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
ABOVE THE FOLD
Relativity Fest Oct. 20-23 – Join us this month at Relativity Fest in Chicago where my colleagues and I will be speaking on four sessions:
- PD311742 – A Call to Action: Building an e-Discovery Pro Bono Platform and Network (10/21 at 11:00 am)
George Socha - PR325354 – Global Expansion with RelativityOne (10/21 at 2:35 pm)
Jenna Aira-Ventrella with Luke Balloch of Relativity, Chris Morris of Control Risks, Daryl Teshima of FTI Consulting, Andrew Caspersonn of Allen & Overy, and Andrew Malarkey or KordaMentha - LIE291972 – Is It Time to Rethink the EDRM? (10/22 at 8:30 am)
George Socha with Mike Quartararo of eDPM Advisory Services, Darcie Spruance, Constantine Pappas of Relativity, and Phil Favro of Driven - PR311751 – Let’s Take This Online: Managing Mobile Data in Relativity Short Message Discovery (10/22 at 2:45 pm)
George Socha with Martha Louks of McDermott
The Master’s Conference Oct. 28-29 – Join us October 28-29 at the offices of Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, D.C. for the Master’s Conference. On Oct. 28 at 4:15 pm, Trent Livingston of ESI Analyst, Tracy Drynan of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Greg Freemyer of SullivanStrickler LLC, and I will participate in a panel discussion on “Emerging Data Sources: Connecting the Dots on Disparate Data”.
BDO knows CCPA – BDO’s California Consumer Privacy Act resource page enables privacy executives to stay abreast of the impending regulation and learn about overarching privacy and governance considerations in one convenient location.
ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY
New Michigan civil discovery rules to go into effect Jan 1 – As Zach Warren of Legaltech News reported, on Jan. 1, 2020, updated civil discovery rules will go into effect in Michigan. Information about the changes – the biggest in 30 years – are at https://www.michbar.org/civildiscovery, a website set up by the State Bar of Michigan. The site includes useful links to, among other things, the Michigan Supreme Court order detailed the changes; a 104-page Civil Discovery Guidebook prepared by the Bar, the Detroit Chapter of ACEDS, and attorneys at Dickinson Wright and Warner Norcross + Judd; and a 4-page overview prepared by Daniel Quick of Dickinson Wright.
CYBERSECURITY & DATA PRIVACY
Council of EU Member States released draft ePrivacy Regulation – Kristof Van Quathem of Covington reported that the Council of EU Member States has released a new draft version of the ePrivacy Regulation (“EPR”).
California privacy ballot initiative – Perkins Coie reported that a new California ballot initiative, the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020, has been introduced. If it were to go into effect, starting Jan. 1, 2021, it would make the CCPA significantly stricter.
Draft CCPA regulations – The California Attorney General has published draft CCPA regulations, discussed in the following articles:
- California Releases Proposed CCPA Regulations
Michael Young (Alston & Bird) (Oct. 11) - Privacy & Data Security Advisory: The Draft CCPA Regulations: 21 Potentially Significant Business Impacts
James A. Harvey, David C. Keating, and Daniel J. Felz (Alston & Bird) (Oct. 14) - What businesses need to know about the Attorney General’s proposed CCPA regulations
Luke Sosnicki and James Shreve (Thompson Coburn) (Oct. 14) - Proposed CCPA Regulations: The Attorney General’s Expectations for Businesses Subject to the CCPA
McDermott Will & Emery (Oct. 15) - Alston & Bird Details 21 Potentially Significant Impacts from Draft CCPA Regulations
Daniel Felz (Alston & Bird) (Oct. 16)
Other CCPA –
- California Consumer Privacy Act FAQs for Covered Businesses
Joseph J. Lazzarotti and Jason C. Gavejian (Jackson Lewis) (Oct. 10) - Countdown to CCPA #4: Governor Signs CCPA Amendment to Add Additional Exemptions
Catherine D. Meyer, Deborah S. Thoren-Peden, JiJi Park, and Daniel C. Wood (Pillsbury) (Oct. 14)
LEGAL TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
More movement toward nonlawyer ownership of legal practices – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that an Arizona task force has called for fundamental changes in the regulation of legal services including eliminating the ban on nonlawyer ownership of legal practices. These recommendations are similar to those recently approved by the Utah Supreme Court as well as ones called for by a California task force.
E-DISCOVERY CASE LAW
Recent e-discovery decisions
9/4/2019 – U.S. Magistrate Judge Gwynne Birzer denied plaintiff’s motion seeking contempt and sanctions orders. Plaintiff had served a subpoena on a third party seeking files, some of which the third party had in electronic form and some of which were in paper form. The subpoena asked for records to be produced in “electronic format” but did not specify what format should be used. The third party produced files in PDF format. Plaintiff argued that the third party failed to produce certain ESI in native form with associated metadata and therefore should be sanctioned. The overall analysis is more complex, but the essence of the Court’s ruling was that if plaintiff had wanted ESI produced in native form with associated metadata, plaintiff should have said so in her subpoena; instead, she left election of the production format to the third party whose choice of PDF might not be what plaintiff now wants but nonetheless was a reasonable choice for the third party to make. Smith v. TFI Family Services, Inc., No. 17-02235-JWB-GEB (D. Kan. Sep. 4, 2019).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
| Date | Focus | Organization | Title |
| 10/15/2019 | FTI ConsultingRelativity | FTI Consulting and Relativity Release General Counsel Survey and Report on Risk, Technology and the Evolution of the Legal Industry | |
| 10/16/2019 | LT/DT | Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation | Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation Launches |
ADDITIONAL ARTICLES
| Date | Focus | Publisher | Title | Authors |
| 10/10/2019 | ED | Legaltech News | The Most Important Resource for E-Discovery’s Global Expansion Isn’t Technology | Rhys Dipshan |
| 10/16/2019 | ED | eDiscovery Daily Blog | Court Denies Plaintiff’s Request to Hold Non-Party in Contempt for Failing to Produce Native Files: eDiscovery Case Law | Doug Austin |
| 10/16/2019 | ED | Relativity | 3 Perceived Barriers to Relativity App Development (And Why They Shouldn’t Stop You) | Sam Bock |
UPCOMING EVENTS
Conferences, webinars, and the like can provide insight into where e-discovery, information governance cybersecurity, and digital transformation are heading
10/17/2018-11/15/2019 EVENTS
SEE PAST WEEKLY TREND REPORTS
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.