E-Discovery field reaches historic milestone as diverse professionals become first to earn CEDS certification for passing rigorous, independent exam
A new day in e-discovery dawned from coast to coast in the United States and other countries this week as practitioners in law, litigation support, information technology, records management and other fields of endeavor learned they are members of the inaugural class of professionals who earned the Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) designation.
These pioneers, who work in the soaring field of electronic discovery, earned the groundbreaking CEDS credential for passing a rigorous, proctored certification examination offered by the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists.
The landmark CEDS exam, which the CEDS candidates took at more than 40 secure testing centers worldwide, is the first legally defensible, scientifically verifiable e-discovery competency examination. Neither ACEDS nor the CEDS examination have any ties or links to a software product or outside organization.
E-discovery is the major new legal and technological specialty area focused on the complex obligations of private sector and government organizations and individuals, to retain, organize, retrieve and disclose electronically stored information in civil and criminal litigation, governmental and internal investigations, arbitration, and other types of dispute resolution.
Construction of CEDS exam was lengthy, complex, ‘legally defensible’
The rigorous CEDS examination was developed over the past year by a team of 40 e-discovery experts, including lawyers, litigation support professionals, technologists, and psychometricians, who were convened by the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS). ACEDs is the international member organization that serves and hosts members of diverse professions and occupations who work in this critically important intersection of the legal system and digital world.
Dozens of candidates sat for the exam at testing centers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Taiwan, according to ACEDS Executive Director Gregory Calpakis.
“This is a milestone in the e-discovery field,” said ACEDS president and founder Charles A. Intriago, a former Assistant US Attorney and litigator at a large international law firm, who also founded the now 10,000-member Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS.)
World now has independent uniform standards, verifiable competency level
“For the first time the world has an independent, authoritative, scientifically verifiable mechanism to set uniform standards and establish a base level of competency, knowledge and skill for e-discovery practitioners wherever they do business," he added.
"For the successful candidates, the CEDS designation will be powerful evidence of highly specialized expertise that will be recognized and welcomed by law firms, corporations, courts, peers, government agencies, and clients," said William Hamilton, a partner at the law firm of Quarles & Brady, who chairs the ACEDS Advisory Board.
Holders of the CEDS credential will be recognized as skilled and knowledgeable professionals in whatever line of e-discovery work they undertake—whether as lawyers, litigation support professionals, records managers, information technology (IT) supervisors, court personnel, paralegals or consultants.
Beyond hiring, career benefits, CEDS will help relieve strain on justice system
“The great importance of this new credential,” Hamilton said, “goes beyond the hiring benefits it provides to companies, law firms and government agencies and to the career enhancement it provides to the professionals who master this body of knowledge and pass the CEDS exam."
“More important,” he noted, “this certification is an enormous benefit to the entire justice system, which is being crushed under the weight of ever-growing masses of electronically stored information. Our courts need competent, recognized professionals who can handle demands for electronically stored data competently. Only then can judicial disputes be resolved fairly and expeditiously, based not on the burdensome, disproportionate, and often unfair costs of data preservation, collection, analysis and production, but on the merits of the disputes.”
145-item CEDS exam is offered at 560 global testing centers and gives instant results
The proctored CEDS certification exam is offered more than 560 secure ACEDS-Kryterion Testing Centers around the world, including more than 320 in the United States and 30 in Canada. The computer-based examination has 145 items, and CEDS candidates receive immediate results upon completion.
Starting April 1st ACEDS will offer an online, on-demand CEDS Examination Preparation Seminar at its website at ACEDS.org. For more information on CEDS certification, including how to apply and register for the exam, contact Nathaly Vera at nvera@ACEDS.org or by telephone at 786-517-2707.
