The 24/7 Andrew Peck Show

Greetings from LegalTech West Coast in relatively-smog free and sunny Los Angeles. Day one was full of energy and standing-room only presentations with, as usual, tons of e-discovery in the seminar rooms (and on the busy exhibit hall floor). Day 2 is today (May 23), at the downtown Westin Bonaventure -- one day tickets are available if you want to head over and get some education, demos, and CLE credits.

Topic A among the L.A. EDD crowd, as expected, is the closely-watched Da Silva Moore case, where U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck has ordered the use of computer-assisted coding (aka predictive coding). Law Technology News is one of those closely-watching, our most recent story is here.

On the blawg-o-sphere, attorney Sharon Nelson, (left) president of Sensei Enterprises, has been monitoring the DSM sideshow in her ride the lightening blog. See her latest post, "Da Silva Moore: EDD's Version of Keeping Up with the Kardashians," is  here.

Peck and his Second District colleague Lisa Smith gave a terrific program Thursday evening at the New York City chapter of Women in Discovery -- demonstrating his trademark wit and substantive knowledge. See "Federal Judges Preside Over Women in E-Discovery Meeting."

But Tuesday's LTWC keynote address reminded us that Peck isn't a one-trick pony doin' nuttin' but e-discovery 24/7/365. (He did win LTN's 2011 Champion of Technology Award). Peck's turf also has included overseeing another matter that kept lawyers chewing their fingernails -- to say nothing of anybody with a dollar in a bank. Kevin Genirs (left). In his keynote address yesterday, "2008 v. 2012: Lessons from the Lehman Brothers," described how Peck oversaw the frantic, sleep-deprived mega-lawyered transactions under excruciating deadlines that ultimately resulted in the sale of Lehman Brothers ("for the price of our building") to Barclays, praising Peck for recognizing the global impact of the sale on the stability of financial markets, and Peck's nonstop efforts to get the deal consumated. Genirs, who had been general counsel, investment banking, at Lehman's, was one of the 10,000 Lehman workers who had new jobs with Barclays when the sun rose the next day.

Later this morning, check out www.lawtechnologynews.com for my colleague Michael Roach's  report on "Under Fire: Defending and Challenging Technology-Assisted Review," which featured Irell's Tom Werner, O'Melveny's Jeffrey Flower, Oracle's Pallab Chakraborty, and moderator Andrea Gibson, from Kroll Ontrack (the sponsor of the Litigation Technology Track." Yes, DSM and Peck were front-and-center in the discussion!

Meanwhile, you can keep up with all the substance and occasional drama about Peck on our website's home page www.lawtechnologynews.com, and its E-Discovery/Compliance "channel" -- and right here at EDD Update. Onward to Day 2! 

Update 5/24: Oooops. Who knew there were two Judge Pecks in the Southern District of New York! Actually, many -- and Silicon Valley consultant Mark Michels, a member of LTN's editorial advisory board, was the first to advise me that I goofed. It wasn't Andrew Peck, it was Judge James Peck, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. But you get my point.

P.S. Here's Michael's story 

Photos: Monica Bay, except for Sharon Nelson (courtesy of ride the lightening)

Kozinski: First Amendment is Dead

The First Amendment is dead, a victim of the internet, declared Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a compelling presentation replete with his trademark wit, Kozinski gave the eulogy April 12  at Golden Gate University School of Law's third annual Intellectual Property Distinguished Speaker program in San Francisco. Professor Marc Greenberg, co-director of he school's IP law program, introduced the popular judge to a packed lecture hall of students and a sprinkling of lawyers who earned one hour of continuing legal education credit. (Greenberg also spoke April 12 on ALM's Social Media: Risks & Rewards conference). The free program was open to the public, and sponsored by Kirkpatrick Townsend & Stockton and Squire Sanders & Dempsey.

The moral of Kozinski's speech may well be, "pick your battles."

Read more here.

Extras:

• Video: The Recorder: http://bit.ly/LTN613

• Ambrogi/Williams Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast with Kozinski. 

Photo: Jason Doiy/The Recorder

Judge Grimm Ponders Disappointing FRE 502

Chief Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ponders why Federal Rule of Evidence 502 — which encourages cooperation among counsel with the goal of reducing the costs of production of electronically stored information and reviews -- "has not lived up to its potential," in the current issue of the University of Richmond's Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT). Writing with his law clerks, Lisa Bergstrom and Matthew Kraeuter, Grimm says the explanation "may have to do with the reality that a disappointingly small number of lawyers seem to be aware of the rule and its potential, despite the fact that the rule is over two years old."

Another factor: "Courts have not interpreted Rule 502 with sufficient consistency in reported decisions to enable practitioners and their clients to predict how they will fare if they attempt to take advantage of the rule to reduce the need for manual, document-by-document pre-production review by either employing electronic search and retrieval methodologies or entering into time and money saving non-waiver agreements."

The same issue of JOLT includes Jason Baron's article on "Law in the Age of Exabytes," addressing "information inflation" and current issues in EDD search; and also includes articles on technology-assisted EDD review and a look back at how the 2006 FRCP amendments have "reshaped the e-discovery landscape," and revitalized civil justice.

The articles are downloadable from the JOLT website.

(If you aren't familiar with Grimm's rulings, check out Craig Ball's delicious account of Victor Stanley II.)

Nirvana @ Georgetown

Thursday's opening sessions of the Georgetown Advanced E-Discovery Institute were pure bliss for e-discovery professionals, featuring the top judges who are shaping the development of EDD with their landmark decisions.

The opening keynote featured the Honorable James Holderman, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the self-proclaimed chief cheerleader of the 7th Circuit Pilot Project, which is trying to reform EDD protocols.

It was followed by the Judge Shira Scheindlin show, the e-discovery equivalent of Katy Perry on "Saturday Night Live." The discussion, with fellow judges querying her landmark rulings, was positively electric.  Scheindlin, right, is a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York.)

Tweeted one attendee, "Judges Scheindlin and Rosenthal on the same panel. Been waiting all year."

Read more about it here and here.

Update: Chris Bright of Zapproved posted a transcript of the Scheindlin et. al program, here on his Legal Hold Pro Tracker blog.

BREATHING EASIER

All lawyers must be able to fashion a successful legal hold, argues Craig Ball in his May "Ball in Your Court" column in  Law Technology News. U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin's recent "terrifying 88-page opinion" in Pension Committee gives no quarter, he says.

"The failure to issue a written litigation hold constitutes gross negligence because that failure is likely to result in the destruction of relevant information," she writes. So what's a lawyer to do? Ball comes to the rescue with tips on creating a workable legal hold.

And there's more news: Ralph Losey, on EDD Update, notes that Scheindlin added another correction to her opinion on May 28. The fix will help folks breath a little easier, he says, as she changes language from "likely constitutes negligence" to "could" -- and "all employees" is modified to "those with any involvement."

Speaking of legal holds, in "Gone, Not Forgotten" Jones Day's Marc Fulkert reminds us that exiting employees may leave behind a trail of electronic data. He offers suggestions for policies that will protect organizations, including prohibiting personnel from using personal computers or e-mail when working -- and to be sure that those folks don't walk away with company computers!

JUSTICE STEVENS DISCUSSION

I turn the mic over to my colleague Sean Doherty, technology editor of Law.com:

Justice Stevens Announces Retirement: Normally, that's not a news topic that would make the Law Technology News Daily Alert. But in the spirit of Web 2.0 and internet journalism, The National Law Journal has mounted a blog on the topic, Speaking of Stevens: A Forum on the Justice, His Legacy, and the Future of the Court.

NLJ has invited more than a dozen high court experts to weigh in with their thoughts of Justice John Paul Stevens and his legacy, as well as the future of the Supreme Court. Join M. Edward Whelan III, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Sonja West, professor at the ;University of Georgia School of Law; Lucas "Scot" Powe Jr., professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law; Andrew Pincus, partner at Mayer Brown; Carter Phillips, managing partner in the D.C. office of Sidley Austin; and more.