EDD Update

Poetry to Sooth the Savage Soul

It's Tuesday. You owe yourself a break from the savage rat-race. You owe yourself a few minutes of downtime. So why not treat yourself to some poetry? 

But not just any poetry, the latest in post-modern genre: e-discovery poetry. Read what law students are writing and some of your colleagues too. It's all in my blog this week entitled: The Poetry of e-Discovery: People Not Only Make Mistakes, They Lie, Steal, Cheat and Fake. Yes, you can even read my feeble efforts. 

But better yet, read my quotes of Carl Sanburg on lawyers and my retort thereto. (I'm definitely better at retorting than poetry!) Also read Charles Dickens on lying witnesses, and W. H. Auden. Leave us a poem yourself in the Comments at the end of the blog. 

At the same time you will learn about the latest trade secret e-discovery case: Genworth Financial Wealth Management Inc. v. McMullan, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53145, (D. Conn. June 1, 2010). What could be better on a lazy summer day? Ok, I can think of one thing, but aside from that?

Old Wine in New Bottles

Sunday affords the leisure to read the obituaries of the late Gen. Alexander Haig, who regrettably will be best remembered for his humiliating, Constitutionally-clueless 'coup' when President Reagan was shot in 1981.  I was in the University of Texas Law School Library where they'd set up a TV by the circulation desk when Gen. Haig  announced, "“I am in control here, in the White House.”  He seemed anything but, and one had to wonder what calamity had befallen the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tem of the Senate while we waited for the Vice President to take the helm. 

But thinking of General Haig (who ascended from colonel to four-star general in just five years in the Nixon White House), brings to mind the Nixon Watergate experience, the Reagan Iran-Contra Scandal and their parallels to modern e-discovery.

I posit that Nixon's Watergate gave birth to e-discovery, and Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal cemented its power.  Each demonstrated how storing self-immolating communications electronically--and subsequent efforts to eradicate them--will prove a litigant's undoing.

SLUT

Author's Note:   The theme for this post sprang from the offhand comment that, "EDna has to be cheap and easy."  I contrived that EDna, a made-up character, had a penchant for promiscuous behavior during the strait-laced seventies.  I ridiculously posited that male law students might have been drawn to sexual misadventure with a fetching lass of a sporting nature.  EDna, I imagined, was (in the argot of those with moral compasses truer than mine), a tad "slutty."

Humor about sex isn't everyone's cup of tea.  Based on the comments that follow, I missed the mark.   Some readers felt my Satyrical attempts at humor crossed their lines.  I am chastened, and henceforth, EDna is chaste. 

I've gotten all sorts of interesting feedback on the EDD for Everybody article A/K/A "The EDna Challenge" that ran in the January 2010 issue of LTN.  I'm fascinated by the number of vendors and developers who claim to be poised to introduce an integrated "solution" or contend their existing product could meet the challenge...so long as something is changed to make the challenge less challenging.

Folks, when you think of EDna, I want you to think CHEAP and EASY.  Of course, here I mean the EDna Challenge, not my hypothetical law school classmate (though she was extremely popular).  Need an acronym?  How about, Simple, Low-cost, Utile and Total end-to-end management of ESI.  S.L.U.T.

Seriously,  the EDna challenge solution could be as ubiquitous on lawyer desktops as Adobe Acrobat.  We're talking tens of thousands of potential users, near term.  Not just every desktop of every big firm litigator, but the desktops of all those trial lawyers that are part of the 70-80% of lawyers nationally that practice in law firms of 5 lawyers or less, and every solo.  Don't forget their assistants and support staff. 

HTCIA Asia Pacific Chapter Training Conference

I'm still trying to recover from jet lag after my return from speaking at the HTCIA Asia Pacific Chapter Training Conference in Hong Kong.  The HTCIA is the High Technology Crime Investigation Association, the world's largest association of computer forensic examiners.  Though it has a decidedly law enforcement bent--to the point of forbidding its members from assisting in the defense of criminal cases--there are probably as many non-law enforcement members in the group as cops.  Accordingly, there's been a growing interest in electronic discovery among the ranks of computer forensic examiners, particularly since the local forensic examiner is often the only competent "e-discovery service provider" willing to take on smaller matters involving electronic evidence.

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!

Um, er, Happy April Fools Day

Kurt Leafstrand and his colleagues at Clearwell had JUST a little bit too much time on their hands yesterday: check out this "launch."   I see Mr. Ball also caught this (below).

Ditto for Google, with "CADIE." Hat tip to Sally Gonzalez.

And Klingon & Porcine Latin review capabilities  have been added to Orange Legal Technologies' portfolio.

And we hear that a BigLaw firm just got Kindle 2s for everybody.

Mmmmm. Government-run EDD: Easy and So Cheesy!

Who says you can't laugh in the face of adversity?  Kurt Leafstrand (Software Evangelist for ClearGuideAutoKrolLexFTios) crafted this tongue-in-cheek poke at the costly mess the industry has made of e-discovery.  Be sure to watch his video, too.  

Bravo, Kurt!

Andy's a Star

OK, OK, yes I know it's off topic. But check this out: LTN edit board member Andy Jurczyk, CIO of Sonnenschein, stars in this new Apple video about the new iPhone 2.0:

Click on "Hear What IT executives are saying about iPhone 2.0" video.

The production quality is amazing!

Brain Candy: Sometimes You Just Need a Break

Here's a little Brain Candy from the April issue of LTN -- favorite web sites when you just can't do one more minute of real work.

What's YOUR favorite cite? Click comment below and share!