EDD Update

Stratify sweeps left [of EDRM] with eVantage

Stratify, a subsidiary of Iron Mountain, introduced eVantage, an on-premises, early case assessment tool for e-discovery. Did you catch the word: "early." This may become one of Monica Bay’s stop words. But it’s too early (sic) to tell. Of course, "left" might too. It all depends on if the EDRM migrates with all this leftness.

For Stratify, the news is that they will deliver a box on site that can: process data (over 300 file and archival formats, including Encase, FTK, Exchange); remove system files and detect duplicate and near-duplicate data; search multilingual data (Chinese, Japanes, Korean, etc.) using complex Boolean and faceted search strategies where facets equal domains, custodians, e-mail senders and receivers, etc.; and offers intelligent ways to conduct first-level review and data analysis by e-mail threads and identified concepts and groups.

Now, if you can tell the difference between this left-of-center, early-case assessment tool from others, without more, my hat is off to you. But if you add the fact that eVantage scales up to Stratify Legal Discovery Service for hosted review for matter management and support for distributed review teams and disaster recover, then I will keep my hat.

The real distinguishing factors for early case assessment tools are licensing costs and services and support in the event that your early case assessment spells big trouble. It appears that Stratify is ready to go the distance with your data. Make sure your vendor can either go that length and/or provide you some assurance that you can take your data down the street in a heart beat if you need to.

A "Tweet" of e-Discovery Found in "The Lost Symbol"

Ancient mysteries.

Masonic rituals.

Thrilling suspense.

E-discovery?

And Twitter?

After reading Dan Brown's follow up to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, I found it interesting to see a tiny bit of e-discovery mentioned in his novel--so to speak. Even more surprising, Brown also cited the popular social media tool,Twitter, as well.

To not to give away any spoilers (and I won't), I will point out where e-discovery and Twitter come into play. However, to be on the safe side, it's probably best to do that after the jump.

'Early' now the operative word for 'case assessment'

With many e-discovery vendors announcing new products aimed at getting attorneys to review critical documents earlier, rather than later, you would think that we are a procrastinating lot that cowers under our desks waiting for issues to abate rather than mature to a court date. But that’s not the case.

Having the ability to look at documents early, when there is the potential for litigation or when a government investigation looms, will give you an idea of the strength or weakness of your case, and possibly the strength or weakness of your opponent's case. It only makes sense to see the information early. That will give you time to plan the litigation -- or allow for an early settlement.

That said, Epiq Systems has launched IQ Review to give corporations and law firms more choice in evaluating documents, earlier. And it appears to be taking some lessons learned from TREC: incorporating human feedback into iterative search results.

IQ Review incorporates new "prioritization" technology into Epiq's document management platform, DocuMatrix. A legal expert "teaches" the software to identify documents as responsive or nonresponsive. Learning from the expert, the technology determines patterns in content across all of the data, rates each document, and fast tracks the most responsive to the beginning of the review -- the result is intelligent "Prioritized Review."

By reviewing the most responsive documents first, the legal team can make decisions on strategy earlier. Time spent on documents inconsequential to a case diminishes, along with review costs.

Client testimonial:

Vince Neicho, Allen & Overy litigation support manager, says that "Cases have become more complex as potential evidence can be hidden through an elaborate maze of email attachments, large document files, and text messages. Epiq’s IQ Review helps lawyers better understand the data and achieve the best possible outcomes for their clients more quickly."

For more information:

http://www.epiqsystems.com

Tel. (800) 314-5550

E-mail: http://www.epiqsystems.com/contact.php

Elizabeth Zidones: FRCP Changes on Horizon

From Law.com: Big changes are coming to the FRCP on 12/1/09. Merchant & Gould atty Elizabeth Zidones se changes will affect timing requirements, change how some deadlines are calculated, and clarify ambiguity over e-filing deadlines.

Are Supermarket Bag Boys Smarter than many Litigators?

A supermarket bag boy will ask you if you want paper or plastic before they bag your groceries, not after. By contrast, many litigators today do not ask about form of production, paper or plastic, before they produce ESI. Instead, they just pack the information in the form that they want to produce, usually paper. 

They think this gives them an advantage over the requesting party for many reasons, but primarily because of metadata. They do not understand metadata found in original native files produced on plastic CDS, they only fear it. But they do know that if they produce paper printouts of computer files, they can hide their client's metadata. Thus they want to deny their adversary metadata in a kind of knee-jerk reaction. 

In spite of the much heralded 2006 Federal Rule Amendments, this don't ask, don't tell strategy is still prevailant in American courts. Most litigators do not comply with the dictates and intent of Rule 26(f) FRCP and discuss this and other e-discovery issues at the mandatory attorney conference. When it comes to e-discovery, they put the bags on their head. 

For more on this topic and a review of five recent cases that help make these points, see my blog this week:  Paper or Plastic? The Wisdom of Supermarket Bag Boys and the Need for Local Rules. I conclude the commentary with a suggestion for a local rule requiring attorneys to make specific reports on ESI in their Rue 26(f) case management report. 

The Death of Forensic Imaging - Part II

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the imminent death of forensic imaging. Some in the electronic discovery industry would say it’s already here.

This week, I’d like to build on the previous conversation with readers and write about one of the replacement vehicles for forensic imaging: so-called live file extraction, which goes by many names. Some call it live forensic data acquisition. Others call it live data extraction. They all mean essentially the same thing, though live file extraction is the term most used by IT professionals.

SuperiorGlacier Launches ESI Spy

The new web-based portal provides clients with early insight to case data helping them make decisions about their data and better manage e-discovery projects reports SuperiorGlacier. The ESI Spy portal lets clients create customized reports based various factors including file extension, duplicate items and file sizes.  Here for press release. 

Cowen Group Optimistic about EDD Hiring

The Cowen Group has launched a newletter, "The Career Corner," and leads off with a report on career trends, by Jared Coseglia and David Cowen.

After recently polling 100+ HR and lit support managers/directors (and subsequent conversations with these folks and senior EDD attys and mgrs) they ID three "hot trends:"

1. Demand is exceeding talent on the West Coast by a factor of 3:1: 32% of law firms in the U.S. "expect to add litigation support staff within the next six months — and 44% of these openings would be in the West Coast."

Ringtail QuickCull

Just when you thought that everyone is getting out of the hardware and infrastructure offerings and headed for the clouds, FTI Consulting recently announced the launch of Ringtail QuickCull. QuickCull is an appliance (Dell Enterprise Server using Windows Virtualization Server) that, like the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform, aims to help organizations come down to earth and cull and analyze data on site to provide an early case assessment of information that may be responsive to litigation.

The FTI technology in QuickCull is not new. You may remember the name from an ealier announcement. It is presently used in FTI's hosting service. In Q4 2009, it will come to a theatre near you, in the QuickCull appliance, for the price of the box and a per gigabyte cost in data processing.

QuickCull is designed to deploy "out-of-the-box" and begin to index data, deduplicate it, and present it for early review. One box is capable of culling through and anaylzing 100 gigabytes of data per day -- additional units can accelerate that throughput. End point: Reviewers can search the indexed material using all the usual suspects, such as keyword and Boolean queries, as well as mark and tag documents and export them for further processing into FTI's Attenex Patterns or other platforms via the EDRM XML standard.

Kroll Ontrack Launches Document Review Service

Kroll has launched a Document Review Service to help clients manage discovery projects. Full release here.

Guidance Software E-Discovery Training Program

Guidance Software has launched its EnCase Certified eDiscovery Practitioner program. The program certifies e-discovery professionals in e-discovery planning and project management, as well as in Guidance Software's EnCase. Full release here.

KPMG Upgrades File Preservation Program

New York-based tax and advisory firm KPMG has unveiled a new version of its File Preservation Program that helps users connect remotely and collect electronically stored information from Microsoft Office SharePoint sites. It performs targeted collections, rather than process full forensic images, to reduce the amount of non-relevant data collected. Full release here.

Tusker Group Introduces Early Case Assessment

The Tusker Group has debuted its Early Case Assessment Service, which helps users sample documents in the early stage of discovery. It helps users identify relevant and privileged documents, to develop a refined, tested search term list. Full release here.

Leave It To Beaver Meets e-Discovery

Ever met an Eddie Haskell type of lawyer? My blog this week examines a case were the judge seemed to think that the defense counsel met the bill: Court Catches On To Feigned Attorney Cooperation and Client Pays the Consequences. You remember the great Eddie Haskell character from the classic TV show Leave It To Beaver? In case you forgot, here is one of his signature lines:

Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I’m gonna – oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies. 

The judge in the case of  Spieker v. Quest Cherokee, LLC, 2009 WL 2168892 (D.Kan. July 21, 2009) seemed to think it was a tad insincere for defense counsel to stipulate to discovery on both the merits and class certification with plaintiff's counsel and then argue in a response memorandum that email should not be produced because the court had not yet ruled on class certification.

ALSP Certification Program

This posting is being submitted on behalf of ALSP by Espe Rebollar, Windy Brown and Deborah Coram:

There’s widespread recognition that certification would be a positive step forward for litigation support in general and e-Discovery in particular, for both the certified individuals and the organizations that employ them. However, not all certifications are created equal and the value of any particular certification process is directly related to the rigor of the certification development process and the characteristics of the sponsoring organization. As co-founders and leaders of the Association of Litigation Support Professionals (ALSP) we’d like to describe the value that ALSP brings to the certification process and share our vision of certification.

DOAR Launches DOAR Direct

Doar Litigation Consulting has integrated the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform into Doar Direct, its e-discovery software-as-a-service. Full release here.  

Guest Post from Carole Basri: NY Ethics Rules

The New Ethical Rules for In-House Counsel: Model Rules Replace Code of Professional Responsibility in New York State and Its Effect on eDiscovery and Document Management

By Carole Basri

As of April 1, 2009, critical changes have occurred in New York State which impact the role of in-house counsel and their in-house legal department and the manner in which eDiscovery and document management are handled by the in-house law department.  Since 1970, the Code of Professional Responsibility governed in-house counsel. Now, it has been replaced by New York Rules of Professional Conduct which follow the American Bar Association’s Model Rules, which have been adopted in most of the United States.

Under the new Rules, Rule 1.0(h) includes “legal departments in corporations” within the definition of a “law firm.” In light of the Formal Opinion 2008-2 of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics on Corporate Legal Departments and Conflicts of Interest Between Represented Corporate Subsidiaries and/or Affiliates, it appears that many of the ethical and legal assumptions of lawyers working in-house are out of date. 

Dechert Installs Anacomp's CaseLogistix

Dechert is using the CaseLogistix litigation review software to help legal teams quickly collect, organize, review, analyze and produce relevant ESI. Here for press release.

3BView Selected By Nixon Peabody

Nixon Peabody is using the 3BClean system to provide policy-based and automated meta data removal throughout the firm's 17 offices in North America, Europe and Asia. The server-based 3BClean system helps users extract metadata from documents sent by e-mail or contained within an enterprise content management system. Full press release.

Canadian Firm Chooses Recommind Products

Stikeman Elliot has jumped on the MindServer Search and Matters & Expertise bandwagon to help support staff collaborate and view firmwide matters, deals, cases and repositories reports Recommind. Access release here.

Davis Polk Selects MindServer Search

Davis Polk & Wardwell has deployed Recommind's MindServer Search and Matters & Expertise module helping its 750 attorneys and their support staff find relevant documents, matters and expertise residing on networks throughout the firm's nine international and domestic offices. Press release.

BlackStone Discovery Selects OneO Platform

Orange Legal Technologies has added BlackStone Discovery, and e-discovery and document management company to its OneO Discovery platform client roster. With the OneO software Blackstone is able to reduce  its users e-discovery times, and costs. Here for release.

Equivio And LexisNexis Integrate Software Systems

LAW PreDiscovery,a processing engine combining imaging and e-discovery for paper and electronic files has been outfitted with Equivio's near-duplicate and e-mail thread technology. The integration helps users perform file imports and exports from the software's interface, skip redundant data in an e-mail thread and group near-duplicate documents. Full release.

Equivio Partners With Encore

Equivio reports that Encore Discovery Solutions has adopted its technology for near-duplicates and e-mail threads. According to both companies the Equivio system enhances the efficiency of Encore's litigation support services,a nd reduces the risk of missing key information. Press release.

3rd Party's Deletion of Computer Files Referred to US Attorney for Possible Criminal Contempt

Penalties for the spoliation of ESI in a civil case has just taken on a new dimension with the recent decision by a Court to refer a 3rd party's conduct to the United States Attorney for possible criminal contempt proceedings. SonoMedica, Inc. v. Mohler, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65714 (E.D. Va. July 28, 2009).  In this wrongful conveying of medical technology case, two individual's computers were subpoenaed for examination and the Court ordered the parties to turn over their home computer "without it being touched except to turn it off."  A forensic expert discovered that before turning over the computer "22,603 files/folders had  been affected and that 556 were deleted manually." This fact coupled with failing to tell the truth during a deposition and failure to comply with a subpoena duces tecum led to the Court's decision to refer the case for criminal proceedings and to impose $108,212.15 in fees and costs against the third parties.

Logik Launches New Web Site

E-discovery processing company Logik has launched its new web site, logik.com. The site features industry articles, and how-to and best practice videos. Full release here.

Recommind Introduces MindServer Categorization

Recommind’s MindServer Categorization helps companies categorize and both legacy data and newly created data. Companies can keep the data they need for business, e-discovery, and compliance and delete the rest automatically. Full release here.

EarlyCase Adds Filtering and Culling

Georgia-based earlyCase, an early case assessment software company, has added filtering and culling capabilities to its e-discovery software as a service. The software helps users collect, organize, and understand e-discovery data and apply filter and culling rules before it is processed. It supports Unicode and it can extract metadata. The company says that the filtering and culling helps users see the reduction in size of the data set in real-time. Full release here.

Autonomy Releases iManage Digital Safe

Autonomy’s iManage Digital Safe helps firms archive and retrieve content. The cloud-based data archive, which holds more than 10 petabytes (1,000 terabytes), helps firms archive e-mail, documents, and media files. It can also help companies manage litigation holds without moving data. Data is also tagged and indexed. Full release here.

Index Engine 3.0

Index Engines states that version 3.0 of its flagship software  performs full content and metadata  indexing of BlueArc's network attached storage devices on a single indexing node at 1 TB per hour. Click  here for release. 

IBM eDiscovery Software

IBM and PSS Systems have joined forces to offer users a set of tools to  manage EDD. The new IBM eDiscovery  software offers analytic tools to help uses manage costs, understand the content, and develop case strategies.  Click here for the  press release.

K2 Templates Integrate with Redact-It

The launch of K2's event templates for its workflow and business process management software helps users tie into to the functions of Informative Graphic's Redact-It software, which can then integrate with Microsoft SharePoint, Aderant Expert or other  software. Click here for the  press release.

Ledjit Consulting Chooses EnCase eDiscovery

Canadian e-discovery firm Ledjit Consulting is using Guidance Software's EnCase eDiscovery  to  search, identify, collect, preserve and process ESI from servers, laptops and work stations across a global network from a centralized location. Full release.

Anacomp Leverages Nuix's E-Discovery Technology

Nuix's e-discovery document processing technology has been combined with Anacomp's CaseLogisitix review software to helpg users quickly, accurately and defensibly locate relevant content across a wide range of servers and storage, as well as identify data for review. Click here for release.

Exterro Partners With Recommind

This partnership offers litigation support teams an integrated, end-to-end legal hold platform. Users of Exterro's Fusion  suite can manage legal processing, track custodians and data, and publish collection requirements into Recommind's Insite Legal Hold software -- to search, assess, preserve, collect and process relevant electronically stored information.

Release here.

Legal Solutions Adopts CT Summation CaseVantage

CT Summation reports that Legal Solutions, a discovery management review company has selected its CaseVantage, software-as-a-service  web application to manage its document review services. The CaseVantage administrative tools let Legal Solutions create custom, multi-tier pricing plans to meet clients needs. Access release here.

Junker Named Fios CEO

Fios has named Christopher Junker as its new CEO. He succeeds Gerald Massey, who departed the company after six years, as part of its sucession plan, the company says.
Junker most recently served as GM of the iManage business unit for Autonomy.

Strange Times Elaborated

Can't get enough of the Socha/Gelbmann e-discovery survey report? (August Law Technology News' cover  story.)

Well, you have two different opportunities to hear more about it! We have produced both a podcast and a full webinar, both featuring George Socha and Tom Gelbmann discussing the always-anticipated report -- which found some seemingly contradictory trends -- including the simultaneous constriction and expansion of e-discovery services, and a continuing shortfall in qualified support staff.

You can listen to the free webinar, produced by Law.com, and is proudly sponsored by Fios and Daticon EED.

The Law Technology Now podcast, produced by our partners at the Legal Talk Network, can be found here or here or on iTunes!

Calif.'s "Initial" M&C & Clawback Provisions

Just a quick note to inform you that the California Rules of Court (C.R.C.) 3.724 Duty to Meet and Confer have been amended as of August 14th, 2009 to include provisions for initial meet & confer and clawback agreements.  This addresses what many of us in California identified as a gaping hole in the California Electronic Discovery Act (CEDA).

More details here...

Logik Upgrades Website

Washington, D.C.-based Logik, an e-discovery processing company, has redesigned its website. Logik.com has how-to and best practice videos, technology updates, and more.  Full release here.

CaseCentral Partner Program

CaseCentral has debuted its "Review Service Providers Certified Partner Program," which provides training and tools for document review, using the partners' review services bundled with CaseCentral's review software. Full release here.

Should EDD Professionals Be Certified?

I turn the mic over to Chere Estrin:

Today's screaming for qualified e-discovery professionals has reached an unprecedented volume. Recently, Socha-Gelbman published an overview of the results of their annual survey on the Law Technology News site.

One of the most important single observations from it is the shortage of expertise in the market-place with providers, law firms and corporations reported as "fighting each other for the few people who actually understand what is involved in handling electronic documents." That is significant because the lack of qualified professionals can only grow as a problem. Predictions of 20% or 25% growth in the field does not guarantee that a generation of skilled and knowledgeable people are simply going to pop up.

EMC To Acquire Kazeon

EMC Corp. has announced that it will acquire e-discovery provider Kazeon Systems. Kazeon will become a part of EMC's content management and archiving division upon completion of the acquisition. Full release here.

Storage, an evolving concept

It has been a long time now since storage was simply just a bunch of disks, or JBOD. Storage vendors have continued to evolve and make themselves relevant to user needs to stave off the effects of commodization. Today, you not only buy JBODs, but you also purchase features to manage and archive your data. With this in mind, EMC’s agreement to purchase Kazeon should not be a surprise.

The Death of Imaging

Lawyers and electronic discovery pundits have argued for years over the merits of forensic media imaging, or imaging for short, as a means of capturing electronically stored information (ESI).

Imaging captures the greatest volume of raw data, but it also dramatically increases the financial burden on the producing party. The debate focuses on whether and when imaging should be used for forensic work due to its inherent high price tag.

As I see it, the entire argument is without purpose. Imaging has its uses, but storage technologies will soon make it obsolete. Live file extraction will become the de facto method of gathering ESI. The death of imaging is upon us and its passing will have a profound effect on the e-discovery industry. In essence, the death of imaging means potentially relevant electronic evidence will be missed, making it harder for the courts to get to the truth of matters before them.

Gmail Goes South

When the electricity goes out or the cable feed fades, it's hardly news.  But when Google drops the ball, hundreds of millions of people lose their lifeline. That's very un-Googlelike.

Today, my latest Ball in Your Court column was published, about harvesting webmail in e-discovery.  Ironically, I wrote how I've used the cloud for e-mail for years.  Ironic, because someone tripped on the cord at Google last night, and Gmail stopped working for me and a zillion other users this afternoon. I can't get to my mail.  No hubris goes unpunished. 

Cleaves Article on EDD Staff Attys

John Cleaves, of Latham & Watkins, writes about the growing role of EDD attorneys, in the Texas Bar Journal.

Cleaves wrote the cover story "Juggling Act," for the July issue of Law Technology News, about how to succeed as the "tech dude" in courtroom trials.

CT Bolsters iBlaze, Partners with Rosen

CT Summation has introduced an e-discovery version of its iBlaze litigation support software.

The company also announced a partnership with Rosen Technology Resources, to integrate Rosen's ALCoder autocoding software, ALFind near-duplicate identification tool, and conceptuAL concept search tools into iBlaze.  Full release here.

Yahoo! Let My E-mail Go!

The September Ball in Your Court column from Law Technology News:

By Craig Ball

A voice came from on high and said unto me, "Go forth and harvest the clouds." Well, not a voce in excelsis exactly, but a court order directing I gather up parties' webmail.

The task seemed simple enough: The litigants would surrender their login credentials, and I'd collect and process their messages for relevance while segregating for privilege review.

Their data lived "in the cloud," and considering its celestial situation, I might have taken a cue from Ecclesiastes 11:4: "Whoever looks at the clouds shall not reap." So it was, I nearly got smote — not by Yahweh but by Yahoo! Cloud computing refers to web-based tools and resources that supplant local applications and storage. It's called "the cloud" because of the cloud-shaped icon used to signify the internet in network schematics.

Read the rest here.