Essays

When working with eDiscovery professionals, eDJ analysts encounter a common question: which education and certification programs are worthwhile for advancing my career? It is a question for which there is not an easy, straightforward answer. First, the practice of eDiscovery is just starting to gain some maturity and training and certification in the market is relatively new. That creates an opportunity for educational programs and certifications to potentially thrive – and because of that, many programs have come to the market. In order to provide an answer to our clients, eDJ seeks to understand the available eDiscovery and related information governance education, certification and training programs.

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Amber Scorah. Published: 2012-06-13 09:00:31  The best way to avoid costly disputes over the adequacy of eDiscovery processes and collections is to build a defensible litigation hold business process.  In Part One of this series, we talked about using information security management techniques as an aid in building a defensible process around the execution of the duty to preserve.  In [...]

In our recent post on the winners and losers in the eDiscovery software market, we called out Access Data for seemingly abandoning the desktop license market. That one comment prompted quite a few spirited responses from a number of software providers who wanted to make sure that eDJ was clear that they were still focused on the sale of traditional desktop license software. First and foremost was the Access Data product management team who were happy to dive into their Summation Express product (more on that below) as proof that they were committed to their stand alone customer base. Sherpa Software stepped up to tell us that their primary customer base has always been corporate and law firm IT departments who need a simple solution for search, processing and export of email and native files that can be run from a desktop or workstation. I really appreciated Rich Ruyle’s point about why IPRO continued to develop an enterprise and desktop version of their Eclipse product. The IPRO enterprise version is based on a relational database while the desktop version uses IPRO’s proprietary flat file database. It is clear to eDJ that the market for desktop discovery software is strong and vital.

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Mikki Tomlinson. Published: 2012-06-15 08:00:29  A discussion between parties on form of production prior to data production really isn’t that difficult. So, why don’t we do it more often?  The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as well as many state court rules, tell us we should.  Yet, in practice, it still seems that parties oftentimes skip this conversation and end [...]

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: . Published: 2012-06-18 14:54:50  The eDJ Group recently launched the survey on eDiscovery education and certification.  We are getting some excellent feedback from the field and hope to continue that trend.  You should definitely take this survey if: You have completed or are in the process of taking an eDiscovery training course You are  hiring eDiscovery professionals in the next [...]

When headlines, press briefings and client requests on the same topic all hit at once, you have to pay attention. I recently wrote Mobile Discovery – Are You Ready For It? in reaction to a story about how Michigan and three other states may be capturing cell phone images during traffic stops. Then a sharp client asked for a market perspective on mobile preservation obligations in the wake of the BP criminal charges. The final straw was a briefing request from Cellebrite’s CEO James Grady on the release of their new UFED Touch product line. That was enough motivation to steal the time for a fast briefing. The primary goal was to determine how easily a corporation could acquire, train and integrate a mobile extraction device into their legal hold process. Mr. Grady indicated that although government and security customers still dominate their sales revenue, corporate eDiscovery sales took off last year and is one of the fastest growing market segments. Every corporate decision maker is effectively chained to their iPhone, Blackberry or Android smart phone. Moreover, iPads have become the executive toy-du-jour for meetings and travel with apps that allow them to edit presentations, email and MS Office documents (all discovery request targets). So what does it take to preserve and process cell phones?

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Kevin L. Nichols. Published: 2012-06-20 09:00:36  By: Kevin L. NicholsEarlier this year, I wrote an article on the Executive Counsel Institute in San Francisco and mentioned some key takeaways, including best practices and vendors that excelled in various phases of the EDRM. Surprisingly, I was contacted by one of the vendors referenced in the predictive coding section of the piece [...]

One of the great things about managing a syndication feed is that we get to see virtually everything written about eDiscovery on a daily basis. Granted, only about 5% of what comes through is truly newsworthy, but the constant reminder of what is happening is very valuable. For example, I came across a blog by Christopher Spizzirri that presented some data I otherwise would likely not have become aware of – that 75% of General Counsel rank outside counsel not providing adequate support for eDiscovery requirements as a top frustration of the past year. And, 63% of GCs rank the same issue as a top concern for the next year.

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: . Published: 2012-06-26 10:45:21  Yesterday we lost a good friend and mentor to the litigation technology community, Jeff Isenberg.I met Jeff about ten years ago when he did an onsite inspection at our facility in Austin, TX when he was still at Milbank.  I think we spoke more about music and food than we did about eDiscovery for the next [...]

My recent piece on Mobile Discovery – Are You Ready For It? seemed to hit a nerve with eDiscovery providers and practitioners alike. It generated a wave of article requests, product briefings, analyst inquiries and even hands on training and kit offers from market leaders. The volume of the response tells me that ready or not, it is time for civil eDiscovery to accept the fact that mobile devices are a real source of ESI. So I am reprioritizing my research schedule to survey mobile device solutions and best practices from the corporate and firm civil discovery perspective. The first step is a fast six question survey launched today on mobile device discovery. Please take a minute and see how you compare to others. The next step is a look at the history of mobile device forensics to understand where the wide array of current offerings come from.