Weekly Trend Report – 3/1/2019 Insights

Insight into where e-discovery, information governance cybersecurity, and digital transformation are heading – who is doing what now or in the future, what works and what doesn’t, and what people wish they could do but can’t – gleaned from recent publications

E-DISCOVERY

Next up from ILTA – Incoming ILTA CEO Joy Heath Rush discusses her plans for ILTA.

INFORMATION GOVERNANCE

IG World issue 2 is here – The second issue of Information Governance World is available. I am partial to the article on pages 21-23, but then I am biased.

CYBERSECURITY & DATA PRIVACY

Minority Report redux – A Singapore Airlines passenger found a camera embedded in the back of the seat ahead of him, noted by Sharon Nelson, pointing to a recent CNET post. And news surfaced that for up to a year  Next Secure devices had been shipped with an undisclosed microphone.

Data privacy versus legal holds – Epiq’s Samantha Green discusses the conflict between data privacy under the GDPR and legal holds performed pursuant to US law.

Legislative update – Since the beginning of the year, at least nine states have introduced bills modeled at least in part on the California Consumer Privacy Act, reports Jones Day. The nine are:

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Task codes redux – More than two decades after the UTBMS codes were introduced, the theme of task codes for lawyers has returned, according to an American Lawyer article.

Corpus linguistics commentary – In a 53-page article, Corpus Linguistics in Legal Interpretation: When Is It (In)appropriate?, Georgetown University Law Center visiting scholar Neal Goldfarb considers potential pitfalls of introducing corpus linguistics (meaning, more or less, the study and analysis of large bodies of machine-readable text) into legal interpretation.

Six lucky small legal tech firms – Collaborate, an initiative launched by Slaughter and May, will select six small legal tech business for a three-month program during which those companies will be able to test and develop products working with Slaughter and May partners and the firm’s clients GlaxoSmithKline, John Lewis, Santander, Standard Chartered, and Vodafone.

AI in law firms – Ed Walters of Fastcase discusses ways law firms use artificial intelligence today.

E-DISCOVERY CASE LAW

Recent e-discovery decisions

2/12/2019 – N.D. Ill. Judge Iain Johnston denied defendants’ motion for leave to amend their counterclaim. Defendants sought to remove a defamation counterclaims while plaintiffs argued that the counterclaim against them should remain in place. Both parties’ positions make sense when placed in context. If the counterclaim against plaintiffs is maintained, that gives plaintiffs the opportunity to seek sanctions for alleged loss of ESI. If defendants are permitted to drop their counterclaim, the ESI issues go away. The Court denied defendants’ motion, ruling that they had failed to show good cause pursuant to FRCP 16 to amend the case management order. DR Distrib., LLC v. 21 Century Smoking, Inc., No. 12 CV 50324 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 12, 2019).

UPCOMING EVENTS

Conferences, webinars, and the like can provide insight into where e-discovery, information governance cybersecurity, and digital transformation are heading

3/4/2018-3/22/2019 EVENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES

George Socha

Senior Vice President of Brand Awareness at Reveal

George Socha is the Senior Vice President of Brand Awareness at Reveal, where he promotes brand awareness, helps guide development of product roadmap and consults with customers on effective deployment of legal technology.

Named an “E-Discovery Trailblazer” by The American Lawyer, George has assisted corporate, law firm, and government clients with all facets of electronic discovery, including information governance, domestically and globally. He served clients in a variety of industries including pharmaceutical, energy, retail, banking and technology, among others. As a renowned industry thought leader, he has authored more than 50 articles and spoken at more than 200 engagements across the world on a variety of e-discovery topics. His extensive knowledge has also been utilized more than 20 times to provide expert testimony.

Co-founder of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), a framework that outlines the standards for the recovery and discovery of digital data, and the Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM), a similar framework specific to information management, George is skilled at developing and implementing electronic discovery strategies and managing electronic discovery processes.