EDD Update

Thomson Reuters Acquires CaseLogistix from Anacomp

Darwin Watch: In what signals a significant move into the e-discovery market, Thomson Reuters has purchased CaseLogistix from San Diego's Anacomp. Terms of deal were not announced. 

CaseLogistix offers document review, data ingestion, and production tools to help litigation teams manage the electronic discovery review process, says TR. "The acquisition is a critical next step in furthering the Thomson Reuters litigation strategy," says Allison Guidette, TR Legal's vice president and general manager of litigation (and formerly an executive with Merrill Corp.) The CaseLogistix team will be under her umbrella.

Tom O'Connor, a long-time member of LTN's Editorial Advisory Board, served as an independent consultant for CaseLogistix from 2006-2009, writing white papers, and conducting webinars and focus groups about e-discovery processes. The acquisition, he says, shows that there's been no slow-down in the efforts of large companies aquiring small EDD firms, in order to create "end-to-end" offerings. "More specifically, this signals to me that TR is serious about that market, and is finally taking steps to counter the immense EDD and litigation support market presence of LexisNexis." 

People Make Mistakes

“People make mistakes.” This simple three word sentence is how Chief Justice John Roberts begins his opinion in Conkright v. Frommert, No. 08-810 (Apr. 21, 2010). He goes on to add: "Even administrators of ERISA plans." Then he explains how complicated those plans can be. As a former ERISA litigator, I know he's right, as I have read far too many ERISA plans myself. But let me tell you, as an attorney who left ERISA to focus solely on e-Discovery in 2006, it's nothing compared to ESI plans.

More judges need to learn the lesson of complexity and the impossibility of perfection in all situations, not just ERISA plans. The lesson is especially needed in the area of electronic discovery, where mistakes are inevitable in large projects. Everyone involved in e-discovery needs to learn that a mistake is not automatically negligence. In the language of the law, res ipsa loquitur does not apply. A missing ESI is not equivalent to a barrel falling on your head! It depends on the facts and circumstances. It depends on how bad a mistake it was.

CT Summation & AccessData Morph into AccessData Group

Darwin Watch: Wolters Kluwer's CT Summation and AccessData have just announced that they have signed the paperwork to merge into a single company: AccessData Group.
   The new company will offer a cradle-to-grave electronic data discovery offering, they report. Currently, AccessData's namesake e-discovery software helps users address litigation holds, automated collection, processing, and analysis prior to attorney review. CT Summation's roster includes litigation workflow and e-discovery products: iBlaze, CaseVault, and Discovery Cracker.
   AccessData CEO Tim Leehealey told Law Technology News that he will remain on as CEO, with his current management team, which includes Brian Karney (COO) and Erick Thompson (founder/CTO), among others. Whether CT Summation leaders will participate on the management team is unsettled at this time, he said. 

Kroll Changes Hands

Kroll, Inc., parent company of EDD service provider Kroll Ontrack, has been sold by insurance giant Marsh & McLennan to government security contractor, Altegrity, Inc.  MarshMac, who acquired Kroll in the summer of 2004 for $1.9 billion, will receive a reported $1.13 billion for the unit.  Wonder if some of Kroll's investigative skills will be tasked to find out what happened to that $770 million in value lost to shell-shocked shareholders like me?

It's likely a good move for Kroll--always a poor fit at Marsh and a minor contributor to revenues--and a homecoming of sorts, as former Kroll chief, Michael G. Cherkasky, now runs Altegrity.

Judge Scheindlin Enters Order Correcting Pension Opinion

Judge Scheindlin entered a second amendment to the Pension Committee opinion today, May 28, 2010. Please see my e-Discovery Team blog for the entire text of the Order.  "Likely constitutes negligence" is changed to "could." The "all employees" phrase is also modified to "those with any involvement." We can all breathe a little easier this weekend.

I heard this correction by Judge Scheindlin came about as a result of a question asked of her at a CLE event this week. Anyone care to share the details of that? Who gets the credit for bringing this glitch in wording to her attention?

ILTA 2010: It's What Happens in Vegas

When Nashville flooded a few weeks ago, one of the casualties was the Gaylord Opryland Resort that was to have played host to the 2010 ILTA convention. Speakers and attendees have been in suspense since the rivers rose, waiting to find out where ILTA would anchor.  The answer is Vegas, baby!  And not just anywhere in Vegas, but the brand new Aria Resort, centerpiece of the sprawling, sparkling CityCenter complex just south of the Bellagio.

I happened to be in Las Vegas this evening, so I strolled over to CityCenter for a firsthand preview of how ILTA will fit the Aria.  "Strolled" hardly applies to any trudge along the Strip--a block in Vegas is five blocks most other places--but when I asked the folks at the Bellagio the best route to CityCenter, you'd think I'd asked them about the best way up K2!  They instead herded me to the tram that connects the two properties--a slick little train like those that carry passengers between terminals at major airports.  It signaled that Aria was going to be a different Vegas experience...and it was.

Fios: Shakeup at the Top

John Hesse, newly-named President and CEO at Fios reports that it's "basically business as usual" at the Portland-based e-discovery service provider after the unexpected departure of former CEO, Chris Junker.  Junker, who held the top spot for eight months, resigned for undisclosed personal reasons and returns to Chicago.

John Hesse, who most recently served as the company's CFO and COO, was upbeat on the sudden shuffle.  Per Hesse, "It's an exciting time at Fios." 

Undoubtedly.

Here's the press release.

Judicial Boxing Match?

With the Winter Games in high gear, it is hard not to think of the headline for the main card of an e-discovery boxing match between two federal judicial heavy hitters:

Rosenthal vs. Scheindlin 

The introductions of a boxing announcer come to mind reading Judge Rosenthal's recent opinion in Rimkus v. Cammarata, 07-cv-00405 (SDTX Feb. 19, 2010) and her subtle (or not so subtle depending on how much is read into her opinion) critique of Judge Scheindlin's very much discussed opinion in The Pension Committee of Montreal, et al. v. Banc of America Securities, et al., 05 Civ. 9016 (SDNY Jan. 15, 2010).  And in this corner, at the forefront of e-discovery, legal holds and the duty to preserve all relevant evidence... hailing from the toughest city in the world - New York... Ms. ESI... Judge Scheindlin.  And in this corner... mover and shaper of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure... Champion of the Safe Harbor... hailing from the toughest state in the Union - Texas... Ms. FRCP amendments... Judge Rosenthal.

LTNY: T-Minus 12 h

       

I've just navigated the chaos that is the LegalTech vendor floor (see photos, click each for larger images) and, after more than a decade watching these shows take shape on both coasts, I still marvel at how this mess morphs into the polished event that will emerge in a few hours.  It's going to be a great show for the vendors.  I can't predict the traffic won't be off in sheer numbers of warm bodies, but those who come will have budgets to buy that were nowhere to be seen last year.  Everyone tightened belts, but those compelled to do more with less now face doing more with less...that's now a year or two past its prime.  The fear factor has dissipated (even obscene Wall St. bonuses are back and Ford's turned a profit), so the checkbooks are coming out.  

Judge Scheindlin Correction: Pension Committee Opinion

On January 11, 2010, Judge Scheindlin issued a landmark ruling on sanctions - The Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan, et al. v. Banc of America Securities, et al. Lexis was the first to pick up on it and published the Order on January 13th. See:  2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1839. I  wrote a lengthy blog on the new case, which I published on January 17th. Then today, on the 18th, I was just advised that Judge Scheindlin issued an Amended Order on January 15th, which makes several revisions to the original Order.

Broadcom Charges Thrown Out

The National Law Journal  reports that a federal judge has thrown out all criminal and civil charges related to the stock options backdating scandal at Broadcom Corp. amid accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. 

Here's the first version of the story: 

Will Smarter TIFFs from Microsoft Change E-Discovery?

I trust you know, dear reader, that the only thing dumber than a TIFF file is converting your entire e-discovery collection to TIFF images for review.  But, while wholesale TIFF conversion will forever be monumentally stupid and profligate, it appears TIFF files just acquired a few brain cells. 

At risk of being revealed as the last kid on the block to figure this out, I learned today that Microsoft offers a way to smarten up TIFF images such that load files--those hinky, stinky electronic bills of lading that must accompany TIFF image productions to make them usable--may no longer be needed.

Searching ESI: A Lesson from Aunt Judy

Imagine you borrow your buddy's mobile to phone your wife.  When you type in her cell number and hit send, the phone recognizes the number as belonging to "Aunt Judy."  Huh?  Your wife's name is Cindy.  Suspicions aroused, you start poking around in the text messages and find exchanges confirming that "Aunt Judy" and your trusted pal have been doing the horizontal mambo.  Ouch!

EDRM Data Set Project: EDRM Enron PST Files Now Available

The EDRM Enron PST files are now available on the EDRM website. They are posted as 32 zipped files, each less than 700 MB in size. Also posted is a spreadsheet listing the zipped files and the 168 .pst files contained in the zipped files.

There are several ways to reach the files. The simplest is:

• Go to the main EDRM page, http://edrm.net.
• Select the Data Set icon. That will take you to the main Data Set page, http://edrm.net/activities/projects/data-set.
• Select the “Enron Downloads” tab, and download the files listed there.

Please let us know if you have any questions, problems or suggestions.

Thank you,

George Socha (george@sochaconsulting.com)

Corcoran Group Sanctioned

RT @leecomms: Corcoran Group sanctioned for ediscovery failure and deleting e-mails in spite of repeated warnings http://tinyurl.com/yzzt68s  (New York Law Journal article).

Ajilon and Fios partner for full-service e-discovery

How long has it been since you pulled up to a full-service pump or stopped for gas in New Jersey or Oregon? You do remember the concept of full service, right? Service provided by an attendant that saw to all your vehicular needs when you pulled into the station. If you do, then compare the gas station attendant to the new partnership between Ajilon and Fios that have teamed up to provide a full, or "all-inclusive," e-discovery service.

The Ajilon-Fios partnership combines Fios’ e-discovery services with Ajilon’s legal staffing and litigation services. Together, they hope to provide clients with a one-stop shop for e-discovery services from processing through preview with Prevail, all at a predictable, per-gigabyte price model.

Anacomp Executive Purge?

We are tracking down strong rumors that there has been a major purge of executives at Anacomp by its board of directors. Once we get confirmations and details we'll post more 411.

411: We tracked the rumor down. In fact, Howard Dratler, Anacomp CEO, got right back to us to set the record straight. There were never any plans to unseat him as CEO. But Dratler did hire Scott Winkler to be the general manager of Anacomp's CLX business. According to Dratler, "Winkler's initial focus will be on better alignment of our Development, Product Management and Marketing organizations with the goal  of building on/accelerating the strong progress we have made over the past several years and taking our eDiscovery and Litigation Support business to the next level."

EDD on the Fringes: CA - SB 748

I admit, this post is really skirting the edges of e-discovery, but if you see the issues I see, perhaps you'll agree it's relevant to us.  California has passed a bill into law, SB 748, which makes it a misdemeanor to post information about witnesses or their family members online with the intent to intimidate.

Where it intercepts our world is that there's an opt-out requirement that forces search providers to take down information within two days of receiving a request from a witness or face a $5,000 fine.

Never mind the logistics of policing such a requirement, I can see it now; subpoenas flying all over the place from the District Attorney's office compelling search providers to provide the identities of those who posted the information online and the search providers refusing to comply with the subpoenas.

Could this be construed as compelling a private entity to act as an arm of the government?

For more, click here.

Kroll: Corporations Need to ‘Walk the Talk’ on ESI Management

Kroll Ontrack's Third Annual ESI Trends Report found that a majority of 461 U.S. and U.K. corporations with 500-1,000 employees that responded to an online survey (conducted by Research Plus) had a document retention policy in place but less than a majority of them (46 percent of U.S. and 41 percent of U.K.) had an ESI discovery readiness strategy. To Kroll, those survey respondents "talk the talk," but they also need to "walk the walk." A retention policy without an e-discovery strategy leads to a false sense of security that a document retention policy is adequate to protect an organization when litigation and e-discovery ensue. And that assumption is not a leap of faith that falls short.

Using a document management system and retention policy to "go left" of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model calls for managing content. Part and parcel of managing content is managing the inherent risk in content that may trigger a lawsuit or an investigation. And you manage the risk by developing a strategy for it, i.e., for litigation, which includes a strategy for e-discovery. Another way to look at this is from box seats on the 50-yard line. Send a receiver wide left, throw him or her the ball, and simply say: "good luck." Without further support, the receiver is not going to get too far.

The ESI Trends Report had a few other findings I found of interest. For example, a large number of companies increased their spending for ESI, but another large percentage said hey did not have a mechanism to suspend their document retention policy. "What are they buying?" Regina Jytyla, a staff attorney at Kroll, said the figure represents general spending for in-house legal departments and can include technology, people and outsourcing. To me, the corporations that were surveyed, nearly one-half of which had to produce ESI for litigation, need a better mix of technology and people – especially considering the fact that most of the content out there is ESI.

Another topic I found interesting was that role confusion, vernacular barriers and budget ownership still leads to contention between IT and legal when litigation strikes and that differences in legal and technical expertise challenge the collaboration between IT and legal that is necessary to comply with e-discovery requests. This sounds like the legal department needs to take ownership and recognize that they have a project to deal with that has a client, multiple stake holders and a long tail. After all, litigation is a legal process, right? I don't see the IT department knocking on legal's door when IT wants to upgrade servers, right?

Informative Graphics Goes ‘SharePoint’

Informative Graphics Corporation launched its latest versions of Brava Enterprise and Redact-It Enterprise with SharePoint 2007 integration. SharePoint users can now use Brava's viewing and annotation features, including term-hit highlighting, which allows you to pick up search terms used in SharePoint and apply them to the document in view. In the redaction department, Redact-It aims to monitor specified SharePoint document libraries or network folders and automatically apply configured redaction criteria.

Put a microscope in your computer

Seems like a lot of things are coming to a computer near you: movies, TV, microscopes. Yes, microscopes for the forensic examiner. Dazor's speckFINDER HD digital computer microscope gives forensic scientists the ability to see precise details of evidence in high definition magnification in a computer format.

I can't remember how many times I needed some detail on a motherboard only to borrow my dentist's funny-looking glasses. Now I have more options with Dazor.

Dazor brings together optics, digital cameras, LED lighting, glass displays, personal computing electronics and mechanics to produce the speckFINDER HD, a digital computing microscope with an ergonomic design using flat panel digital display that allows multiple people to view magnified images simultaneously and effortlessly.

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.

'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

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...

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.

Man Blames Child Porn on his Cat

In a strange variation of the "dog ate my homework" a 48 year old man in Jensen Beach, Florida, blamed his cat for the child pornography on his computer. Mr. Griffin was arrested after police somehow found over 1,000 child porn mages on his computer. According to the Associated Press report, Griffin told deputies that his cat jumped on the computer keyboard while he was downloading music. He said that he had left the room and when he returned found "strange things" on his computer. Griffin claims that his cat frequently stepped on his keyboard. The accused was obviously telling the truth as the photo clearly corroborates his story. Still, the Florida police did not believe him! They may even have impounded the cat too, who is a known convicted feline. I'll let you imagine a few other funny remarks. Anyway, Mr. Griffin was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography, which is no laughing matter. He is now in Martin County, Florida jail and is likely to be there for a long time unless he posts a $250,000 bond.

Free E-Discovery Tools that May Be Worth a Bundle

Lawyers miss being toe-to-toe with the evidence. We want to attack ESI with the same hands-on "can do" capabilities we brought to bankers boxes.  For that, everyone from solos to senior partners need simple, powerful desktop and/or web-enabled tools to search and review client data. 

The proletarian tools I imagine haven't surfaced.  The good stuff isn't cheap, and even much of the pricey stuff is relentlessly ho-hum or clunky as hell.  We need, "Quickbooks for ESI:" a tool set that's as intuitive to use, affordable and easy to master as Intuit's ubiquitous accounting application.

Two "free" tools lately hit my radar screen.  Download them, try them and see what you think.  One is a truly free utility that makes the contents of forensic computer images accessible to any Windows user.  The other is a fully-functional demo of an EDD search and review platform that isn't quite there but gets so tantalizingly close in some respects that I urge you to play with it and tell its Aussie developers how to get it right.

The Aleynikov Affair: From Newark with Code

In D.C. last week, I spoke to a group of data security specialists and computer forensic experts about the type of case I see most frequently.  Unlike most in the audience, I work in civil litigation and see little of the child porn, identity theft and hacking cases that occupy them.  Much of my work concerns alleged employee data theft, so I addressed the prevelance and patterns of those cases, discussing incident response fundamentals, e.g., what to preserve and where and how to look to determine the whether, when, who and how much of proprietary data theft.

I was fortunate the day's big news story was of a lately-resigned senior programmer at Goldman Sachs arrested at Newark airport for allegedly spiriting away a copy of Goldman's trading program code.  My topic seemed ripped from the headlines.

New Technology Awareness - Google Operating System

This week the most visited website in the world, Google, announced their plans to market the new Google operating system called Google Chrome OS.  Most Personal Computers (PCs) currently run on operating systems from either Microsoft or Apple.  Unlike Microsoft and Apple, the Google Operating System is an open-source project so many outside developers are likely to develop on it.  Another benefit is that Google is offering this new operating system for free. We are yet to see how the marketplace will accept the new Google Chrome OS, but one thing is sure that this will shake up the PC market.  We may soon be seeing electronic discovery requests that involve the Google Chrome OS so asking the question of a custodian "Is it a PC or Mac?" may not be enough.  Our new line of questioning may need to be "Is it a PC with the Microsoft OS, Google Chrome OS or a Mac?". 

If SharePoint is the Archimedean Point for an organization, then …

Vendors and service providers need to support that point. And that’s just what Kazeon Systems intends to do with eDiscovery SharePoint Manager, which aims to use SharePoint as both an ESI source and target.

On the collection side of e-discovery, SharePoint Manager features forensic collection, data verification and audit, and exception reporting. It also offers in-depth processing for SharePoint data and metadata, with legal hold management and configurable workflow settings. And, there are some vantage points to all the data collected and processed.

SharePoint Manager includes analytics, search, and visualization of SharePoint data to get an early case assessment of a project or investigation. This will help counsel remember “The Gambler” when it comes to assessing litigation: “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em” and “Know when to walk away and know when to run.” And it can be that easy when you know what’s in your hand.

Historical Supreme Court Nomination

This is an important day in history as we, the people, may see our first female hispanic Supreme Court Justice appointed.  Today, President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayer to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court.  Judge Sotomayer is an accomplished woman with degrees from both Princeton and Yale.  She comes from a humble background and was touted as still remembering her roots.  She has been accepted by both Democrats and Republicans as their nominee of choice in the past.  In 1992, she was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern Discrict of New York by President Bush.  In 1997, she was appointed to the Second Circuit by President Clinton.  My hopes is that everyone will take the time to read more about her.  We all must read her  decisions and not just the ones noted in the news.  I am doing my research now on her opinions and hope to uncover ones that include her viewpoints on eDiscovery.  I will continue to post my findings and hope you will comment here with your personal findings.

Former Judge Hedges Speaking Tomorrow at WiE

I wanted to share with you that former Judge Ron Hedges will be speaking tomorrow at the Women in eDiscovery ("WiE") meeting in NYC.  At the meeting he will be sharing with the members his insight into Cloud Computing and how it effects eDiscovery now and in the future.  The meeting is being hosted by Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.  Please email newyorkcity@womeninediscovery.com for more details.

The sine qua non for stuff: search

Searching a large body of anything, be it case law or data in response to litigation, requires not only good search tools but a good process to find what is relevant and discard what is not. In regard to searching case law, we know a key skill for lawyers is finding and analogizing cases in legal argumentation. Dr. Adam Wyner discusses the application of natural language processing tools to online bodies of case law for quicker, more cost-effective delivery of accurate analytic search results. And in regard to searching data in response to litigation, TREC 2008 results are out and the tasks for 2009 are in.

Judge Scheindlin & Ralph Losey in a Webinar Tomorrow

Judge Shira Scheindlin and me, Ralph Losey, will be doing a Webinar on e-Discovery Education at 1:00 pm EST tomorrow, March 18. It is dial in only at 724-444-7444; the Show ID is 37210. The interview webinar will then be available for download for many months to come. It is all free of course. Learn about our backgrounds, educational efforts in academia and elsewhere, her new text book, Electronic Discovery and Digital Evidence (West 2009), and mine, Introduction to e-Discovery (ABA 2009) and e-Discovery (ABA 2008). This will be a live, spontaneous interview and should be fun. It will, of course, feature the Judge, whom I am honored to present with. The host is Karl A. Schieneman of JurInnov Ltd. He is just getting started in an e-discovery interview series, but has already interviewed Judge Facciola, Jonathan Redgrave, James Daley,  and Ron Hedges. More good interviews to come, including Craig Ball, Richard Braman, and Sherry Harris, and even one with me alone. Be sure to check these out.

Digital Reef Surfaces

After being in stealth mode for two years, Digital Reef announced its distributed platform to manage unstructured data. In a nutshell, Digital Reef’s technology aims to index, analyze, classify, and manage large volumes to, at once, facilitate e-discovery tasks and help satisfy overall compliance requirements for data retention.

Digital Reef uses a three-tier architecture built on Linux. A Web-based front end orchestrates middleware and back-end processes that include crawlers and a federated index. The index contains metadata and the entire contents of discovered files. The index is based on a proprietary, flat-file system structure that claims to have unique performance optimizations.

Differentiators: Digital Reef’s technology includes a similarity engine that can organize and classify data as well as find content that is similar to documents already found to be relevant to a particular query or litigation. A Linux-based, multi-tier architecture can scale Digital Reef processes independently or in concert using commodity hardware.

Inadvertent Disclosures

We use e-mail to communicate with colleagues, clients, adversaries, friends, courts and even complete strangers. It is so prevalent and accessible that little thought is given to the fact that every message typed creates a permanent record that could be an issue in a legal dispute.

Guidance Grilled Over Absent Memos

Guidance Software bills itself as the leading provider of technology that helps companies dig up old e-mails and other electronic documents that might be evidence in a lawsuit. Yet when Guidance itself had to face a judge, it was accused of bumbling its internal digital search.

EDRM Participation Fee Update

February 11, 2009 - In response to the current economic challenges and the accompanying reduction in electronic discovery personnel at service and software providers, law firms and corporations, for select individuals we are temporarily waiving the individual EDRM participation fee.

This waiver applies to individuals who have lost, or are about to lose, positions in the electronic discovery field.

Individual participants who elect to attend the Spring and Fall EDRM face-to-face working meetings will still be required to pay a fee to cover a portion of meeting expenses.

We know this will not solve everyone’s problems; we hope at least it can ease the pain a little.

Please contact us with any questions.

Thank you,

George Socha and Tom Gelbmann (mail@edrm.net)

Georgetown Law Center’s EDD Training Academy

The waiting is over!  The New York Rangers are the new Stanley Cup Champions!  And this one will last a lifetime!
Wait, wrong celebration :)

But the waiting is over!  After numerous months of meetings, debates, pilots and careful planning it is finally here. The first unbiased, academia based Georgetown Law Center’s week long E-Discovery Training Academy begins Monday.

 The Academy instantly becomes the most credible educational program given Georgetown Law Center's undisputed reputation as the nation's best Law School for Litigators.  Even the economy woes could not stop its momentum.  The academy, limited to 50 seats to assure maximum interaction between the faculty and the students, is completely sold out!

As one of the founding members of the Academy and a faculty member, I am a little biased.  However, few would dispute that finding proper education has always been a great challenge for our industry.  Those of us trying to learn about E-Discovery as well as educate our staff, attorneys and clients are well aware of the complete lack of such initiative despite the great need.   

Until now…

Congratulations to Dean Larry Center, Advisory Committee and Faculty of the Academy for realizing the dream!

 

EDRM Draft Search Guide Available for Review/Comment

The draft EDRM Search Guide, version 1.14, is now available for review and comment.  It is available in three forms:

• Word 2003 version

• PDF version

• Wiki version (read only)

The draft EDRM Search Guide is a 78-page document intended to provide a framework for defining & managing various aspects of search as applied to the e-discovery workflow.  It represents the joint efforts of 18 contributors from 15 organizations - corporations, law firms, and electronic discovery services and software providers.

Please post comments at the EDRM Search Documentation Bulletin Board, http://edrm.net/bb/viewforum.php?f=81

Kazeon implements new case-matter licensing options

Kazeon Systems introduced new pay-as-you-go pricing models focused on a case- or matter-based approach to e-discovery that will interest corporations, law firms, and service providers with hightened budget constraints for litigation in 2009.

The new pricing models augment their persistent software licensing option and enable customers to implement e-discovery software without a major financial investment. Kazeon's new licensing models include:

• Usage-based: Per GB pricing, providing eDiscovery software licenses for legal case matters of varying magnitudes; and
• Case-based license: Per case pricing, providing eDiscovery software licenses for legal cases or projects

The new pricing model comes with Kazeon's full compliment of e-discovery features including: agent-less, in-place early case assessment tools; analysis and review platforms; and legal hold management capabilities. With the pay-as-you-go approach, customers will not have to worry about add-on modules that accelerate e-discovery costs. But you will still need to size your project appropriately to predict cost.

Sanctions Granted for Discovery Refusal

Clothing company Liz Claiborne should be sanctioned for a "persistent refusal" to comply with discovery orders stemming from ongoing trademark infringement litigation with a smaller competitor, a federal magistrate judge has determined. New York Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger concluded that Liz Claiborne fell "seriously short of what the discovery rules require" in litigation between jeans-maker Lucky Brand, one of Liz Claiborne's flagship clothing brands, and Marcel Fashion Group.

Court Rules That Metadata Aren’t Public Records

An Arizona appellate court ruled that metadata is not part of the public record. The majority opined that metadata was produced as a byproduct of a public officer’s performance of duty, its creation or preservation wasn’t required by law, and the public transaction recorded was not the metadata.

Alexander Gallo Holdings gets Verdict

Alexander Gallo Holdings, a privately-held court reporting and litigation support services, acquired Verdict Systems, developers of Sanction and Verdical as well as the service Sanction Solutions.

Alexander J. Gallo, CEO, hopes that the acquisition fulfills one of its primary goals to offer “cllients a complete suite of services to handle all of their litigation needs from discovery through trial.”

That seems to be the holy grail in the e-discovery business. An admirable, albeit elusive, quest given the vagaries of litigation.

Cloud Computing Increase Expected in 2009

Even though the state of the economy is the main focus of much of our attention now-a-days, the New Year promises to be an exciting year with new and enhanced technologies.

One interesting technology trend is the movement we are seeing towards Cloud computing.  In 2008, 13 percent of software sales globally were for Cloud computing.  This is an estimated $36 billion in sales which is expected to increase exponentially in 2009.

Cloud computing is simply a general concept of reliance on the Internet for satisfying a person’s computing needs.  For example, Google Apps provides business applications through the internet that are accessed from a web browser.  The data is stored on the google servers and is not stored locally on the user’s desktop.  This is commonly referred to as “SaaS or Software as a Service”.  We are currently hearing a lot from Microsoft these days about them offering SaaS so even the biggest players in the industry are jumping on the band wagon.

The concept of cloud computing is a wonderful idea.  It allows large groups of computers to share the same IT infrastructure.  The users then access the resources virtually and not keep local copies, therefore, saving a lot on storage costs.

This past quarter, I attended a conference where IT professionals were discussing the benefits of switching to the Cloud computing environment.  They believed it would save them a tremendous amount of money and savings on energy. 

Enterprise

companies are stating that Cloud computing will support the future of data centers where as they would be able to provide fast access to a large network of users.

Since uses for cloud computing will increase exponentially over the next three to five years, we as eDiscovery professionals must be aware of this trend so we can advise our corporate counsel to have discussions with their IT departments so that if a decision is being made to move towards Cloud computing that the legal department’s needs are taken into consideration.   

PSS Systems refreshes Atlas

PSS Systems announced the next release of the Atlas Suite (Atlas 4) that aims to eliminate unnecessary legal risk and reduce discovery and data management costs, working across legal, IT, finance and business units.

The Atlas 4 release introduces 2 new modules that reduce discovery and data management costs and legal risk: Atlas for IT and Discovery Cost Forecasting.

The new suite also includes an “intelligent” legal-hold process in the Atlas 4 Legal Communications and Collections that claims to use less effort than alternative approaches to preserving and collecting data for litigation. In addition, the Atlas 4 Enterprise Retention Management (Atlas ERM) is a legal information governance program designed to establish global standards for retention and implement global governance procedures.

Stratify ups the ante for hosted data centers

Stratify, a subsidiary of Iron Mountain, recently announced the availability of a disaster recovery feature for e-discovery data in its hosted data centers. In effect, Stratify provides another option in handling hosted data for corporations and law firms

Stratify boasts that it is has a fully SAS-70 compliant data center that is “a giant step forward for electronic discovery” and “raises the bar for the entire industry,” according to Sue Feldman, Research Vice President, Search and Discovery Technologies, IDC.

This is all well and good for the corporation or law firm that needs such a full service. And to get there, you need to analyze the risk and manage it. That is, plan to mitigate the identified risk in the event it occurs.

But if you use a hosting provider for any stage of e-discovery, you should keep a backup of the data that you provide and request that you receive regular backups as work progresses in the event the data center goes south. Then you can take your data to another hosting provider.

With Stratify’s DR protocol, you would not have to make such elaborate backup plans. And, there is a reduced risk that backup data might be compromised in transit. But analyze the risk and get what you pay for. No more -- no less.

Playing with dominoes

Dominoes is a game that I never really understood. I am much better at understanding dominoes in the sense of Lotus Domino servers and Notes clients that persist despite Redmond's best efforts.

Although Microsoft's Exchange has a larger market share than Domino, you may run into an adversary with a Domino system and NSF files that need to be discovered. In that case, you will want to partner with a provider who can process and view them in native format, like Electronic Evidence Discovery.

Chevron's Google Link Gets the Gag

A trial in San Francisco over Chevron's Nigerian operations featured a new online frontier. Northern District Judge Susan Illston put a gag on a paid Google link that directed Internet surfers to a Chevron-created Web site providing information about the incident at issue in trial.

California's EDD rules vetoed by Ahnold

Scott Graham of The Recorder alerts us to the news that California's well-vetted proposed E-discovery rules were among the zillions of measures vetoed by Arnold Schwartzenegger when he approved the budget.

Read more here (sub req'd)