Symantec CEO Firing Probably Won't Impact Clearwell

You may have heard that Symantec yesterday fired CEO Enrique Salem and replaced him with board chairman Steve Bennett as CEO and president, effective immediately. Chances are that won't have much impact on Clearwell.

Today I checked in with Symantec spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide and 451 Research e-discovery analyst David Horrigan. Both agreed that Clearwell will move forward with business as usual. The company's two major initiatives -- predictive coding and integration with Symantec data archiving products -- both remain on track as previously reported.

Clearwell is run by Symantec's Brian Dye, vice president, information intelligence group. Former Clearwell CEO Aaref Hilaly left March 30 and joined Sequoia Capital.

Zubulake Publishes Book on Eponymous Litigation

As Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York issues another opinion with repercussions for electronic data discovery, Laura Zubulake, the plaintiff from the case that put Scheindlin on the EDD map, has published her own book recounting her experience during Zubulake v. UBS Warburg.

Read Monica Bay's interview with Zubalake on our LTN website.

Image: LauraZubalake.com

The Streak Continues!

I am thrilled to announce that Craig Ball's ASBPE streak continues! On July 18, the traditional awards event for the American Society of Business Publications Editors was literally washed out -- an intense thunderstorm hit NYC and knocked out the power at our scheduled restaurant -- but the intrepid ASBPE leadership conducted  quick negotiations with the hip Royalton New York (a block away) and the show went on (sans most speeches and formalities). Kudos to the ASBPE team for what turned out to be a congenial event.

Craig Ball won his eighth ASBPE — he's won at least one for every year of his column — and his fourth gold for the Northeast region, for Best Contributed Column.  (In 2006 he also won a silver in the "feature series" category). We are so delighted, and LTN is so appreciative of all of Ball's contributions.

D.C. Bar Calls Out EDD Vendors

The District of Columbia Bar Ethics Committee this month issued Opinion 362 stating that e-discovery vendors cannot practice law in the District and be partially owned by non-lawyers, reports Law Technology News' technology editor, Sean Doherty.

Read the full story, and get the opinion, here.

Image: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

New Florida EDD Rules Follow Federal Trends

On July 5, Florida became the 29th state to adopt specific electronic data discovery rules for its state courts, writes Kelly Twigger, in "New Florida E-Discovery Rules Continue Federal Trends," yesterday.

"The new rules, which will take effect on Sept. 1, generally track the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, but provide greater specificity, a tighter framework, and better guidelines."

Read more: here.

Image: Florida Supreme Court

Scheindlin: Strong Opinion on Custodian Self-Collection

"United States District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin has done it again," says Ralph Losey, referring to her Friday release of "another landmark e-discovery decision."

National Day Laborer Organizing Network et al v. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, et al 2012 U.S. Dist. Lexis 97863 (SDNY, July 13, 2012) addresses the adequacy of self-collection by government entities in the context of the Freedom of Information Act.

Read the full story (and download the opinion) here!

Image: Rick Kopstein

Second Circuit Rejects Key Lit Hold Standard, or Does It?

Few appellate courts have addressed the consequences of failing to issue a written litigation hold, until the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dove in with its decision in Chin v. The Port Authority, John Jablonski writes in "Second Circuit Rejects Key Litigation Hold Standard," yesterday. 

"Tucked at the end of its 55-page decision, the circuit addresses the question of whether the failure to issue a written litigation hold at the onset of litigation should result in sanctions -- and holds in Chin that the failure to issue a written litigation hold does not equal per se gross negligence. It further held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion for sanctions. Has the Second Circuit handed spoliators a 'get out of jail free' card?"

Read more here.

Meanwhile, Legal Hold Pro Alert, in a post by Brad Harris, says it ain't a rejection. Check it out here.

What do you think? Dive on into the comments!

Image: Clipart.com

Microsoft Posts Tech Details EDD in SharePoint 2013

Shortly after posting a story about e-discovery in SharePoint 2013, I discovered a golden nugget of technical detail -- a Microsoft developer page about the very same topic! You can access the link through our original story.

Beware of Parrot Experts

When shopping for an e-discovery vendor, always ask to interview their experts, the ones who will actually be assigned to your case. You should do so for any significant purchase, but especially for review software or a large search and review project. That should be part of your standard due diligence. 

Ask the vendor questions now, while their meter isn't running, and while there is still a chance to select another vendor. The same can, of course, be said of a client selecting a law firm. Can you understand what the alleged expert is saying?  Does what he or she says make sense? If not, it might not be your fault. You might not be not talking to a real person at all. You might talking to a parrot. They might look good, and sound good, but all they can do is memorize and mouth the words of others. They do not have any real understanding of their own. That is just the way parrots are. When push comes to shove, they will not be of much help.

Product Updates: InterLegis & Nuix

From Evan Koblentz:

• InterLegis Expands E-Discovery Services to Enterprise.

• Nuix Adopts Remote Access in EDD

TREC Makes 2011 Legal Track Results Official

The government-sponsored Text Retrieval Conference released its 2011 Legal Track e-discovery test results late last week. OpenText, the University of Waterloo, and Recommind were among the top performers. Read all about it in the Law Technology News article.

Moves and News in the E-Discovery Industry

dtSearch brings enhanced hit highlighting to its search results among other improvements to its document filters across its product line -- available in beta.

Information retrieval firm H5 is growing, expanding its practice management team with three new practice directors.

U.K. e-dislosure (trans-Atlantic English for e-discovery) provider MD5 added iConect Xera's friendlier interface for review to its existing nXT platform from the D.C.-based company.

Stroz Friedberg now has a compliance division as part of its digital risk and investigations offerings, hiring M. Scott Peeler of Chadbourne & Parke to lead the new team in New York.

Nexidia, developers of audio discovery software, launched AudioDiscovery.com, an audio and video evidence blog to be principally authored by Jeff Schlueter, VP and GM of its legal markets unit. Topics the new blog will address include audio evidence handling and audio media types for legal pros. Are you listening?

Syngence Software will support the Justice Department for another year, with the government agency renewing its license for the company's near-duplicate clustering technology.

Ballard Spahr put its name on the list of law firms bringing kCura's review platform Relativity in-house.

Image by Clipart.com

Profiles & Pontifications

Many thanks to Christy Burke, (left) president of New York City-based PR and marketing firm Burke & Company, for inviting me to participate in her series of essays about/from industry leaders that has been running in Burke's "Legal Technology Observer" blog. Burke's blog is part of the Legal IT Professionals website.

Her series of guest observers — some write, some are interviewed — includes attorney/consultant/special master Craig Ball (LTN's EDD columnist); attorney/consultant Robert Ambrogi (LTN's "Web Watch" columnist and Lawyer2Lawyer podcaster on the Legal Talk Network); Randi Mayes, ILTA's executive director; and many other luminaries, including Jeffrey Brandt, Mary Abraham, Ron Friedmann, Kevin O'Keefe, Sharon Nelson and John Simek. Next week, Burke, will post a "time capsule PDF containing all the posts" that will be available for free download.

For my essay, Burke send me a list of questions and then opened the starting gate. Here's the end result, with themes you will probably recognize from some of my prior rants commentaries.

Meanwhile, speaking of the Legal Talk Network, Lu Ann Reeb and the gang have created a "Featured Lawyers" section its website, with mini-podcasts and profiles of the attorneys who host podcasts. Already produced: Tom Mighell, Dennis Kennedy, Jared Correia, Marsha Kaazarosian, and moi; others will be added in the near future.

Image: Christy Burke

D.C. Bar Opinion re: EDD Vendors' Ownership

Sean Doherty reports about a new opinion from The District of Columbia Bar Ethics Committee this month -- Opinion 362 -- stating that e-discovery vendors cannot practice law in the District and be partially owned by non-lawyers.

The ethics committee did not define the activities of e-discovery vendors that constitute the practice of law, but the Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law recently issued a detailed opinion (21-12, Jan. 12, 2012) on the matter, explaining what activities conducted by e-discovery vendors constitute the practice of law in the context of the unauthorized practice of law, prohibited by D.C. Bar Rule 49.

Rule 49 prohibits any person from engaging in the practice of law in the District of Columbia unless they are enrolled as an active member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Read full story here. 

Image: Clipart.com

Kristin Currey Joins DTI

DTI (née Document Technologies Inc.) -- which offers discovery services, facilities management, and knowledge process outsourcing -- has named Kristin Currey as its new director of business development, West region -- part of DTI's national sales team.

Reached in Los Angeles, where she is based, Currey said her "primary duties are to bring marketing to in-house, corporate counsel to help them manage and control costs around e-discovery and litigation management.

Asked what is the biggest problem facing e-discovery, Currey answered quickly. "It's not regulated -- you can have people running businesses out of their garage. There are no standards," she said. As for potential answers to that problem, she suggests that vendors and providers should have to go through standards testing.

Read the full story here.

Image: DTI

Friday Fun Fiat Lux

Joe Howie says it's time for something a little light! 

"How about an award for the best song about Technology Assisted Review? I’m nominating “Imagine” by John Martin. He just posted the lyrics in the Technology Assisted Review group on Linkedin:"
 
Imagine . . . (Not the John Lennon version)
 
Imagine there's reliable Predictive Coding
It's easy if you try
No definitive precision
The results, we're not sure why
Imagine all the people that you wouldn't need
 
Imagine there's no objections
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to explain or cry for
And no sanctions too
Imagine all the people you don't have to pay
 
You, you may say
I'm a vendor, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll believe us
Then Predictive Coding can just be fun

Image: Clipart.com

7/10 Update: John Martin (CEO and founder of BeyondRecognition) checked in with a link to his "VH1 Unplugged Style."  He actually has one hell of a voice -- shall we make this go viral and help him change jobs? Who knows, maybe he'll get a call from Simon Cowell. And he's a lot cuter than Susan Boyle, too.  :)

 Image: John Martin

Mark Michels on USITC's Slow Path to EDD Reform

Mark Michels, EDD Update's go-to-guy on all things patent e-discovery, offers a very detailed analysis of the slow, but promising path of EDD rules amendments for the U.S. International Trade Commission. That's the group that conducts unfair trade practices investigations.

Check it out on our Law Technology News website, here.

Image: Monica Bay

Cowen Group "Critical Trends" 2Q Report Shows EDD Surge

Good news from The Cowen Group: Thursday, the headhunter/research consultancy released its "2012 2Q Critical Trends" report, showing a huge surge in electronic data discovery workload at both law firms and corporate counsel offices -- to the tune of 70% and 77% respectively.

That's not all the good news -- according to the 88 respondents, both types of shops are pullin' out checkbooks and buying or upgrading tech, and hiring.

Check out the story here.

Image: Monica Bay

Mark Michels Videos: Cases & Costs

Check out Mark Michels two videos, addressing spoliation, controlling costs, and other EDD trends, taped at LegalWest Coast:

Efforts to Rein in Rising EDD Cost, part 1  and part 2.

Image: Monica Bay

John Barkett: ABA Proposed Amendments to Model Rules

John Barkett,  a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, was recently selected by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He recently provided an overview of upcoming proposals for modifications to the American Bar Association's model rules.

Here's his intro ... you can read the full story here.  (And watch for the August issue of Law Technology News magazine's August issue, which will have more analysis from Michael Arkfeld, Robert Ambrogi, and Stephanie Loquvam.)

Since 1908, the American Bar Association has published ethical rules to govern the conduct of lawyers. The Canons of Ethics became the Model Code of Professional Responsibility in 1969. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct replaced the Model Code in 1983. The model rules are not binding on lawyers in a jurisdiction until that state's supreme court adopts them. With variations in some of the rules, 49 states and the District of Columbia have done so. The one exception is California, which has its own ethics rules.

The ABA periodically reviews the model rules and their explanatory comments in relation to trends in the practice of law, and when necessary makes amendments to the rules or comments. States typically follow suit with conforming amendments.

In 2009, the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 was formed to, among other goals, adapt the model rules to technology innovations in the practice of law. To achieve this aim, the 20/20 Commission has proposed amendments to several rules or comments that will be voted on by the ABA House of Delegates, which meets during the organization’s upcoming annual meeting, August 2-7, in Chicago. The amendments appear modest but their import is significant.

Image: ABA

Unleashed - NightOwl

Catchin' up with some posting on a lazy fourth of July, after a wonderful mini-vacation (finally had a chance to see James Taylor at Tanglewood! Awesome!)

It occurred to me that I hadn't had a chance to post a link to our June Law Technology News cover story, "Unleashed," about the explosion of remote working in mainstream revamped legal operations. In that package, I profiled American Express' corporate counsel operations, what Thomson Reuters' London shop is doing with the upcoming Olympics, and how a Minneapolis-based regional EDD shop, NightOwl Document Management Services, is leveraging mobile technology to go national. (There are also several short profiles of LexisNexis' Seattle outpost, Kraft Kennedy, Goldberg Segalla, TRU Staffing Partners, and advice on how to create successful programs.)

The NightOwl segment focuses heavily on a former denizen of this blog, Albert Barsocchini — who has been a long-time LTN board member and frequent contributor for this blog  — but following LTN's  "Tom O'Connor Rule," is off both because he, like Tom, currently works for a vendor. In the story, Al talks about his new job as senior director, strategic consulting, and how he can work for NightOwl while based in San Francisco, and offers some great tips for others considering such arrangements.

You can hear more from Al (left) on our LTN videos, here: Part 1 and Part 2.

And on the June edition, "Remote Working Options for Lawyers,"  of my Law Technology Now podcast, here, along with LexisNexis' ahttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/marc-osborn/3/958/66, senior director, communications, for its legal and professional unit.

I hope you and your friends and family had a wonderful holiday today; enjoy the de rigeur fireworks tonight!

Cover photo: David Bowman.
Barsocchini: Timothy Archibald

Predicting the Future of Predictive Coding

Hayes Hunt and Jillian Thornton of Cozen O'Connor offer insights into the future of predictive coding (aka technology-assisted review), in an article from The Legal Intelligencer, here.

Image: Clipart.com