EDD Update

2008 Socha-Gelbmann EDD Survey Sneak Preview

The anxiously awaited 2008 Socha-Gelbmann EDD Survey executive summary will be published in the August issue of Law Technology News, but here is a sneak preview to whet your appetite.

This year we gathered information from or about 107 EDD services and software providers, and from 29 law firms and 19 corporations.  Using more than 350 qualitative and quantitative factors, we ranked those providers - top overall EDD services providers, top overall EDD software providers, and top EDD providers in various categories.  Although one can, and perhaps should, take issue with the specific rankings, we feel that the providers listed below represent the best of the best, an elite cadre singled out from a field of well over 600 organizations that offer some form of EDD services or software.

California EDD Rules - Richard Best

Richard Best, a California EDD Referee, offers his observations about the pending California EDD Rules:

At this point, legislation enacting e-discovery rules in California appears to be a political certainty and will likely have no opposition.

The comments on the proposal submitted to the AOC [Administrative Office of the Courts] and the response by its staff provide some insight to the understanding and intent of the advocates of the legislation.

At the Judicial Council meeting on April 25th, questions asked by a few members and responses of the proponents raised additional issues. The proposal and a spreadsheet summarizing all the comments and the committee's responses covers 147 pages and was posted on April 18, 2008. The spreadsheet, the agenda and the audiocast of the Judicial Council presentation and discussion may be found here.

Discovery Portal to Relaunch Tomorrow

The e-discovery portal DiscoveryResources.org, which is operated by the e-discovery management company Fios, will be relaunched tomorrow with a number of updates and improvements. Mark Mack, corporate technology counsel at Fios and author of the e-discovery blog Sound Evidence, says that changes to the site will include:

• New navigation for tracking e-discovery best practices and case law.
• New "From the Experts" articles on current e-discovery issues and trends.
• A new "Bookstore" featuring the latest books on e-discovery issues.
• RSS feeds for tracking the latest news and information.
• Updated links to industry resources and judicial opinions.
• A newly designed monthly newsletter.
• Links to industry blogs and other e-discovery community resources.

The goal of the redesign, Mack says, is to make the site easier and more intuitive to navigate so that readers can more easily find relevant information.

A Bit Off-Topic But $$ Always Interesting!

Our Incisive colleagues in London have created a blog in the wake of Linklaters' decision to hike it's pay bands, and other UK firms resistance to following suit. New associates are now up to  £66K.

Webinar on Subprime Litigation and E-Discovery

Attenex is presenting a web seminar titled "Risky Business: Subprime Litigation and the Role of E-Discovery."  Chris McClean of Forrester Reserach and David Weber of Navigant Consulting will talk.  The question:  "Are your legal, IT and compliance teams ready to weather the subprime lending fallout storm?"
The 60-minute seminar will take place on Tuesday, May 13, at 1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT. Go here for more information/to register.

Tick Tock 3 O'Clock

Dying of curiosity about the 2008 AmLaw 100?

The full story goes up tonight on The American Lawyer's website, but you can get a sneak preview at 3 p.m. when editor-in-chief Aric Press presents a free webinar, "The Numbers and What's Behind Them."

Press will offer key insights and analysis about what factors have influenced this year's numbers. Which firms generated the most revenue? Which are the fastest growing? Which are losing ground? Which have the strongest partner-per-profit ratio.

"This Law Firm Golden Age has been fueled by increased demand and unrelenting annual rate hikes.” says Press. "Partners have reaped record profits, partly by hard work, and partly by pulling up the ladder behind them: The firms are making fewer new equity partners. With the economy turning sour it’s doubtful that the extraordinary run that the big firms have enjoyed can continue.”

The webinar went live at 3 pm today.

Register here.

Update: The report is available now from ALM Research.

Sneak Preview: "FutureTech" at LegalTech LA

Campers:

I've been JUST a leetle distracted lately, putting the final touches on the upcoming, first-time ever  Law Technology News Presents FutureTech  at LegalTech West Coast.

We're calling it "The Trifecta" inside ALM, because it's the first time  we've conceived an effort that includes a live presentation, podcasts, and an LTN report.

Here's the 411:

Ferris Research Poll

David Ferris, of Ferris Research, is running a poll about retention policies. Check it out here.

Law.com EDD Webinar: Controlling Costs

Our latest Law.com/LTN  EDD Webinar, E-Discovery: Controlling Costs is now available. This one-hour  webinar was sponsored by EED (Thanks!) and is free.

We had a blast taping this one; how could you not with such a fabulous group of speakers:

* Craig Ball, LTN's "Ball in Your Court" columnist and Austin-based trial lawyer/tech guru/ computer forensic examiner.
* Patrick Oot, director of E-Discovery and senior lit counsel at Verizon
• Rich Hauser, senior corp. counsel, office of the general counsel, Farmers Group, Inc.
• Browning Marean, partner, DLA Piper U.S.

Yours truly was the moderator.

Enjoy!  And we love to get feedback!  Let us know what we can improve and what you like: E-mail us at eddupdate@alm.com.

Katie's Corner #042808

So what went on in the past week’s worth of electronic data discovery news?

EDD Update featured couple of whitepapers, a couple of webinars, some acquisitions and integrations... not a bad week, overall. Things are moving along in the EDD universe.

Sean Doherty contributed a link to this Legal Times article, “Discover New E-Worlds,” which I found very provocative. The article, by C.R. Ragan and Robert Copple, addresses the problem that European lawyers are getting a little irritated at American inefficiency when it comes to arbitration.

Ragan and Copple are members of The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, where they are both members of the panels of neutrals and serve on the e-discovery committee. Ragan is partner in California’s Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner; Robert F. Copple is a partner in Copple & Associates in Arizona.

E-discovery is now, according to Ragan and Copple, “firmly established” as part of the American litigation process -- for better or for worse: Ragan and Copple write that “Discovery costs have long been a bane of U.S. litigation.”  The costs have been enough to drive more than a few parties to settle out of court.

Arkfeld Best Practices Guide for ESI

Just Released! Arkfeld's Best Practices Guide for ESI Pretrial Discovery-Strategy and Tactics (2008-2009)

This Guide contains strategy and tactics for handling sixteen specific ESI issues throughout pretrial discovery. Whether it is a "meet and confer" or request for production these are the critical issues to focus in requesting or producing ESI. It provides you with a valuable strategy and checklist for, and guidance on, the legal and technology issues affecting your pretrial e-discovery decisions. 

EED Inc. Whitepaper on Picking an E-Discovery Vendor

EED Inc. is offering a Sedona Conference whitepaper, titled "Best Practices for the Selection of Electronic Discovery Vendors: Navigating the Vendor Proposal Process."  Go here to get it. 

Sedona Conference Webinar on Non-Party Production and Rule 45 Subpoenas

Friday, April 25, at 3:00 PM (ET), The Sedona Conference's "Voices From the Desert"
webinar series will feature a discussion on Non-Party Production and
Rule 45 Subpoenas.  Go here for more details.

Discover New E-Worlds

E-discovery is firmly established in litigation, but what has begun to send shock waves through legal communities is how electronic information will be treated in domestic and international arbitration. In recent years, arbitration has received criticism for being as costly and time-consuming as litigation. Fortunately, write attorneys C.R. Ragan and Robert F. Copple, some emerging solutions for e-discovery can help preserve arbitration's benefits.

In Search of Better E-Discovery Methods

As the burdens of e-discovery continue to mount, the search for a technological solution has intensified. The holy grail here is a search methodology that will enable litigants to identify potentially relevant documents reliably and efficiently. But keyword and Boolean searches are far from perfect solutions, explain Paul Weiss partners H. Christopher Boehning and Daniel J. Toal. To evaluate whether an alternative search technology might be helpful, Boehning and Toal look at concept searching.

kCura Corp.'s Relativity to Integrate Equivio

kCura Corp. has integrated Equivio’s near-duplicate and email threads technology into Relativity, kCura’s web-based litigation support platform.  Details here.

Epiq Systems Acquires Pinpoint Global, ECM

Epiq Systems Inc. has acquired U.K.-based Pinpoint Global Ltd., an e-discovery company that has developed software for electronic disclosure. Go here for more info.

Epiq has also allied with Effective Case Management Ltd., which specializes in legal document management in the United Kingdom. Go here.

Legal Blog Watch: Robert Ambrogli on Metadata

From our compatriots over at Legal Blog Watch comes this post by Robert Ambrogi, titled "Metadata: Read at Your Own Risk."  Ambrogli writes, "Mining for metadata in documents received from opposing counsel is unethical, says a new ethics opinion from the New York County Lawyers' Association."  Fascinating!  Read the rest here. 

Brain Candy: Sometimes You Just Need a Break

Here's a little Brain Candy from the April issue of LTN -- favorite web sites when you just can't do one more minute of real work.

What's YOUR favorite cite? Click comment below and share!

Craig Ball: The Science of Search

From the April edition of LTN's "Ball in Your Court:" The Science of Search.

E-Records Management Survey

Catching up on my reading and came across this report in the March/April AIIM E-Doc magazine (www.edocmagazine.com) A survey done by Cohasset Associates and jointly sponsored by AIIM and ARMA found that:

• 55% of responding companies had NO e-mail records retention schedule
• 50% of those who did followed it "Generally" (20% said "Not Regulalrly")
• 56% said their records retention policy did NOT include electronic records

Looks like all those e-discovery companies will have plenty of business for the immediate future.

E-Discovery Keeps an Eye on the Job

Since the electronic discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure came into  effect, a plethora of articles in respected legal publications have paraded the horribles awaiting unwitting counsel and their clients should they fail to preserve -- and produce -- electronic data in discovery. When it comes to EDD in employment-related litigation, Littler Mendelson's A. Michael Weber writes that all is not "gloom and doom" for employers, but he says employers should certainly exercise caution.

San Diego Chapter of Women in eDiscovery to Meet

The San Diego Chapter of Women in eDiscovery is organizing and will hold its first meeting on April 30.   
Since its inception in May 2007, Women in eDiscovery has grown to more than 1,500 members, with 18 chapters in the US and England. Go here for more information; here to register. 

Commvault Launches Simpana 7.0

Commvault Systems Inc. has upgraded the Simpana 7.0 Software Suite.  It now helps customers comply with regulatory requirements for data retention and availability, and improves business continuity in the event of a disaster. Press release here.

Pinpoint Laboratories Inc. Rolls Out MetaDiscover

Pinpoint Laboratories Inc. has announced MetaDiscover, software that helps users view, scrub and extract extended metadata fields without installing Microsoft Corp.’s Office. It can also identify encrypted or password-protected Microsoft Office documents early in the discovery process. Press release here.

Complex Discovery Website Provides EDD Info

The Complex Discovery website (complexdiscovery.com) contains information, tools, and tactics relevant to the growing electronic discovery market. It is designed to be an objective, one-source site for exploring, understanding, and executing electronic discovery, the company says.  Visit the website here.

Surety Launches AbsoluteProof for SharePoint

Surety has introduced AbsoluteProof for Microsoft Corp.’s SharePoint. The software helps users prove the authenticity of electronic records, to provide regulatory and legal defensibility.  Release here.

Esquire Innovations Inc. Upgrades iScrub 5.0

Esquire Innovations Inc. has upgraded iScrub 5.0, its metadata removal and management software. It removes visible and hidden metadata from Word, Excel, PowerPoint files, and PDFs. Further info available here.

Steer Clear of the Perils of Self-Collection

Have you advised clients to have data for e-discovery production collected forensically only to find that, despite its dangers, clients still insist on self-collection? Asking the right questions can help steer clients past the perils of self-collected electronically stored information, says attorney Leonard Deutchman. If you can't guide your clients to engage competent vendors for forensic collection, you can at least help their IT staff understand what's necessary to collect ESI in a defensible manner.

Webinar on Non-Party Production and Rule 45 Subpoenas

The Sedona Conference's  "Voices From the Desert" webinar series will continue on Friday, April 25, at 3:00 PM Eastern.  The discussion topic is "Non-Party Production and Rule 45 Subpoenas."  More information at the bottom of this page.   

Trident Pro 4.5 Catches the EDD Wave

According to Certified Computer Examiner Jason Park, Wave Software's Trident version 4.5 is an electronic data discovery tool that processes data with speed and accuracy in a cost-effective manner. Park finds Trident 4.5 a desirable package to emerge intact from waves of EDD litigation.

Webinar on Risk Management of ESI

Heads-up on an upcoming webinar, on "Risk Management of Electronically Stored Information."  The discussion will include include Bob Little and Joseph Venturella of RenewData; Norman Yee of  Celerity Consulting Group Inc.; and William Schiefelbein of LECG.  Wednesday, April 23, at 1pm Central Time. More info and registration here. 

Interlegis Brings Visual Analytics to Discovery 360

InterLegis Inc. has incorporated visual analytics technology into its e-discovery product Discovery 360.  The new tech is integrated into DataMapper, a module within Discovery 360 that provides data previews. The ability to preview expedites document review, the company says.  More info is here.

Living in Two Dimensions: Managing EDD In-House

The high stakes, technological challenges and quickly increasing volumes of data involved in handling electronically stored information often compel corporate counsel to turn over ESI management to experienced third parties even though the service can be costly. There are strong arguments for managing e-discovery in-house, but it takes a special breed of employee, someone "bilingual" in data and legal matters, to perform this crucial function.

Catalyst Releases CR 7.0

Catalyst Repository Systems has released CR 7.0, a document repository for review, compliance, litigation support and due diligence. It now features results-based clustering, assigned review, and "Translation-on-the-Fly."  Press release here. 

Mimosa Webinar Features Craig Ball

"E-Discovery: The Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid" will be presented by Mimosa Systems Weds April 30 at 2 pm Eastern. Speakers include Craig Ball (EDD Update author and LTN columnist) and Mimosa director Bill Tolson.

Rob Robinson Re-invents His Blog

last month shuttered his Information Goverance Blog, only to do a U-Turn and this month launch a new website, Complex Discovery. It's designed to offer "information, tools and tactics" for EDD, he sez:

My hope is that the content provided on this site and via the corresponding ComplexDiscovery  RSS feeds will help you as you translate complex discovery into executional simplicity.

April Training

* ALM offers Managing  Today's E-Discovery Process: The Evolving Role of Paralegals and Lit Support Professionals, April 24 in NYC  (I'm speaking).  411 here.

* Alonso Consulting & Training is offering three-day intensive "Boot Camps" in CT Summation. 411 here.  Upcoming  April courses will be held in Richmond, Va., Washington, D.C., and Orlando.

Cal Judicial Council Proposes New EDD Rules

The California Bar Journal reports that the state's Judicial Council is proposing new EDD statutes and rules. Reporter Nancy McCarthy says the proposals have drawn about 50 comments so far, and the council's Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee will likely revised the proposals after the comments are evaluated.

The proposed rules are here. Observers suggest that they mirror the 2006-amended FRCP rules, and probably won't be controversial, McCarthy notes.

Survey Sez: Trouble (& Opportunity) Ahead

As mentioned below, during our visit with the Kroll Ontrack folks, they shared with us the results of their 2008 international survey of in-house counsel re: practices for managing ESI in lit and internal investigations.

The findings are very consistent with the warnings of EDD Update authors, especially Michael Arkfeld -- who has been hollering to lawyers that they really need to pay attention to all of this, or be prepared to pay a hefty price, literally and figuratively.

Key findings include:

* Only 25% of U.S. in-house counsel -- and 17% of U.K. in-house counsel -- say they are full current with ESI case law, developments and regs.
* About half of respondents in both countries have no ESI policy.

Quick Trip to MSP

Special thanks to the gang at Kroll Ontrack and at Merrill, for taking time from their very busy schedules to meet with us this week in the Twin Cities. Our conversations were terrific, and nuanced. We talked about everything from how customer service will be a differentiator as the vendor wars escalate, to  how everybody's trying to position themselves to provide effective counseling to their clients who are struggling to grapple with e-discovery.

Kudos to Craig Levinsohn , Allison Guidette and Daniel Pelc at Merrill, and  Michele Lange and her team (including Christian Betancourt and Kaitlin Creager) for all their insights. We also had a chance to touch bases with Benjamin Green, operations manager of ComputerForensic Services. And we always enjoy a chance to feast at the St. Paul Grille with the Thomson West gang (Gretchen DeSutter, John Shaughnessy, Jeff Patrias, and Melissa Deml). (We'll be returning to Mpls in early June for a more extended visit to Eagan).

On the EDD front, both Kroll and Merrill "get" that the profession is in desperate need of education on the complex challenges they face. Toward that goal, among the many materials both vendors have been producing are white papers, surveys, podcasts and webinars.

Here are some samples:

From Merrill:
* Total Evidence Management: A winning Approach to Complex Litigation.
* Authenticating Digital Evidence: Identify and Avoid the Weak Links in Your Chain of Custody.

From Kroll:
* Electronic Discovery Filtering: Early Processing Metrics Technology: Download kroll_ontrack_early_processing_metrics.doc

* ESI Trends Report  Download 2008_esi_trends_report.pdf (Also, see next post).

Webinar on E-Discovery Case Preparation

CT Summation is presenting a "Thought Leadership Webinar," a discussion of e-discovery case preparation with Bill Kellermann and Tom O'Connor.  It will take place Thursday, April 17, from 9:00-10:00 Pacific Time and again from 3:00-4:00 Pacific Time. More info here.

The Multipass Erasure Myth

As I amble the backroads of listserves and blogs, occassionally the same mangy, flea-bitten assertion trots up.  Someone will claim that, "Top notch computer forensic examiners have tools and techniques allowing them to recover overwritten data from a thoroughly wiped hard drive, so long as the drive was wiped less than 3 (or 7) (or 35) times."  Often, it's paired with the claim that you can use Guidance Software's EnCase to do it.

Nonsense!  Neither Encase nor any other tool or application accessing the drive in the customary way (through the drive's firmware) is capable of reading the contents of sectors that have been overwritten by new data.

To be unequivocal and hopefully help drive a stake through the heart of urban legends about overwitten data recovery with EnCase, FTK, X-Ways Forensics or Hermione's Magic Toaster: No way, no how, not gonna happen. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Period.

White Paper: MetaLincs - Gartner Report

Is Your MetaData an Organizational Risk is a Gartner tutorial offered by MetaLincs.

NYLJ: Husband denied access to wife's computers

The New York Law Journal reports on this decision from Kings County where a husband was denied access to his wife's computers in a divorce litigation.

Altep: Crane on Law Blog

Daniel Cavazos checks in to report that Altep Inc. of El Paso offers the Crane on Law blog, by atty James Crane. Crane, an employee of Altep, provides EDD consulting services to Altep's corporate clients.

Syngence Corporation Offers New Pricing Plans

Syngence Corporation will offer new annual server pricing for the company's Synthetix Processing Suite, which provides e-discovery.
Full release here.

Pitney Bowes Offers Bundled EDD Services

Pitney Bowes Management Services Inc. has introduced a set of bundled consulting services, including litigation support and electronic discovery.  Details here.

Fios to Host EDRM Webcast

Fios Inc. and EDRM will be holding a webcast called "EDRM at 3: Achievements and the Road Ahead."  It will feature  George Socha, Jr. and Tom Gelbmann.  The webcast will take place Wednesday, April 9th at 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST.  More info and registration here.

Servient Inc. Forms Computer Forensics Division

Servient Inc. has formed a computer forensics division, to be known as Servient Forensics. More details here.   

Wave Software President in HTCN Interview

Wave Software has announced that its president, Robert Childress, was interviewed by the High Tech Crime Network. The interview can be heard on the player on the left-hand side of the HTCN website.