Always interesting to see a new marketing term floated to see if it will stick. Zack provides good context and differentiation of the ‘New Law’ solutions being spun out of firms. We have known that the traditional partner track firm model has been slowly eroding. The days of massed associates pulling 12 hours coding shifts to plow through millions of documents are ending. Many [...]
The eDiscovery market continues to stratify into global players and boutique shops. The merger of HaystackID and NightOwl does seem to have potential synergy since both focused on corporate managed services at different phases of the eDiscovery lifecycle. It will be interesting to see if we have a small round of layoffs after the dust settles. Can the merged company successfully pull market share [...]
Refreshing blog calling out classic eDiscovery sales/billing/pricing games. Our industry is rife with reps who are pressured to bid low and bill high. I do not recall being called an ‘ediscovery wonk’, but if the hat fits I will wear it. Since RFP engagements regularly follow up my typical strategy assessment or health check engagements, I see these games all the time. Cat’s basic [...]
Epiq’s “Ruyk” ransomware attack in February cut off customer access to their hosted discovery matters for roughly three days. This outages constitutes a major service interruption and violation of normal Service Level Agreements for one of the largest global legal service providers. Beyond SLA penalties, missed production deadlines and unhappy customers, Epiq is now facing a potential class action suit under the new California [...]
Ideally case studies lay out enough information about the challenges, pain points, approach strategies and metrics to calculate a decent ROI and give readers a peak into solving a particular problem. This SEC inquiry case study focuses on search/review/production issues for new generation collaboration systems like WhatsApp. Deduplication and conversation thread reconstruction is indeed a pain point, especially when execs were using multiple mobile [...]
I would guess that 80-90% of all eDiscovery articles, blogs, webinars, white papers, etc. are directly or indirectly paid PR pieces. I do not have issues with vendor backed content as long as the financial relationship is clearly disclosed so that the reader can watch for any hidden bias or agenda. When Barry Murphy and myself started the eDiscoveryJournal blog back in 2008 it [...]
Many of my engagements result in supporting client RFP’s for eDiscovery hosting, collection or ECM services/systems. A lot of that support is translating or analyzing pricing models so that client’s can make strategic vs. tactical buying decisions. Traditional eDiscovery providers consider their large enterprise proposals and pricing confidential. The newer generation of self-service cloud hosting players like Lexbe after the SMB market openly advertise [...]
Over the decades I have worked with the Big Four Accounting firms in a variety of roles. Heck, some folks in the firms used to refer me to their audit clients that needed eDiscovery/IG process and system consulting. The line between auditor, accountant and other professional services was simpler before the firms started buying or building eDiscovery service bureaus. Given the volume based industry [...]