eDiscovery Daily Blog

• April 20, 2016

The ACEDS conference concludes today after kicking off yesterday (and conducting pre-conference seminars the day before).  Let’s take a look at today’s sessions.

The conference is being held today and tomorrow at the Grand Hyatt New York (located at 109 East 42nd Street at Grand Central Terminal).  I will be covering the conference for eDiscovery Daily and will provide info about the sessions before each day, so that attendees will know what’s available.  And our parent company, CloudNine will be one of the exhibitors at the show, at booth #106.  If you’re there, come by and see us!

Unlike other conferences where I have to search for the sessions that relate to eDiscovery, I don’t have to do that here – they all relate to eDiscovery, Information Governance or Cybersecurity.  Here are the sessions for today, the last day of the conference:

8:00 – 9:00 AM:

The Anatomy of a Tweet

Social media is increasingly important to many civil and criminal cases, but do you know how to securely and accurately preserve a Tweet or Facebook post? Social media is dynamic and fluid, so the standards that apply in other forms of discovery will simply not work in the social context. We have a panel of social media insiders who will explain how to obtain evidence from any social platform, with and without user login credentials.

Speakers: William Wilkinson, Director, Forensic Technology, BDO; Rob Robinson, Managing Director, Complex Discovery; Julie K. Brown, Litigation Technology Manager, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP; Calvin Weeks, Computer Forensics Manager, Eide Bailly LLP.

Establishing the Parameters of Ethical Conduct in the Legal Technology Industry – LTPI Working Session

Eric Mandel, Board of Directors for the Legal Technology Professionals Institute (LTPI) will facilitate an open workshop on the proposed ethical standards for eDiscovery Professionals. The LTPI Ethical framework will include: Operational guidance for developing an ethical framework for legal technology professionals, focusing particularly on:

• Good faith basis in work recommended
• Reasonableness in efforts
• Reasonableness in costs
• Usability for end purposes
• Fidelity of processes (no “lossiness”)
• Compliance with laws governing disclosures
• Accuracy of results
• Usability to all stakeholders or consumers
• Ability to certify the foregoing in good faith

Speaker: Eric Mandel, Chair and President, Legal Technology Professionals Institute.

Women to Know: What’s Your Pitch/What’s Your Story

Speakers: David Cowen, President and Managing Director, The Cowen Group; Tania Mabrey, Founder, Sagacity Technology Consultants LLC.

The Essence of E-Discovery Education

E-Discovery education presents unique challenges for lawyers, paralegals, litigation professionals, and judges. This panel will explore educational pathways integrating e-discovery law, technology and practice in degree programs, certification programs, training programs, and continuing legal education that will highlight recommendations on how to teach e-discovery as well as what prospective students should look for in a quality e-discovery educational program.

Speakers: Rachel See, Lead Technology Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board; Bill Hamilton, Faculty and Executive Director, University of Florida Law, International Center for Automated Information Retrieval; Vice-Chancellor Bryan University; Hon. James C. Francis IV, US Magistrate Judge, Southern District of New York.

9:30 – 10:30 AM:

GENERAL SESSION: Tracking Terrorism in the Digital Age & Its Lessons for EDiscovery – Judicial Perspectives

The FBI and Apple Computers are now locked in a court battle over how to unlock an iPhone 5C belonging to Syed Farook, the San Bernardino terror shooter. But this battle is just one small piece of a larger fight over digital privacy, terrorism, and security that will not be settled anytime soon.

The recent terror attacks in California, Paris, Turkey, Beirut, and elsewhere are a terrible human tragedy and we join the worldwide condemnation and offer our deepest sympathies to the victims. But as e-discovery specialists, we are now at the forefront of the fight to bring these criminals to justice, and seek to help advance the science and understanding of terror networks so as to help bring perpetrators to justice and prevent future atrocities.

This panel of Judges will discuss how they battle terrorism in the digital realm.

Speakers: Ronald J. Hedges, Principal, Ronald J. Hedges LLC; Hon. James C. Francis IV, US Magistrate Judge, Southern District of New York; Hon. Matthew Sciarrino, Jr, Judge, New York State Supreme Court – Criminal Term – Kings County; Hon. Xavier Rodriguez, US District Judge, US District Court, Western District of Texas.

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM:

“Bring it In” House

Many of the warhorses of the litigation support industry were first created in the 1980s. While they were groundbreaking when initially released, there is plenty of new technology available to create your own litigation workflow. We’ve brought in experts who can explain alternative platforms- including cloud-based services and mobile applications. They will show how to build litigation workflows that work for your firm and how to secure data beyond the basic security options found in many software platforms. In addition, we will also show you an important third option for the tech savviest attorneys- building your own in-house platform from free or inexpensive software.

Speakers: George Socha, President & Founder, Socha Consulting, LLC; Julie K. Brown, Litigation Technology Manager, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP; Tina Garbarino, Manager of the e-Discovery Services Team at NBCUniversal.

EDna Challenge Part 2

A few years ago, Craig Ball wrote a widely-read and influential paper called “E-Discovery for Everybody: The EDna Challenge.”  Craig asked a group of e-discovery experts how they recommended conducting e-discovery in a case involving a budget of only $1,000. Recognizing that e-discovery costs have increased exponentially, we’ve assembled an all-star panel to revisit the question for 2016 on a $5000 budget. You will learn proven and cost-effective methods as well as some creative new ways to do discovery on a shoestring budget.

Speakers: Tania Mabrey, Founder, Sagacity Technology Consultants LLC; Craig D. Ball, ESI Special Master, Computer Forensic Examiner and Attorney; Tom O’Connor, Senior ESI Consultant, Advanced Discovery.

The Living Dead of E-Discovery

Long after a case is dead and buried, the data often lives on, haunting its former owners. Too many of us keep data from old cases, which only raises costs and creates potentially dangerous security risks. For example, how do you delete data stored with outside counsel or in the cloud or on a third-party’s servers? ESI from old cases increases the risk of a data breach, particularly when the ESI contains PHI and PII. Our panel will address this vital but often ignored aspect of modern litigation.

Speakers: Rachel See, Lead Technology Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board; Cindy MacBean, Manager of Litigation Support Services at Watt Tieder law firm in McLean; Alex Ponce de Leon, Discovery Counsel, Google, Inc.; Chris Dix, Attorney, Smith Hulsey & Busey.

12:00 – 1:15 PM:

ACEDS Awards Luncheon

Honoring Craig Ball of Craig D. Ball, P.C., Allison Brecher of Marsh and McLennan, Sheila Grela of Kennedy and Souza and Kim Taylor of Ipro.

1:15 – 2:15 PM:

The Crystal “Ball”: A Look Into the Future of E-Discovery

Craig Ball will look out into the future and lay out a roadmap for the ACEDS community to contribute to justice and efficiency. Craig is known as a speaker who pulls no punches. Expect an incisive talk spanning forensics, the cloud, legal ethics and creative ways to solve disputes involving technology in the legal system and what you can do to stay competent in EDiscovery as the landscape continuously changes.

Speaker: Craig D. Ball, ESI Special Master, Computer Forensic Examiner and Attorney.

2:45 – 3:45 PM:

Metrics That Matter

The Six Sigma for E-Discovery session will present an overview of how e-discovery professionals can use Six Sigma to improve to quality and efficiency of their processes. Topics will include a discussion on collecting and using metrics, along with a briefing on basic statistical terms. Attendees will also be introduced to Six Sigma based team management tools that support the effective (and ethical) management of e-discovery projects, including, communication protocols, process mapping, and assessing the costs of poor quality.

Speakers: Scott M. Cohen, Director of E-Discovery & Information Governance, Winston & Strawn LLP; Kimberly Williams, Founder and CEO, RedShift Legal, Inc.

Avoiding Sanctions in 2016

With the new Rule 37(e), the Federal Rules now reserve the most severe sanctions only for cases in which one party destroys or withholds evidence with an intent to deprive the other party. In theory, this means that means that it will be harder for parties to be sanctioned for a failure to preserve evidence, provided good faith efforts were made. Of course, reality is always more complicated. Find out how the law is evolving to meet this new standard and what is now considered a sanctionable offense in e-discovery. Current cases with a Rules focus will be explored.

Speakers: Alex Ponce de Leon, Discovery Counsel, Google, Inc.; Alvin F. Lindsay, CEDS, Partner, Hogan Lovells, Miami; Hon. Xavier Rodriguez, US District Judge, US District Court, Western District of Texas.

Master Class: Interviewing in eDiscovery

Ever wished you could be a fly on the wall for a real interview in a law firm or eDiscovery vendor? Now is your chance! TRU Staffing Partners’ founder and CEO, Jared Coseglia, will be teaching a one-of-a-kind Master Class on “Interviewing in eDiscovery.” This interactive session will feature mock interviews with actual professionals in the industry intermingled with coaching from one of the foremost global leaders in legal technology career representation and staffing. The event will include a variety of interviews including an eDiscovery project manager, a technical litigation support analyst, and an eDiscovery consultant in a theatrical environment for all to observe and ask questions. Attendees will gain valuable insight on how to ask the right questions (as potential employer and employee), how to position yourself for the right role, how to better prepare for the interview, how to talk about compensation, and more.

Speakers: James Bekier, Director of Litigation Services for Baker Hostetler; Jared M. Coseglia, Founder & CEO, TRU Staffing Partners; Philip Favro, Consultant, Discovery & Information Governance, Driven, Inc.

ProBono: Planning, Strategies and Implementations

We all want to use our talents to give back to the world, but often don’t know how. This ACEDS webinar will tell you how to find pro bono legal work that makes you happy while making the world a little better. Pro bono organizations need all kinds of help- training, co-counsel work, as well as goods and services. Our presenters will tell you how to figure out where your natural talents are and how to integrate pro bono work with your life and career so that it is a not burden, but a joy.

Speakers: Suzanne Clark, Attorney, eDiCT, LLC; Tom O’Connor, Senior ESI Consultant, Advanced Discovery.

Hope to see you there!

So, what do you think?  Did you attend ACEDS this year?  If so, what did you think of the conference?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.