Gabe's Guide to the e-Discovery Universe

From their website:

You can control nearly every aspect of your electronic evidence review from the very outset. The last thing you need in the middle of an important matter is the distraction of struggling to get your processes to fit the demands of a new product or service. The C-Evidence platform is quickly available and supremely configurable to fit your way of doing business…

• You can decide how often a document needs to be reviewed before it is produced, in a single pass or multiple review and quality control stages
• You decide when and what items are produced
• You can add as many or as few coding options as you wish—to allow you to sort documents into specific categories
• You can add your own notes, and attach them to specific documents
• The review tool can be made available to you at any time, from any place, via our secure Web interface

Can’t say they weren’t going “all out” for their client…

From Sharon Nelson and Ride The Lightning:

 A two million dollar lawsuit has been filed in Tennessee against the law firm of Berke, Berke and Berke (think they’re related?). Allegedly, the firm used or tried to use e-mails intercepted by “eBlaster,” a popular spyware program, in violation of federal and state wiretap laws. Individual attorneys were sued along with the firm itself…

…I shall watch this one with great interest.

1. Chris Dale ponders whether recent outsourcing news is furthering the trend
2. Just in time for bankruptcy and total collapse: California updates its e-discovery rules
3. Women in E-Discovery are hosting a CLE that men can attend as well
4. Some attorneys wrote another article as why lawyers should be concerned about Twitter, Facebook, etc.
5. Derek Dohn talks up Rule 26(g)1 and Karma

A reasonable solution? 

From Amanda Royal at Law.com:

McDermott Co-Chairman Jeffrey Stone said the number of staff attorneys has soared since its program launched. The firm considered outsourcing to India or using contract attorneys, but found quality issues. Permanent staff attorneys have been a good solution, he said.

Hat Tip: Posse List

Sedona, Sedona, Sedona!  The article “Should Lawyers Play Nice in E-Discovery?” by Jason Kruase is a good synopsis of the Sedona Cooperation Proclamation coupled with influence from the courts as well.

  Mike McBride                

Great three part blog posting from e-discovery guru Mike McBride of Bricker & Eckler LPP on Sedona, e-discovery and project management.  Please check it out here.  Also check out Mike’s blog when you get a chance as well.

More on Sedona from Sean Regan via Metropolitan Corporate Counsel:

In 2001 prior to the e-discovery explosion I had the opportunity to take an international law class covering the law of the sea, piracy, Antarctica and other global legal considerations with Professor Chris Joyner, Director of International Law and Politics at Georgetown University. Professor Joyner’s final exam included an essay question that asked the class to compare and contrast domestic law and international law in the context of wrestling. Domestic law with its executive powers of enforcement was most similar to Olympic wrestling. The rules are well defined, clearly adopted and those who break the rules understand the punishment. Alternatively, professional wrestling with its lack of centralized power and weak enforcement often leads participants to loosely partner until the rules no longer suit them. When the battle at hand becomes a test of survival or victory, the laws, treaties and loose agreements tend to crumble. Similar situations are occurring with regard to international data protection, privacy and disclosure worldwide, especially when U.S. litigants are involved.

Nowhere is this example more prominent than in the case of In re Advocat “Christopher X.” As has been well documented by The Sedona Conference^® and others, the defendant in the case, Credit Lyonnais, argued that it would be in violation of French law to execute a discovery request. The U.S. courts found French courts had historically not enforced blocking statutes and chose to order the discovery assuming that the French would not enforce their laws. Christopher X entered the ring of international e-discovery and quickly became the center of an elaborate spectacle that put U.S discovery laws at odds with French data privacy and protection laws. Suddenly legal wrangling about data privacy and protection had become more than just a show. Real criminal charges had been filed, and the reality that a workable and practical way forward was necessary became ever more apparent…

1. Is this really worthy of a press release?  Pangea3 named one of the 50 “Best Managed” Legal Outsourcers.  Would you celebrate if you came in 48th or 49th?  And don’t tell me they beat the “legally smoothened” greatness that is Cosmos  Legal.
2. Speaking of outsourcing, here is the most understated headline on the subject.
3. A “destroy all your data” policy will not absolve you from your data retention responsibilites.
4. Apparently a lot of GCs believe that law firms are not being sincere when it comes to cutting costs.
5. Now some Canadians are starting to pipe up over Rio Tinto.
6. And finally, a shining example of how your emails can destroy your career.  

Barcelona

Once again, the “King of Search,” Jason Baron, guest posts on Ralph Losey’s e-Discovery Team.  This time he covers DESI (Discovery of Electronically Stored Information) III workshop, as well as the Sedona Conference in Barcelona, Spain.   

From Jason Baron on E-Discovery Team:

Ralph has once again graciously provided me with this forum to report on two e-discovery-related events held in the past month in Barcelona: the “DESI III” Global E-Discovery/E-Disclosure workshop at ICAIL 2009, and The Sedona Conference® International Programme on Cross Border E-Discovery and Data Privacy.  Barcelona is of course home to the Modernist, Art Nouveau architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), whose highly imaginative works are reflected throughout this posting along with scenes from Barcelona itself…

The known e-discovery world according to Chris Dale’s “blog stats”

Another fantastic post by Chris Dale on the growth of e-discovery in Australia:

The default map of the world shows Britain in the middle and near the top, with Alaska at top left and New Zealand at bottom right. Perhaps that is because Europe invented the Greenwich Meridian; maybe it is a legacy of Empire or a conspiracy of cartographers (the phrase is Tom Stoppard’s);  possibly the maps in Australia are centred on Canberra, with Iceland and Cape Horn as their left and right extremes. By any measure, anywhere else is a long way from Australia. Its influence in the world of electronic discovery is disproportionately large…