From Sharon Daly of the Irish law firm, Matheson Ormsby Prentice:
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The process of discovery has entirely changed in the last ten years, in an era where electronic documents are now the norm. In addition, the ease with which such documentation can be shared with others irrespective of location has also led to multi jurisdictional issues in discovery becoming increasingly common. In recognition of this, new rules on the discovery of electronically stored information (‘ESI’) (the ‘E-Discovery Rules’), were introduced in Ireland in April 2009. The E-Discovery Rules implement the Law Society’s Litigation Committee recommendations. One of our Litigation partners, Lisa Broderick, was heavily involved in the Committee and the drafting of the recommendations, designed to bring Irish practice into line with e-discovery rules in the US and the UK…
That was fast.
From WaPo:
Stocks had a late-day turnaround and closed mixed Thursday as traders awaited news that Goldman Sachs settled the government’s civil fraud charges.
As word spread that the Securities and Exchange Commission had scheduled a late-afternoon announcement, investors began buying on the belief that the government and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had settled the charges that grew out of the sale of securities based on risky mortgages.
The $550 million settlement was announced less than an hour after trading ended. Goldman agreed to pay fines of $300 million, the largest fine against a financial company in SEC history, and $250 million to compensate investors who lost money on the securities. The deal also requires Goldman to review how it sells complex financial mortgage investments…
UPDATE: ProPublica notes the settlement is only about two weeks’ worth of profit for the firm. (Hat Tip: Political Wire)
From ARS Technica:
Surprise, surprise! Google’s purchase of travel services company ITA is almost certain to come under scrutiny by the government, as soon as the Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice can decide which body gets to do the dirty work. According to an insider speaking to the New York Times, there are currently discussions going on between the two organizations over which one will investigate, though either one would “dig in pretty aggressively.”
To say we saw this coming would be an understatement. ITA doesn’t just have its own (awesome) website for travel planning, the company’s services power Google competitor Bing’s travel section, as well as numerous other online travel sites such as Kayak, Orbitz, and CheapTickets. In fact, ITA also powers numerous travel agencies and some airline booking systems.
As we pointed out last week, ITA is clearly very important to much of the air travel industry, and competitors are disturbed by the prospect of Google having full control of such a vital industry tool. Enter the FTC or DoJ, either of which is expected to perform a “significant review” of the purchase, according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
ARS Technica: FTC and DoJ mulling who gets to dig into Google’s ITA buyout
Here’s an interesting article on the rise of contract attorneys from Gina Passarella of the Legal Intelligencer. I find it a little funny how one consultant in the states there has been a “huge upswing” in the contract attorney market. I wonder why that is (sarcasm)?
In an era when cost predictability reigns supreme, corporate law departments are increasingly using project- or contract-based attorneys to help handle an increased workload on a shrunken budget…
Project attorneys are a more viable answer to the budget problem in part because there are so many skilled lawyers out of work due to layoffs at AmLaw 200 firms and the consolidation of legal departments prior to the economic downturn, which led to cuts in those departments as well, [James] LaRosa [of JuriStaff] said…
I was also shocked to read this line.
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From Bow Tie Law’s Blog:
I always liked John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian views on justice to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, within reason. I propose Utilitarian e-Discovery. All the vendors in the litigation support profession produce many fine products and solutions for large scale e-Discovery services. I have a challenge to everyone in the litigation support profession: Go to your local state courthouse. Spend one hour watching the case management conference calendar. Ask yourself, “Do our products help these attorneys and their clients?” 93% of litigation in the United States is in state courts, not the Federal (CEIC Judicial Panel, 2010). According to the ABA, there were a total of 1,143,358 lawyers in the United States in 2007. There is other data that shows 75-80% of lawyers practice in firms with 20 attorneys or less (estimated 857,519 lawyers with 2007 numbers). My concern for our industry is that products are being developed only for those in the top 7% of litigation in Federal Court.
Bow Tie Law’s Blog: Utilitarian e-Discovery: A Challenge for the Litigation Support Profession
I have been in HELL! Utter Hell! No seriously, I am have been working on other endeavors, but I promise to pick this blog back up.
Anyway, here is my latest post on Above The Law about the Posse List.
For other ATL posts by me, click here.
Love this Quixotic privacy rights campaign cartoon from Monique Altheim of eDiscovery Map.
Sorry I haven’t been updating this blog recently. I had a few other things I have been working on. I will be back in fulll force tomorrow.
Here is the “Case in Point” for this week from the good folks over at CaseCentral.
Apparently the DOJ wants to make sure that you can get your Justin Bieber fix somewhere other than iTunes on New Music Tuesday. Not too much detail out there on this one, but we’re keeping our collective ear to the ground. There has to be more to this than just exclusivity in debuting new songs, right?
From Engadget:
It’s all just noise right now, but the United States Justice Department is purportedly having a “very preliminary conversation” with Apple regarding the company’s music business, wondering in particular if anything it’s doing (or has done) would violate antitrust legislation. According to unnamed sources familiar with the situation, DoJ staff seem most interested in whether or not Apple’s dominance in the market enabled it to unfairly prevent Amazon’s music service from exclusively debuting new songs.
Engadget – DoJ making preliminary inquiries into Apple’s music endeavors while iTunes dominance continues
This is pretty disturbing to me. It has the potential to cause serious problems for small and medium sized businesses who can’t afford (and frankly don’t even need) the latest and greatest collection software/hardware.
From e-Discovery 2.0:
Jason Baron was a keynote speaker at a recent electronic discovery summit and he mentioned an electronic data discovery topic that “ought to be blogged about.” So, with that kind of softball I had to take a swing, particularly because it’s been a topic we (at e-discovery 2.0) have been discussing lately.
The genesis of this blog (per Jason) is the recent “skepticism” evidenced by the bench regarding the defensibility of custodian based collections. ARMA has a good piece on this very topic, entitled “Is ‘Manual’ Collection of ESI Defensible?” The core notion is that the tried and true practice of custodian based ESI collection is now under fire by courts, which appear to be looking at this practice with an increasing level of distrust.
“While it is common for companies to use automated data-collection software and hardware, some corporate litigants opt for more informal, “manual” collection methods (i.e., searches performed by individual records custodians) when responding to ESI requests. Companies may choose the manual collection of ESI to reduce costs, particularly if they have limited levels of litigation or lower risk levels posed by the litigation itself.”
e-Discovery 2.0 – Manual Collections of ESI in Electronic Discovery Come Under Fire
Will any one of you admit to owning/having played this game? It strikes me as so odd that it seems impossible that it could be successful. To the litigation cave!
From Gizmodo:
The Phoenix Wright franchise deserves a lot of credit for sticking to one of the least appealing-sounding concepts in game history. So anyway, here goes: Phoenix Wright, the comedic litigation game, is in the App Store for $5. Oh dear.
But no, really, Phoenix Wright is a great concept: You play as a defense attorney who, along with a wide cast of characters, investigate and try cases. It’s impressive that Capcom managed to figure out a game mechanism—the point-and-click adventure game, weirdly enough—that can make this concept remotely plausible, and even more impressive that the series, which has actually become somewhat sprawling as of late, is consistently funny.
Gizmodo – Phoenix Wright Comes to the iPhone
Don’t get me wrong, I like Matt Lauer. I think he does a great job on the Today Show. However, I woke up this morning in cold sweats with Matt Lauer speculating over whether the market was heading into a “double dip” recession.
I just finished writing on Above The Law about how we were heading into a decade of massive litigation. All of that can stall with the market in a panic.
He then spoke with Jim “Mad Money” Cramer, who seemed to assuage the TV audience that everything would be ok, and that the real crisis would occur in Europe. Of course, this is the same guy that had his credibility up ended by Jon Stewart a while back, but I will choose to believe him now.
I am not saying we bury our heads in the sand at all, but language like “”double-dip recession” only fans flames that really creates unnecessary havoc.
Thankfully, esteemed economist, Paul Krugman has a much more sunny look on the future. Oh, and by sunny I mean, if you enjoy people telling you how stupid you while you are holding a bunch of sleeping pills and a bottle of bourbon. You can check out what he has to say, after the jump.
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Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Happy Friday.
From The Onion:
While millions of young, tech-savvy professionals already use services like Facebook and Twitter to keep in constant touch with friends, a new social networking platform called Foursquare has recently taken the oh, fucking hell, can’t some other desperate news outlet cover this crap instead?”
Foursquare is a little bit of everything—a friend-finder, a local city guide, an interactive mobile game,” said company cofounder Dennis Crowley, as if reading from the same tired script used by every one of these Web 2.0 or whatever-the-fuck-they’re-called startups. “But more than that, Foursquare is an [endless string of meaningless buzzwords we just couldn't bring ourselves to transcribe]…”
Here’s a good article entitled “Where Were You During the Social Media Boom?” by Greg Spizer in The Legal Intelligencer.
Statistics show that social media are booming. Facebook’s website indicates that it has 400 million active users; MySpace’s online press report from earlier this year says it has 100 million active users (this number has been disputed somewhat, but it is still in the millions); and a recent news article in PCWorld said that in January of this year, Twitter had 75 million visitors. Individuals, celebrities, corporations, nonprofit organizations, political campaigns, media outlets, associations, societies, movements, and others are all using social media to communicate, and their messages are being heard.
The social media websites are influencing serious as well as the not-so-serious issues. By example, they are credited with greatly contributing to President Obama’s 2008 victory, as well as with helping 88-year old Betty White to host “Saturday Night Live” after a Facebook group generated more than a half a million followers in support of her appearance. Lawyers must acknowledge social media’s importance.
From Law.com:
The results of the first phase of a closely watched federal court pilot program on electronic discovery show that having a set of fair-play rules at the outset of a case helps quell pretrial brawls between parties.
The goal of the program, launched in May 2009 and spearheaded by James Holderman, chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois, was to find ways to reduce the massive costs and burdens of electronic discovery. Chairing the program is Magistrate Judge Jan Nolan, also of the Northern District of Illinois.
The first-phase of the 7th Circuit’s pilot program indicated that when judges and attorneys had a set of specific principles to guide electronic discovery, it improved the process — or, at least, didn’t make it worse.
“It was very encouraging,” said Holderman.
The first phase of the program involved 13 district court judges overseeing 93 civil cases and 285 attorneys between October 2009 and March 2010. The program required the judges and attorneys to follow a set of principles, drafted by the program’s committee members, during electronic discovery.
Law.com – Federal Pilot Program Curbs E-Discovery Fights
Upcoming webinar on 5/19, info at Bow Tie Law’s Blog -
The Court finds the parties could have avoided the expenses of this Motion by conferring appropriately early in the case about ESI.
United States Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. LaSalle Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70514 (S.D. Ohio July 24, 2009).
Case law is riddled with attorneys failing to comply with their statutory requirement to meet with their opposing counsel to discuss electronic discovery. This failure to meet, most likely from inexperience instead of gamesmanship, can drive up discovery costs. It can also result in a judicial lashing in open court.
Please join Connie Merriett, Esq., Dechert, LLC and Peter Coons., D4 LLC for a discussion on meet & confer best practices on May 19, 2010 at 12:00 am PST/3:00 pm EST.
Bow Tie Law’s Blog:Meet Early, Meet Often: Best Practices for Compliance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) Meet & Confer Requirements
Three articles have come out this week that I really like. The first was posted yesterday from Zuzana Ikels, partner at Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, entitled When E-Discovery Is Used as a Weapon. It’s about the dangers in using e-discovery tactics in order to find ways to break attorney-client privilege with your opponent. Ikels fear attorneys invoking the crime-fraud exception will really weaken our sacrosanct privilege rights.
After the jump I will ment two more articles of note including one which will the focus of my Above The Law post tomorrow.
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Clever name, right? Actually, Larry Wescott, tech lawyer and Sedona Conference member, is one of the pioneer bloggers of the e-discovery industry. His blog, in fact, made it into the the ABA’s first Top 100 Blawg list. Larry posts roughly once a week on relevant e-discovery matters. An example of his last post is after the jump.
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Over at The LPO Observer, there ‘s a post about how LPOs are taking on attacks both from the United States and India. The blogger first addresses the Indian issue.
In India, a group calling itself “The Association of Indian Lawyers” filed a petition in the Chennai High Court against foreign law firms doing business in India, despite a ban against them. The petition mentions top US and UK law firms, but also includes Integreon, the largest and most credible LPO provider. The inclusion of LPO’s stems, according to the petitioners, from the LPO’s being illegal foreign law offices.
But the Observer notes the reason Indian lawyers are coming after LPOs, the want a cut of the deal.
It is to be noted that a number of top Indian law firms, most notably Kochhar & Co. and FoxMandal Little have tried to penetrate the LPO market, with little success. This is mostly due to the passive mentality of Indian lawyers and the nature of practicing law in India which conflicts with the much more aggressive and dynamic US and UK legal systems. Clearly, the traditional Indian lawyers are feeling threatened by the new entrants, and want a “piece of the action”.
So what’s the American’s problem with Legal Process Outsourcing? I wil give you the details and why the LPO Observer thinks the Indian lawyer challenges will most certainly fail after the jump.
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Andy Wilson and Sheng Yang, founders of the e-discovery processing company, logik, are among a new breed of legal technology entrepreneurs. Creative and crafty, they have managed to get logik ranked number 181 on the latest Inc 500 list, higher than any other e-discovery processor.
But this post is not about how great they are at processing data. What separates logik from most other small legal technology outfits is their mastery of marketing. Not only do they have a cool looking cartoon mascot called the “logikbot,” they also have their own logik marketing wing at eDDStuff.com. At that website, you can buy an “e-discovery ninja” t-shirt, a “terabyte twos” mug, or even logikbot wallpaper for your iPhone.
Well, so what? Don’t lots of companies have mascots? Aren’t there also many that sell t-shirts, mugs, and what not? After the jump, I will share two other marketing schemes that logik has been “enthusiastically” working on that I find pretty cool. Here’s a clue: It’s about libations, lots of libations.
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From INFOcus:
From its advent fifteen years ago with the growth of word processing and email, the eDiscovery industry has evolved substantially and not unlike many other relatively similar technology industries like internet security and networking, from birth as a subset of the much older discovery process (which eDiscovery has come to dominate) through childhood and adolescence and into adulthood. So just how “old” is eDiscovery? And where is it headed from here?
Using these ancillary industries as guideposts offers some salient comparisons, albeit on an expedited basis as technological innovations continue to accelerate change inside and outside of the workplace – a byproduct of Moore’s law which produces exponential advances in all things related to computing hardware (which is almost everything these days). At the risk of oversimplifying things, we have divided the life of eDiscovery into 4 distinct stages and equated each to the human lifespan: infancy/childhood, adolescence/teenage years, adulthood, and what we’ll respectfully call “seniority.” Using these admittedly crude demarcations, we believe eDiscovery is in the process of graduating from college, full of promise and ready to “get serious”, but not quite sure what it will become when it grows up.
INFOcus – eDiscovery Graduates from College
From kCura (via EDD Update):
kCura today announced the launch of Relativity Six, the newest version of their e-discovery software. The release includes changes to the platform core that enhance speed and scalability, as well as innovations to end-user functionality, providing greater insight into case data.
“It’s critically important to us at kCura to constantly be innovating Relativity,” said Andrew Sieja, president and CEO of kCura. “We’ve pushed ourselves with Relativity Six to provide something inspired, while staying true to the core application and our ideals with respect to delivering software: ease-of-use, flexibility and scalability, and customer service. The team has implemented hundreds of refinements to improve the functionality and increase the usability of the product.”
kCura – kCura Releases E-Discovery Review Platform Relativity Six
Hi all.
I am off to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for the next couple of days. I expect to be back on the blog come Monday, considering my internet access will probably be limited. Ed will be in charge of the mother ship while I am away. Hope all is well with everyone.
