Essays

Each of The Cowen Group (TCG) Leadership Breakfasts has its own unique feel. While there are many common discussion points, such as the disruptive nature of Technology Assisted Review (TAR), the need for new skills like project management, and the desire to capture the cost savings TAR promises; each event takes on a life of its own. The Chicago Leadership Breakfast was no different – there was discussion about the benefits of TAR and the challenges to widespread adoption, but there was a more pragmatic feel to the overall discussion and an emphasis on metrics that can prove the value of TAR. It was actually a perfect way to head into the hiatus before the next breakfasts in Atlanta and Minneapolis in September.

I always enjoy meeting other super geeks who revel in playing on the cutting edge of discovery technology. While I will reserve the ‘geek’ label for myself, my conversation on TAR with David D. Lewis was definitely a highlight at the Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat. Now I owe David for bringing the recent Actos Products case management order to my attention (MDL No. 6:11-md-2299). The order lays out the agreed upon protocol for a “Search Methodology Proof of Concept” to test Equivio’s Relevance predictive coding on 4 of 29 custodian’s ESI as a possible substitute for traditional manual review of the entire collection. Once you get into the specific email protocol (Section E) the order starts to read like it could have been copied directly from a savvy provider’s procedural manual. Now don’t get me wrong, the parties are using this process as a ‘proof of concept’ limited to four custodian’s email to see if they can apply these analytics to the broader potential ESI collection. There are lots of mandatory meet and confer check points along the process where either side could raise concerns or essentially bring the process back to the bench, but I am guessing that this train has left the station.

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Kevin L. Nichols. Published: 2012-08-15 12:00:11  At the start of what would have been a normal day at work, I learned that I received an invitation to attend an eDiscovery related breakfast that was set to start in 30 minutes.  Luckily it was located a block away from my office, at the historic City Club in San Francisco (which features [...]

The story about Michigan State Police officers collecting forensic snapshots of mobile phones during traffic stops back in April kicked off my long research journey into whether corporate mobile discovery was really feasible. After lengthy interviews with leading experts in mobile phone forensics, I can assure you that a full physical acquisition of your iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Android device is just not going to happen during a typical 30 minute custodian interview or a traffic stop. The connectors and communication protocols of mobile devices were not designed for high speed data exports that we have come to expect from enterprise back up systems and disk imaging devices like Logicube. The ‘pipe’ is just too small to copy 8+ GB without taking custody of the device. You can grab the active call log, text messages and other phone elements quickly, but that kind of logical extraction may not suffice to ‘preserve’ your custodian’s ESI in some matters, especially if that device may be the only source of deleted items that are critical to proving your case.

It can be easy to forget that there are adjacent markets that, to some extent, overlap with or envelope eDiscovery. One such market is Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). The other day, a message from a former Forrester Research colleague of mine – Michael Rasmussen, now of Corporate Integrity – reminded me of the overlap of GRC and eDiscovery. Michael views GRC as “an approach to business – an approach that permeates the organization: its oversight, its processes, its culture, its boundaries.”

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Amber Scorah. Published: 2012-08-21 09:00:24  INTERVIEW WITH Chad P. Brouillard, Esq., Attorney, Foster & Eldridge, LLPI recently spoke with Chad P. Brouillard, Attorney at Foster & Eldridge, LLP, about achieving the balance between E-Discovery mandates and health provider-specific privacy obligations.In part one of the two part interview, we discussed the implications of HIPPA and HITECH.  We also looked at a [...]

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Amber Scorah. Published: 2012-08-22 09:03:32  Interview with: Melissa G. Dederer, CRM, Associate Director, Records Management, Purdue PharmaOrganizations are now in an environment where most information is electronic and in many organizations, responding to a document request becomes a stressful, tedious and costly project.  By using records and information management best practices, organizations will be in a position to be proactive, rather [...]

There are cynics who claim that social media are time wasters that ultimately distract employees from the job at hand. While that may be true at times, social media ultimately presents a huge opportunity for businesses – an opportunity too big to overlook. How big? In the McKinsey Global Institute’s (MGI) recent report, “The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies” it is estimated that “social media technologies could potentially contribute $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in annual value.” And that estimate is only for four industries: consumer packaged goods, retail financial services, advanced manufacturing, and professional services.

Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Karl Schieneman. Published: 2012-08-27 11:17:29  As I read some of the commentary I have seen posted on Kleen Products, I felt compelled to weigh in as an industry participant closely involved with predictive coding.  Kleen Products was a useful case for a number of reasons.First the case showed us that a party which educated themselves on information retrieval was willing [...]

The last week of summer was more hectic than usual because I spent Monday and Tuesday at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference. Unlike other eDiscovery conferences, this had a more casual feel, with lots of attendees in shorts, tee shirts, and flip flops. I had a chance to meet with several vendors and colleagues and three themes kept coming up: technology-assisted review (TAR); the role of managed services in the eDiscovery market; and pricing models.