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Chris Dale

How do you explain sophisticated technology to people who are not only new to the subject but are by nature resistant to it?

Technologists have always tried to use parallels from their users’ experience either as an illustration of concepts which might otherwise be obscure or to demonstrate how much better their method is than “the old way”. The document / folder / drawer / filing cabinet metaphor worked very well for a long time, though it is breaking down now that the whole concept of electronic filing is being overtaken. That famous picture of Bill Gates sitting on a pile of paper equivalent to the contents of a single CD made its point well until the capacity of storage devices became so great that the figures ceased to have any meaning.

As both the technology and the users have matured, there is perhaps a closer relationship between the things we use in our everyday lives and the advanced technology available to solve business problems. Olivia Cain, in an article called TAR is the Netflix of eDiscovery on the iCONECT blog, illustrates this by drawing a parallel between Netflix and the technology-assisted review tools within the iCONECT-XERA eDiscovery software. Continue reading →

Posted in Analytics, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, iCONECT, iCONECT-XERA, Technology Assisted Review | Leave a comment

FRONTEO: 11 tips for securing data in the virtual workplace

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Chris Dale

I wrote a couple of days ago about the professional obligation of lawyers to have enough technical knowledge to manage their clients’ electronic data.

Although much of that article (and the article from Epiq which underlay it) was about the management of data in an eDiscovery context, there was emphasis also on looking after client data of all kinds, not just for litigation and other disputes.

“Client data” in this context includes correspondence with and about clients and their matters. Although the popular impression of cybersecurity incidents involves people dressed as burglars sitting in dark basements and hacking into corporate servers, many more incidents involve simpler circumstances – lost USB drives and unsecured laptops, for example. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Fronteo | Leave a comment

The Sedona Principles: public comment deadline and webinar

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Chris Dale

The Sedona Conference recently published the public comment version of the third edition of the highly-regarded Sedona Principles. The deadline for making comments is 30 June.

The public comment version of the Sedona Principles can be downloaded from the Sedona Conference website here. No membership or registration is required. Comments should be sent to comments@SedonaConference.org

In support of the comment exercise, there is a webinar on 14 June at 1:00pm EST. The webinar will be moderated by Eric Mandel of RICOH-USA and the panel members include US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck.

There is more information and a registration form here.

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Should lawyers take on cases requiring technical knowledge if they don’t have that knowledge?

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Chris Dale

What standard of technical competence is expected of lawyers in England and Wales when dealing with cases involving electronically stored information?

The question is prompted by a recent opinion of the New York County Lawyers Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics which has advised lawyers in Manhattan that they have a duty to acquire and maintain the technological competence needed to manage their clients’ electronic data. My source on this is an article from Epiq headed NY Ethics Committee: lawyers without legal tech knowledge should turn down cases.

The article identifies four discrete headings – knowing about legal technology and emerging data types, taking precautions against data breach (including safeguarding data sent to third parties), the need to understand eDiscovery legal technology, and the duty to satisfy oneself as to the security arrangements of vendors and others to whom client data is entrusted.

I can leave you to read the points for yourself, but it is interesting to consider whether the position is any different for solicitors (and barristers come to that) in England and Wales. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Epiq | Leave a comment

Webinar on 7 June: Policies and procedures for keeping employee data inside the organisation

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Chris Dale

FTI Consulting is one of the sponsors of a webinar on 7 June (that is, today) at 1:00pm ET called Policies and procedures for keeping employee data inside the organisation, not out.

The webinar will cover:

  • What IG and E-Discovery experts recommend to establish and maintain defensible data protection practices
  • Who needs to be consulted and involved in defining these practices
  • Practical best practices for developing your own data protection requirements

David Freskos, Senior Director – Technology at FTI Consulting is one of the speakers, with others from Winston & Strawn LLP and Exterro. There is more information and a registration form here.

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Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, FTI Technology | Leave a comment

David Horrigan of kCura interviews Judge Peck on points of International eDiscovery

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Chris Dale

Among the people on my list for video interviews at Relativity Fest London (I wrote about that here) were US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck and David Horrigan of kCura. It occurred to me that I could save some time by getting David Horrigan to interview Judge Peck, and the result of that is here.

https://vimeo.com/215327867

 

David Horrigan picked up on some of the points which had come up in our panels, first on cross-border discovery and data protection, and then on technology-assisted review. Things are changing under both of these headings and there is, perhaps, more sharing of ideas than hitherto. Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Predictive Coding, Relativity, Technology Assisted Review | Leave a comment

Reminder: TAR discussion with Maura Grossman in London on 13 June

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

This is a reminder that there is a discussion called Technology-Assisted Review: fact or fiction? to be held at the offices of Morgan Lewis in London on 13 June.

The speakers are Maura Grossman, Gordon Cormack and Tess Blair of Morgan Lewis. I am the moderator.

Now that Pyrrho and BCA Trading have established that the use of TAR is a proper way to manage eDisclosure in appropriate cases in the courts of England and Wales, it is necessary for lawyers (to say nothing of their clients) to understand the implications of using it.

My recent interview with former Senior Master Steven Whitaker serves as a good introduction to the use of technology in our courts. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Nuix Black Report on cybercrime: knowing your enemy

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Chris Dale

NuixThe Nuix Black Report on cybercrime was published in February. Leaving it to simmer a while has shown its value, as cyber incidents like WannaCry show the value of the understanding and planning which the report urges. There is a war going on here and, as in war, you need to know your enemy.

There are two deviations before I turn to the Nuix Black Report itself. The first is on the value of setting time aside for a proper read of (some) lengthier papers and articles. We tend to skim in these frenetic times, and one of the points made in the Black Report is that the hackers themselves spend time reading around their subject. The Black Report warrants your time. The second apparent deviation is a section on how the contained task of recovering data (“forensics”) turned into the endless battle to protect data from threat (“cybersecurity”). Looking back, the progression and convergence seem obvious and inevitable. That is not it felt as they developed, with each phase opening new risks, new tools and new opportunities. Continue reading →

Posted in Cyber security, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Forensic data collections, GDPR, Nuix | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Telephone records and contempt of court for false evidence

Posted on June 1, 2017 by Chris Dale

You do not often think of prisons in connection with the evidence given in civil proceedings, so you sit up when you see a judgment which begins:

The Claimant, Accident Exchange Limited (“AE”) applies to commit the Defendants to prison on the grounds that each of them engaged in conduct which interfered with the due administration of justice and they were thereby in contempt of court.

The case is Accident Exchange Ltd v Broom & Ors [2017] EWHC 1096 (Admin) (24 May 2017) and it involved evidence given in multiple car hire claims by a company called Autofocus Ltd (or, rather, the individuals employed by Autofocus), whose business was giving evidence as experts on behalf of the defendant insurers in claims for car hire rates following road traffic accidents.

As so often, I am obliged to Gordon Exall’s Civil Litigation Brief and his article Lies, damn lies and car hire quotes: computer records and internal documents preferred to witness evidence both for tipping me off about this case and for the summary of what is a very detailed judgment. The Law Gazette wrote about it here. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Evidence | Leave a comment

OpenText Discovery webinar on 1 June: Predictive coding is for every matter

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Chris Dale

The title of OpenText’s webinar, Predictive coding is for every matter, is almost enough on its own to tell you what it is about.

Its main theme is that machine learning is not just for discovery but as an extension of human analysis of almost any kind of investigation, whether for disputes or not.

It also aims to negative the idea that the application of machine learning tools necessarily involves vast amounts of preparatory work in the form of protocols or project management.

The speakers are

Kiriaki Tourikis, Assistant General Counsel & Vice President JPMorganChase

Ethan Ackerman, Associate, Morgan Lewis

Dawson Horn, Assistant General Counsel & Vice President, AIG Corp

Alexis Mitchell, Principal Data Scientist & Workflow Consultant, OpenText Discovery Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, OpenText, Predictive Coding, Recommind, Technology Assisted Review | Leave a comment

Steven Whitaker, former QBD Senior Master, talks about technology-assisted review and the CPR

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Chris Dale

When Steven Whitaker was Senior Master in the Queen’s Bench Division, he was responsible for Practice Direction 31B and the Electronic Documents Questionnaire, and for the decision in Goodale v Ministry of Justice which was the first (and until very recently the only) High Court judgment which spoke of the merits of technology-assisted review.

These were significant steps towards the establishing the proper place of technology in helping with disclosure and in acknowledging its role in arriving at a just, equitable and cost-effective decision. I took the opportunity at Relativity Fest London to ask Steven Whitaker if we were moving in the right direction.

https://vimeo.com/215404899

Continue reading →

Posted in Court Rules, CPR, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Litigation costs, Predictive Coding, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged | Leave a comment

Reminder: DESI VII in London on 12 June

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Chris Dale

DESI stands for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information. I have already written about DESI VII at Kings College London on 13 June.

There is a draft programme here from which you will see that it is chaired by Jason Baron of Drinker Biddle & Reath, and that the opening keynote is to be given by Maura Grossman and Gordon Cormack with the intriguing title Selective Digital Amnesia.

That this is a serious and heavyweight event is clear from that and from the other talks and papers on the agenda. DESI VII is part of a wider London event called ICAIL 2017 – the 16th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, and registration for all or part of the conference can be done through this page which also links to a list of workshops. You can register for one day only if you like.

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Posted in AI, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Technology Assisted Review | Leave a comment

The Sedona Conference: discussing cross-border eDiscovery and data protection in London and Ireland

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Chris Dale

On 3 May, I took part in a panel organised by the Sedona Conference Working Group 6 on cross-border discovery and data protection laws.

The event, sponsored by Swiss Re and Consilio, was moderated by Monika Kuschewsky of Squire Patton Boggs, and the panel members were David Mayo of Deutsche Bank, Matthew Davis of Consilio, and Natascha Gerlach of Cleary Gottlieb as well as me.

Our task was to lead a discussion on the challenges posed by cross-border transfers of data and specifically on the likely impact of Brexit and the GDPR. Among other things, we mentioned the International Sedona Conference International Litigation Principles (Transitional Edition) published in January 2017, which is an update to the valuable 2011 International Principles. The word “transitional” reflects the uncertainties which inevitably arise in the run-up to Brexit and the GDPR. Continue reading →

Posted in Consilio, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, EU, GDPR, Sedona Conference | Leave a comment

Nuix User Exchange 17 to 20 September at Huntington Beach

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Chris Dale

NuixRegistration has opened for the 2017 Nuix User Exchange to take place, as before, at Huntington Beach in California.

I was there last year and found it both valuable and enjoyable, as you might deduce from the article I wrote about it afterwards.

It has a good mixture of technical sessions, panels about the legal, investigations and security context in which Nuix is used, and social events. If the high spot for me last year was my own interview about the Panama Papers with Gerard Ryle of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, that is in part because it illustrated the broadening range of uses of ediscovery tools and skills. Nuix has been a leader in every phase of the development of the industry from its beginnings in forensics, and the Nuix User Exchange has a corresponding appeal to a wide range of people. Continue reading →

Posted in Data Security, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Forensic data collections, Nuix | Leave a comment

Relativity Fest London – a rounded eDisclosure conference not just a trade show

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Chris Dale

As I noted when I wrote about it in advance, kCura’s Relativity Fest London has been moving over the years to become a full-blown eDiscovery / eDisclosure event and not just a platform for launching kCura initiatives and for networking. There was plenty of that as well, but kCura’s success with this event must be tough on those whose business is  organising commercial conferences. kCura has collected pictures, quotations and other snippets from the day here.

My window on the event is perhaps a narrow one since I missed most of the sessions, the networking and, indeed, the food (which, as always at the etc.venues place at 155 Bishopsgate, looked very good). We recorded a number of video interviews which will appear over the coming weeks, and I did two panel sessions.

CEO Andrew Sieja retains his ability to sound simultaneously like one of the lads sharing exciting news and like a hard-nosed businessman with serious messages for the future of eDiscovery.

Continue reading →

Posted in Analytics, Brexit, CPR, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, FRCP, KCura, Relativity, Relativity Fest, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Morgan Lewis discussion in London on 13 June – Technology-Assisted Review: Fact or Fiction?

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Chris Dale

Morgan Lewis is organising a panel discussion at its London office on 13 June with the title Technology-Assisted Review: Fact or Fiction? The speakers are Tess Blair of Morgan Lewis, Maura Grossman of University of Waterloo and Maura Grossman Law, and Gordon Cormack of University of Waterloo.

None of these speakers really need any introduction to those familiar with the use of technology-assisted review for litigation, for regulatory investigations, for internal investigations and, increasingly, for legal work beyond disputes. Most discussions about TAR, not least judicial opinions and judgments, cite the work of Maura Grossman and Gordon Cormack on this subject. I will be the moderator, and it will be great fun to engage in discussion with them quite apart from the very obvious opportunity to learn from them.

We will define what TAR is and is not, describe how different kinds of TAR work, discuss how TAR can be used to reduce costs and achieve effective and proportionate discovery, review the scientific evidence for TAR, and talk about judicial acceptance of TAR in England and Wales, Ireland, Australia and the United States. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Predictive Coding, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

ACEDS UK event on 27 July: artificial intelligence

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Chris Dale

I have much enjoyed the two events which I have moderated in London for ACEDS UK Chapter. If you missed it, you may like to see the video of our GDPR panel.

The next ACEDS UK event is on 27 July and is called What is artificial intelligence and how can it be used by the legal community?

The aim is to make this a led discussion rather than a series of lectures. If you are interested in attending, please contact James MacGregor at FRONTEO  jmacgregor@fronteo.com who will give you more information.

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ACEDS webinar with OpenText on 17 May: Day in the Life: Discovery Professional Services

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Chris Dale

ACEDS and OpenText are organising a webinar on 17 May called Day in the Life: Discovery Professional Services.

Brian Shaw, Walker Hartz and Adam Kuhn of OpenText Discovery will talk about their own experiences, including their most memorable product projects, and (equal importantly) will share career advice with those who would like to work in eDiscovery.

There is more information and a registration form here.

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Relativity webinar on 17 May: negotiating TAR Protocols

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Chris Dale

kCura is hosting a webinar on 17 May called Negotiating TAR protocols: 7 questions in-house counsel must ask.

The speakers are Phil Favro of the Coalition of Technology Resources for Lawyers (CTRL), Dean Gonsowski of kCura, John Lavinder of DTI, and Amy Sellars of Walmart Legal.

Their aim is to help in-house counsel conduct appropriate discussions with outside counsel about technology-assisted review and other analytics tools, to suggest some best practices about strategy, and to identify the things to ask for in another party’s TAR strategy.

There is more information and a registration form here.

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Interview: Jon Lavinder of Epiq talks about emerging data and technology-assisted review

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Chris Dale

Jon Lavinder is Director, Technology-Assisted Review, at DTI. DTI has now merged with Epiq to become one of the largest players in the eDiscovery market and one with more experience of technology-assisted review than many others.

In this interview, John Lavinder talks about the very wide range of technology tools covered by the term “technology-assisted review”, and how the existence of these tools is helping lawyers to change the way they do things.

Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, DTI, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Epiq, Internet of Things, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged | Leave a comment

AccessData 2017 European Tour

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Chris Dale

AccessDataAccessData has recently released Version 6.2 of its discovery software and is organising a tour of major European cities to introduce the new functionality.

The tour starts in London on 15 May and then goes to 7 other European cities – Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Vilnius, Bucharest and Prague.

The list is here with links to each event’s registration page.

While on the subject of AccessData, the company has just passed its 30th birthday – for ever, in terms of the ediscovery market. Here is a post called Happy 30th Anniversary to AccessData! by AccessData’s VP of Global marketing Lori Tyler in celebration of that milestone.

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Interview: Keith Conley on the benefits for clients of the Epiq merger

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Chris Dale

Keith Conley is President and Chief Operating Officer at DTI. DTI and Epiq are now a single entity, and I asked Keith Conley to explain the benefits of the merger for clients.

The combined company, Keith Conley says, is a global eDiscovery provider in over 40 countries. This brings unparalleled resources to support clients – the company has 65 forensic consultants and 300 Relativity-certified administrators. It is able to bring a dedicated team to dealing with Second Requests. Continue reading →

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More evidence from the Internet of Things – this time a Fitbit

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Chris Dale

It is about two years since people started predicting that the Internet of Things would become a source of potentially discoverable evidence. At the time, Fitbits recurred as a theoretical example of a device which could yield useful material in a civil or criminal case.

That has now happened in Connecticut – the story is here. A husband told police that an intruder had killed his wife. He was quite specific about the time – he got home at about 9:00am after taking his children to school and was attacked by an intruder who shot his wife and then tied him to a chair.

His wife’s Fitbit showed that she was still moving until 10:05, an hour after the alleged shooting. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Evidence, Internet of Things | Leave a comment

ILTA scholarships in honour of Browning Marean

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

ILTAILTA, the International Legal Technology Association, is again offering two scholarships for attendance at ILTACON 2017 which runs from 13 to 17 August in Las Vegas.

Browning MareanThe scholarships are in memory of my dear friend Browning Marean, a partner at DLA Piper US, who supported and encouraged many people in eDiscovery, including me, until his unexpected death in August 2014.

There is more about Browning Marean and about the scholarships here. The ILTA Conference is a great event for learning about eDiscovery, both formally in sessions and informally by the opportunity to talk to a very wide range of knowledgeable people, from the US and elsewhere.

There are two scholarships, an international one and a US one. The recipient of the international scholarship must live and work outside the US; the recipient of the US scholarship must live and work within the U.S. Applications for the scholarships should be made by 9 June.

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FTI on the GDPR: a business critical enabler for CIOs

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Chris Dale

FTI has an article in the recent edition of Raconteur called GDPR: a business-critical enabler for CIOs. One paragraph from it effectively summarises the rest. Talking of the General Data Protection Regulation, now only 13 months away, Sonia Cheng of FTI says:

“It is a major catalyst for change. The GDPR makes you ask questions such as what kind of data do you have, why do you have it and where does it flow? It will also provide the foundation for other services, including revenue generation and better customer service, as well as dealing with security breaches and preparing for cyber attacks.”

There is no running away from the fact that the biggest teeth in the GDPR are the potential for very significant fines for breaches of its wide-ranging terms. Sonia Cheng’s paragraph quoted above, however, reminds us that there are opportunities here both to remedy past omissions and to look for new revenues and new clients. Continue reading →

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Interview: Brandon Mack of Epiq – technology assisted review in the real world

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Chris Dale

I interviewed Brandon Mack of Epiq recently, and opened by asking him what he meant by technology-assisted review. We went on to discuss how technology is changing the practice of lawyers, the widening scope of projects which use eDiscovery tools and skills, the impact of big data and the Internet of Things, and the normalisation of technology as it is seen by judges as well as lawyers. That is quite a lot for one short interview.

Technology assisted review is, Brandon Mack says, a very broad term. The market has seemed to make it synonymous with predictive coding, but in reality technology-assisted review is any mechanism that we use to enhance the effectiveness of review of data. Brandon Mack refers to deduplication as one example; others include clustering and email threading. Continue reading →

Posted in Analytics, Big Data, Discovery, DTI, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Epiq, Internet of Things, Predictive Coding, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged | Leave a comment

Reminder: Sedona WG6 London event on 3 May on cross-border data transfers

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Chris Dale

This is a reminder that there is an interesting and important panel discussion next week in London when a panel organised by Sedona Conference Working Group 6 discusses the challenges of cross-border data transfers. I wrote about it here.

The focus will be on the challenges posed in relation to preservation and discovery obligations across borders. We will look at examples of current challenges, at whether these will change (for better or worse) under the GDPR, and at the likely effect of Brexit. Our aim is to incite dialogue.

There is more information here with a link to a registration form. Part of the purpose of this session is to encourage interest in the work of the Sedona Conference and in particular the cross-border and data protection work of Working Group 6.

There is no charge for this event and it is not necessary to be an existing member of the Sedona Working Group series in order to register. Should you have any questions on how to register, please don’t hesitate to contact info@sedonaconference.org.

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A roundup of eDisclosure developments in England and Wales – some rules

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Chris Dale

This is the second in a series of four articles about the rules and cases relevant to disclosure in England and Wales. The series is introduced here. Although this article is headed “eDisclosure developments” for consistency with the rest, there have been no new relevant developments in the rules themselves since the modifications made at the instigation of Lord Justice Jackson in 2013.

To repeat one thing from the Introduction, we are developing a new on-line resource to replace the one which disappeared on the last upgrade to www.edisclosureinformation.co.uk. This series is designed as an updater.

Without here purporting to give a full survey of the rules (that, as I say, is in the works) here are a few key elements, mainly ones which have been referred to in the more recent cases. The links are to the rule itself:

Rule 31.6 CPR – standard disclosure

The word “relevant” disappeared from this part of the rules in 1999. The test since then is whether documents are supportive of or adverse to the case of the giver or any other party. Have a look at Shah v HSBC Private Bank Ltd where the Court of Appeal said that the term “relevant” was fine for everyday use down to the moment when something turned on the precise construction of Rule 31.6 – “in cases of dispute it is important to stick with the carefully chosen wording of the rule”. Continue reading →

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Interview: Matthew Geaghan of Nuix talks about the transferability of eDiscovery skills and technology

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Chris Dale

NuixLike Nuix itself itself, Matthew Geaghan began with the hard technology of forensics and grew from that into eDiscovery, digital forensics, incident response and cyber security, acquiring new skills as the focus changed.

Some retraining may be necessary, Matthew Geaghan said, but eDiscovery skills are a good platform for helping corporations with the wider challenges they face now. The balance is changing between the players; Matthew Geaghan referred to the “utopian vision of collaborative, cooperative triangulation between law firm, service provider and corporations”.

Everyone involved is certainly more aware of the details of the technology available to address the issues, he says, and there are opportunities for those willing to adapt.

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FTI webinar on 18 May: using information governance strategies to prepare for the GDPR

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Chris Dale

Although many companies are effectively preparing for the new regulatory environment of the General Data Protection Regulation, many are not. There are anecdotal suggestions that some companies have abandoned existing compliance efforts under the misapprehension that Brexit will make the GDPR irrelevant within the UK.

That is not so, for two reasons. The most obvious is that the GDPR, taking effect as it does in May 2018, will be in force well before the earliest possible date for Brexit, and organisations will therefore be subject to its provisions for at least a year (and probably rather longer).

The other reason is that, however isolated the UK is after Brexit, it will still need to take part in cross-border data flows, not least those involving the US.

There is a third reason: many of the provisions of the GDPR are things which companies ought to be doing anyway, with or without a regulatory whip at their back. To take one example, the GDPR will require organisations to report data breaches (and these are very widely defined) within 72 hours of their occurrence. While the potentially significant GDPR fines are a big spur to action, so too are the risks which follow from negative customer reactions, from shareholder unease and from other factors which matter very much for a company’s profile.

FTI has long had significant expertise in this area. Its webinar on 18 May, done in conjunction with Bloomberg BNA, will cover (among other things): Continue reading →

Posted in Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, FTI Technology, GDPR | Leave a comment

Relativity webinar on 27 April: putting a leash on the Internet of Things

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Chris Dale

One of the recurring themes in this blog is the need to be aware of the increasing amount of personal data collected about us every day by our own devices.

This, whether we like it or not, is used by organisations to put us into categories for marketing and other purposes. They use ever more sophisticated analytical software to draw conclusions both about people en masse and about each of us individually.

A webinar organised by kCura is an opportunity to find out how this data is collected and what is done with it. The main discussion points include: Continue reading →

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Sedona Conference WG6 event in London on 3 May: the challenges of cross-border data transfers

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Chris Dale

The Sedona Conference Working Group 6 covers international electronic information management, discovery and disclosure, including data protection issues. WG6 has three membership-building events coming up, one in Chicago on 24 April, one in London on 3 May and one in Washington DC on 9 May.

The London event is sponsored by Swiss Re (whose offices in the Gherkin will host the event) and by international eDiscovery provider Consilio.

The panel members are Matthew Davis of Consilio, Natascha Gerlach of Cleary Gottlieb, David Mayo of Deutsche Bank and me. The moderator is Monika Kuschewsky of Squire Patton Boggs.

As you can see from the event description here, our intention is a dialogue on the challenges posed by cross-border data transfers, specifically in relation to preservation and discovery obligations. Our main focus will be on the likely effect on data transfers of the GDPR and Brexit but we will range widely within the broad topic heading. We are keen to involve the audience and are happy go down avenues suggested by audience questions. Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, Consilio, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, GDPR | Leave a comment

A roundup of eDisclosure developments in England and Wales – Introduction

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Chris Dale

I went recently with Recommind (now OpenText) to talk to a City law firm about developments in eDisclosure in England and Wales. I have done a few of these with Recommind over the years, where we divide an hour between me talking about rules and cases and Recommind showing how their software, and particularly the predictive coding element of it, is relevant to modern disclosure duties.

When we originally devised it, this program focused on Practice Direction 31B, the Electronic Documents Questionnaire and the 2013 amendments to the rules instigated by Lord Justice Jackson. We reckoned that these building blocks were now old hat for a firm of this calibre, and I put together a new agenda which, while reciting a few key (and often misunderstood) rules, concentrated on the lessons from the more recent cases. What follows (divided into four posts) is a summary of what I said, with links to case reports and articles which I wrote at the time of the judgments.

My son Will and I are working on a replacement for the resources which I used to keep on my website and which disappeared with the latest website update. The content is more or less sorted out, but the mechanics will take us a while, and these posts might serve as an interim update. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, Recommind | Leave a comment

Epiq: eDiscovery seminar in Singapore for financial services teams on 25 April

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Chris Dale

Epiq is organising an eDiscovery seminar for financial services teams to be held in Singapore on 25th of April 2017.

The context is the ever-increasing regulatory scrutiny, the growing complexity of cross-border investigations, and the increasing need to keep track of corporate data as growing volumes conflict with increasing constraints and controls.

The seminar will cover emerging business data trends and Epiq’s business intelligence platform, DMX, and its role in bringing both insight and efficiency to the eDiscovery process.

There is more information about this here, including contact details for seeking further details.

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LinkedIn entry as evidence of shadow director status

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Chris Dale

Lawyers are beginning to get the idea that the definition of a “document” in the discovery rules extends to entries on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. There remains the perception, however, that these things are relevant only to crime and personal injury claims and that they have little bearing on corporate or commercial litigation.

Gordon Exall’s Civil Litigation Brief is, as so often, the first to point us to a case called Green v Marston. The point at issue was whether a Mr Lochner was a de facto director of an insolvent company.

In his article Social media and civil evidence: what did you say on LinkedIn? Gordon Exall points us to paragraph 52 of the judgment in which Lochner’s LinkedIn profile described him as corporate finance director of the company until after the liquidation date. Continue reading →

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The Sedona Principles transcend jurisdictional differences

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Chris Dale

There are those among you, I know, who glance at the heading and opening paragraph of these posts and decide not to read those which do not relate to your own jurisdiction. That is understandable in many cases, but the recent release of the Third Edition of the Sedona Principles has value beyond the US and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

This is a public comment version, with comments invited by 30 June 2017. Its full title is Best Practices, Recommendations and Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production and, while some of its provisions are expressly rooted in particular Federal rules, the Principles (whether with or without a capital P) have application almost anywhere which requires discovery of electronic documents. Continue reading →

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Interview: Ian Campbell of iCONECT on the theme of Choices

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Chris Dale

xera_logoweb_200piCONECT’s theme for Legaltech was CHOICES, and I asked CEO Ian Campbell what was the significance of this word.

Ian Campbell explains that “Choices” is a recurring theme throughout the use of the iCONECT-XERA platform – there are, for example, choices in licensing, choices in the tools to use, choices in workflow and choices in language.

There are also choices in viewing platform including (as I wrote here) the ability to review progress on a mobile phone.

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Video of our ACEDS panel on the GDPR – a hypothetical case study

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Chris Dale

In early March, I took part in a panel about the GDPR organised by the ACEDS London chapter. I moderated, and the participants were Daniel Cooper of Covington, Susan Knox of Mayer Brown and Will Wilkinson of Yerra Solutions.

Mayer Brown kindly provided the very fine auditorium and Yerra Solutions sponsored the drinks. In addition to that, Yerra Solutions arranged for the event to be recorded on video, and the result is now available here:

Continue reading →

Posted in ACEDS, Cross-border eDiscovery, Data privacy, Data Protection, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, GDPR | Leave a comment

AccessData webinar on 26 April: taking your investigations to new heights with AccessData 6.2

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Chris Dale

AccessDataAccessData is presenting a webinar on 26 April at 11.00am PDT / 2:00pm EDT to talk about the newest features in its flagship eDiscovery product AccessData 6.2.

The main changes relate to the speed of processing, to scalability and to a much improved user experience. A webinar like this is a quick and easy way to find out what is new.

There is more about this webinar here, including a registration form.

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Interview: Erika Namnath of H5 on how H5 uses Relativity for its clients

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Chris Dale

I get the opportunity from time to time to talk to people from Relativity partners to find out how they use Relativity to help their clients. H5 is a Relativity Premium Hosting Partner which has long had a very good name for sophisticated search applications designed to reduce very large volumes of documents to manageable collections of those which matter.

I recently interviewed Erika Namnath who is Associate Director, eDiscovery at H5 and asked her to tell me how H5 uses Relativity to manage eDiscovery.

Continue reading →

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Hal Marcus of OpenText on AI and the increasing take-up of predictive coding by lawyers

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Chris Dale

Hal Marcus is Director of Product Marketing at Recommind, an OpenText company. He is one of the more eloquent proponents of the use of predictive coding, not just as a technical matter, but as a significant advance on the way lawyers deal with large volumes of documents under pressure of both time and costs.

In this interview, I begin by repeating the rather cynical old assertion that lawyers would take to predictive coding as soon as something newer came along. Is Artificial Intelligence that new thing which will persuade lawyers that it is now right for them to use predictive coding?

Continue reading →

Posted in AI, Artificial Intelligence, Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, OpenText, Predictive Coding, Recommind, Technology Assisted Review | Leave a comment

FTI Consulting: Contract management can uncover value as well as risk

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Chris Dale

A recent edition of Raconteur included an interesting article about the growing understanding of the value of contract management and the role FTI Consulting plays in that. The need to be on top of a company’s contractual obligations, and the obligations owed to it by others, is something which looks both backwards and into the future. Many organisations have very many – sometimes tens of thousands of – contracts which have historically not been subject to any form of central control. No one part of the organisation knows what these contracts are or where they are, still less what they say.

It becomes increasingly important to know and understand what lies in these contracts, both the risk and the hidden value. It is necessary not only to grasp what exists already but also to manage properly future contracts. The skills and technology developed by FTI for handling eDiscovery exercises is well tuned for application to the management of contracts. Continue reading →

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Interview: Adi Elliott of Epiq talks about eDiscovery in the cloud

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Chris Dale

Adi Elliott is VP, Market Planning at Epiq. Some people are talking about eDiscovery in the cloud as if this is something new, and it seems important to be clear both that eDiscovery has long been managed from the cloud and that many other business services and processes have similarly been run on software and servers owned and managed outside the organisation.

Continue reading →

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DTI invests in Valora Technologies for auto-classification, predictive analytics and data mining

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Chris Dale

The merger last year of DTI and Epiq made one of the largest and most significant players in the global legal technology market. I recently interviewed Keith Conley, President and COO at DTI, who emphasised (among other things) the in-house capability of the merged business to provide in-house processing with DMX. The implication was that DTI / Epiq would bring its resources to developing and enhancing technology and not just to using it.

That intent is further evidenced by the announcement last week that DTI has made a strategic investment in Valora Technologies. Valora has long been a significant name in auto-classification, predictive analytics and document data mining technologies for information governance, eDiscovery and Records Management. It has remained narrowly focused in this niche area, becoming a respected specialist in its field. DTI’s investment is described as “the beginning of the coming-of-age of auto-classification” as well as evidence of DTI’s commitment to the technology behind information governance solutions. Continue reading →

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Consilio offers External Spend Optimisation for corporate law departments

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Chris Dale

ConsilioPart of the rationale behind Consilio’s acquisition of Huron Legal was to expand its involvement in helping corporations understand and measure their external spending on legal services.

It is trite to say that legal departments want to reduce their budgets and to identify the most cost efficient ways of spending their money. Consilio’s External Spend Optimisation solution offers practical strategies to maximise the value of legal spending.

The key to this is benchmarking information which allows comparison between the value of services offered by different providers. Consilio conducts regular surveys aimed at establishing these benchmarks, and offers both experienced staff and its legal spend analytics and benchmarking tool, Sky Analytics, which is designed to bring together all the information about the external costs into a single place.

There is a press release about this here.

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Welcome to Brainspace as a sponsor of the eDisclosure Information Project

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Chris Dale

I am delighted to say that Brainspace has become the latest sponsor of the eDisclosure Information Project.

Brainspace creates machine-learning software designed to analyze massive amounts of unstructured data very quickly. Brainspace explores data – not just words and phrases, but also their context and meaning — dynamically identifying and organising documents into related clusters so that the user can immediately focus on exploration and learning.

The Brainspace tagline is Augmenting Investigative Intelligence, emphasising that human input is a critical component in the exploration. Brainspace builds clusters without human intervention. Its Concept Cluster Wheel groups documents by conceptual similarity much like a map and, as with a map, the user can navigate to neighbouring clusters. There is a page about this here. Continue reading →

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Interview: Robin Snasdell of Consilio talks about the value of contract management

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Chris Dale

ConsilioRobin Snasdell is Managing Director at Consilio. I interviewed him recently, and asked him to explain what contract management is and why companies would go to Consilio for help with it.

Robin Snasdell says that companies which are engaged in some kind of contract management technology implementation look for opportunities to do more with the technology and get more value from its use.

There are big opportunities to take legacy contracts and move them into the technology, to extract data and metadata from them and use the resulting information to enhance the business. Continue reading →

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Interview: Tom Palladino talks about the NightOwl Discovery Client Advisory Group

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Chris Dale

NightOwlNightOwl Discovery has recently set up a formal practice area called the Client Advisory Group. I took the opportunity at Legaltech to ask NightOwl’s president, Tom Palladino, what this means for NightOwl and its clients.

Tom Palladino says that NightOwl has always offered professional services to its clients over its 25 years. For the last six years, much of the advisory work has been done directly for corporations rather than for law firms. The Client Advisory Group was a formalisation of these established services.

Continue reading →

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kCura’s London Relativity Fest on 25 April

Posted on March 27, 2017 by Chris Dale

kCura has organised a London event since 2013. It has had various names since then, most recently the “Relativity Spring Roadshow”, but I was not the only one who always thought of it as Relativity Fest London in line with kCura’s major conference in Chicago every autumn.

In 2017, Relativity Fest London is actually what it is to be called. An article here on the kCura site explains the varying names and purposes of this event as it changed from being a product launch occasion into one of the largest eDiscovery / eDisclosure events in the UK.

I took part last year leading a panel on predictive coding developments in the UK. That grew into a multinational (US, Ireland and UK) panel at Relativity Fest proper in Chicago.

This year I am taking part in a panel which includes US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck and former Senior Master Steven Whitaker at which we will consider the extent to which jurisdictions can learn from each other’s rules and practical experiences, including the use of technology. The moderator will be David Horrigan of kCura.

My other panel is called Issues in cross-border eDisclosure and data protection. Again, David Horrigan will moderate, and my fellow speakers are Meribeth Banaschik of EY, Audrey Byrne of McCann FitzGerald and Jonathan Maas of the Maas Consulting Group. Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, eDisclosure, eDiscovery, Electronic disclosure, KCura, Predictive Coding, Relativity, Technology Assisted Review | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment