Trends

Notes on trends in e-discovery, data privacy, and the use of technology to enhance the practice of law

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CategoriesDateEntries
Discovery09/01/2020In the EDRM Above the Fold Headline News, the work for the week is upgrade - as in an upgraded EDRM website. Also mentioned are upcoming EDRM events, a Job Search Workshop, and the EDRM Hub.
E-Discovery08/31/2020The EDRM website has a new look and new capabilities, including the EDRM Wiki.
E-Discovery08/31/2020Here are Some Disruptive Stats in Discovery: eDiscovery Trends
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
Privacy08/31/2020The California legislature passed Assembly Bill 1281, which extends the CCPA’s business-to-business and employee exemptions by one year until January 1, 2022, reported David Strauss of Husch Blackwell. The bill moves to the California Governor’s office.
Cybersecurity08/31/2020The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released updated chapters to its Cyber Essentials Toolkits, reported Darren Abernethy of Greenberg Traurig.
Enhancing Practice08/31/2020For new lawyers seeking work in law firms and legal department, fluency with legal tech gives them an edge, reported Rhys Dipshan of Legaltech News. While firms do not expect students coming out of law school to know e-discovery or other platforms in depth, they are looking for new lawyers who can quickly come up to speed with such tools.
Enhancing Practice08/31/2020Didn't attend ILTA>ON last week? Want a veteran conference-goers' take on the show? If so, go the the Above the Law post where Bob Ambrogi of LawSites shared his thoughts about the event.
Enhancing Practice08/28/2020Arizona's Supreme Court voted unanimously to eliminate its ethics rule barring nonlawyers from having an economic interest in a law firm or participating in fee sharing, reported Lyle Moran of the ABA Journal, making it the second state in recent weeks to approve opening the door to non lawyer ownership or investment in law firms as a means of expanding access to justice. The court also approved a modification to the licensure process that will allow nonlawyers called "Legal Paraprofessionals" to provide limited legal services to the public, including being able to go into court with their clients.
Enhancing Practice08/27/2020Australia's Flinders University is launching a six-month online course to teach lawyers how to code, open to practitioners around the world, reported Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer.
Privacy08/27/2020In a turnaround, the new Brazilian data protection law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais or “LGPD”) now will come into effect when the President signs the bill within 15 days of receiving it from Congress, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth.
Privacy08/27/2020TrustArc published its CCPA Readiness Market Report 2020, in which the company reported that as of May 2020, 53% of US-based companies either had not started or still were in the planning stages of CCPA compliance efforts.
Privacy08/27/2020Hours after the Brazilian Senate rejected a delay of the new Brazilian data protection law, the Brazilian Presidency published Decree 10.474/2020, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth. The decree, approving the regulatory structure of the new Brazilian data protection authority (the “ANPD”) and establishing its roles, will apply after the President-Director of the ANPD is officially appointed through publication in the Official Journal.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/27/2020Innovative Discovery announced it has completed the annual audit for the FedRAMP moderate Cloud Service Provider reauthorization for 2020-2021 and has added iCONECT, a digital document review platform, to its FedRAMP-authorized cloud environment.
Enhancing Practice08/27/2020The COVID-19 pandemic has driven at least one positive outcome, wrote Josh Becker of LexisNexis in a LawSites guest column: the legal industry has been innovating in response to remote work mandates rapidly and effectively with results seen as very positive by GCs of large corporations and big law partners.
E-Discovery08/27/2020Microsoft recently added an automated transcription feature to its online Word, Transcribe in Word, noted Greg Buckles of eDiscovery Journal in a post where he gave an overview of the function and discussed potential preservation, collection, and review issues arising from the new capability.
E-Discovery08/27/2020Reporting on the ILTA>ON “Disruption in E-Discovery” panel, Victoria Hudgins of Legaltech News highlighted remote work at every stage of the eDiscovery process, the challenges posed by newly-popular tools such as Microsoft Teams that do not lend themselves to a traditional convert-to-TIFF approach, and the handling of private data.
E-Discovery08/26/2020The Sedona Conference sent a reminder that the deadline to apply for three new Working Group 1 Brainstorming Groups is Monday, August 31. The groups are:
  • Brainstorming Group on Discovery and Preservation of Data from the Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Brainstorming Group on Improving the Privilege Log Process
  • Brainstorming Group on Discovery Sanctions
Announcements, E-Discovery08/26/2020Relativity announced its has begun its inaugural Relativity Fellows program, with a class of 12 selected from more than 320 applicants based in Chicago.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/26/2020Clawbacks, Redactions, and Formats…Oh My! at ILTA-ON Today: eDiscovery Best Practices
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
Enhancing Practice08/26/2020Having completed a 10-day virtual arbitration via Zoom, Nicole Gueron, Melissa Holsinger, Allison Pincus, and Muriel Leung of Clarick Gueron Reisbaum offered 10 lessons on how to conduct a remote hearing effectively:
  • It worked.
  • Make sure the fundamental tech works right and you know how to use it.
  • Skip the virtual backgrounds.
  • You still need hard copy for some exhibits.
  • Hide your self view - you will only get distracted watching yourself.
  • Prep witnesses using the same tech you plant to use live.
  • Place more emphasis than ever on effective team communication.
  • Take breaks from the screen.
  • Find the benefits of going virtual and capitalize on them.
  • Remember that trials are a team sport and run them that way, even remotely.
Privacy08/26/2020Privacy company Ethyca released its Q3 2020 C-Level Privacy Survey indicating that 74% of companies have plans to spend more on privacy in the coming year, reported Frank Ready of Legaltech News. 58% of respondents worried about facing penalties and 76% believe privacy issues will impact a potential customer’s willingness to do business with a company.
Enhancing Practice08/25/2020Bob Ambrogi looked at CampaignTester, emotion-spotting software that analyses facial expressions of up to 100 people in real-time, and contemplated uses such as for evaluating how convincing and credible witnesses might be.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/25/2020EDRM Headline News
Source: EDRM
Enhancing Practice08/25/2020Legal publisher Fastcase named the winners of its 2020 Fastcase 50 award, which honors 50 individuals who are judged to be the year’s “smartest, most courageous, innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law”, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/25/2020The Sedona Conference announced publication of a Second Public Comment Version of The Sedona Conference Commentary on Rule 45 Subpoenas to Non-Parties, Second Edition. Comments should be submitted by Sep. 25.
Enhancing Practice08/25/2020In a guest column in LawSites, Leigh Vickery of Level 2 Legal Solutions offered thoughts on how Utah might make good use of the two-year regulatory sandbox it recently authorized.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/25/2020Relativity announced its agenda for Relativity Fest 2020, with more than 100 live sessions, on-demand content, and hands-on exercises.
Enhancing Practice08/25/2020Part of the two-year access-to-justice pilot program recently establshed by the Utah Supreme Court in Standing Order No. 15 provides for a new nine-member Office of Legal Services Innovation, reported Victoria Hudgins of The American Lawyer. Operating under the direct auspices of the Utah Supreme Court, the Innovation Office will establish and administer a pilot legal regulatory sandbox through which traditional and nontraditional providers may be approved to offer nontraditional legal services to the public using options not previously permitted. The 18-page Standing Order goes on to discuss various aspects of the Innovation Office including its composition, the scope of its authority, the regulatory objective driving creating of the Office and the regulatory principles that will guide the Office. The Order also addresses what the sandbox is meant to achieve and how it is to function.
Privacy08/25/2020The Data Protection Supervisory Authority for the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, one of Germany's 17 data protection supervisory authorities, issued post-Schrems II substantive guidance on how to conduct the necessary analysis and risk assessment for cross-border data transfers, reported Christian Schröder, Shannon Yavorsky, Dennis Schmidt and Yumiko Olsen of Orrick in a post that summaries the new guidance.
Privacy08/25/2020Poland’s data protection authority, the UODO, offered guidance on email monitoring in the workplace, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/25/2020Labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips has partnered with Blue J Legal Inc. to bring the Toronto legal tech company’s AI-powered technology, which predicts court outcomes in the employment law arena, to the United States, reported Lyle Moran in the ABA Journal.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice08/25/2020Zach Warren of Law.com talked with Jared Coseglia of TRU Staffing Partners about the changing legal tech job market and the growth in ALSP opportunities. To support this, Jared pointed to two sets of jobs numbers his firm has compiled:
  • 2013: 60% law firms, 30% ALSPs, 10% corporations
  • 2019: 65% ALSPs, 30% law firms, 5% corporations
E-Discovery08/25/2020E-discovery work continues to move in-house, wrote Mike Quartararo of ACEDS. According to a recent reported produced by Exterro and ACEDS, 50% of legal departments now feature an on-site e-discovery team.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/24/2020EDRM announced its virtual ExpoCom 2021, set for February 1-3, 2021 with expert presenters, technology expo, EDRM project workshops, and networking.
E-Discovery, People08/24/2020Dean Brown, CEO of Ipro Tech, was profiled by Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today in a three posts, Part One, Part Two, and Part 3.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/24/2020 iManage announced the acquisition of legal transaction management company Closing Folders, reported Victoria Hudgins of Legaltech News.
08/24/2020Zach Warren of Legaltech News reported on the biggest product press releases and upgrades that came to his inbox leading up to ILTA>ON, looking at announcements from Aderant, Agiloft, Avvo, BigHand, Factor, FileTrail, iManage, Intapp, Kira Systems, Litera, NetDocuments, SimplyAgree, TitanFile, and Thomson Reuters.
Enhancing Practice08/21/2020Litera announced the acquisition of cloud-based litigation platform Allegory Law, a subsidiary of Integreon, adding case management to its list of capabilities, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites.
E-Discovery08/21/2020COVID-19 is changing e-discovery in at least 5 ways, reported Rhys Dipshan of Legaltech News
E-Discovery, Profiles08/21/2020Wendell Jisa, CEO of Reveal, and Jay Leib, the new EVP of Innovation and Strategy of Reveal, were profiled by Clinton Sanko of Baker Donelson.
Enhancing Practice08/21/2020Remote depositions are likely here to stay for two sets of reasons, opined Darren Goldman of Becker & Poliakoff PA. Technological challenges have been addressed, for the most part: screen-sharing has made it possible to work effectively with exhibits, even remotely, breakout rooms allow for side discussions, and video and audio can be recorded and synced. And costs also are lower, a sure attraction to clients.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice08/20/2020The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) published a draft report, Four Principles of Explainable Artificial Intelligence, which sets forth four proposed principles regarding the “explainability” of decisions made by Artificial Intelligence systems, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth. The four principles are:
  • Explanation: Systems deliver accompanying evidence or reason(s) for all outputs.
  • Meaningful: Systems provide explanations that are understandable to individual users.
  • Explanation Accuracy: The explanation correctly reflects the system’s process for generating the output.
  • Knowledge Limits: The system only operates under conditions for which it was designed or when the system reaches a sufficient confidence in its output.
Enhancing Practice08/20/2020The Working Group on LegalTech Adoption in International Arbitration published the Protocol for Online Case Management in International Arbitration, reported Kushal Gandhi of CMS, one of the working group's members.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice08/20/2020Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today offered a preview of the upcoming ILTA>ON virtual conference, which will run from Mon. Aug. 24 through Fri. Aug. 28:
  • Monday: Free day. Leadership and professional development topic; live keynote; transformative project of the year award nominees will present their projects.
  • Tuesday: Training/User Support, Data Science Track/ILTA, Knowledge Management, Legal Service Delivery and Law Firm/Client Relations.
  • Wednesday: Litigation Support, IT Operations, Office 365, Marketing.
  • Thursday: Tech Adoption/Artificial Intelligence, Applications, Finance (AM)/Info Governance (PM).
  • Friday: #CreatingTheFuture Together (2 tracks), Business & Legal Process Improvements.
Enhancing Practice08/20/2020The legal technology newsletter TechnoLawyer published its picks for the top products of the year, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, as it has done for almost every year since 2011. The winners (none of them e-discovery tools, by the way), were:
  1. TrialLine, software for creating timelines for litigation and other legal uses.
  2. Zola Suite, a practice management platform.
  3. Word LX, a document creation add-in for Microsoft Word.
  4. Tracers, for searching public records.
  5. CourtLink, for searching court records.
  6. Lawyaw, cloud-based document assembly software.
  7. Zola CRM, a CRM product that can be used on its own or as an add-on to Zola Suite.
  8. Panoramic, a legal workflow management product.
  9. Actionstep Express, a cloud practice management system.
  10. PCLaw Go, a native mobile app for PCLaw users.
Enhancing Practice08/20/2020Law firms' alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) are banking on access to attorney expertise over price, reported Victoria Hudgins of Legaltech News, and some corporate legal departments appear to agree.
Enhancing Practice08/20/2020Virtual jury trials are neither wanted nor happening, reported Angela Morris of Legaltech News. 57% of almost 2,800 lawyers surveyed in June said they were not open to virtual jury trials, 24% said maybe, and only 19% said yes; and none seems to have taken place yet.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/20/2020Ricoh Canada announced it has become a RelativityOne Approved Data Migration Partner, one of only seven companies to hold this level of partnership.
E-Discovery08/20/2020In a post prompted by a story reported by Law.com about faked cell phone evidence, Sharon Nelson of of Sensei Enterprises offered advice on how to address potentially manipulated cell phone data.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/19/2020Thomson Reuters introduced Quick Check Judicial, a new Westlaw Edge feature within Quick Check, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites. With Quick Check Judicial, a judge can upload multiple briefs from a single matter and compare them against each other, seeing all the cases cited by both parties in common, all the cases cited by only one party or the other, and relevant cases cited by neither party.
Privacy08/19/2020The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued a draft Data Security Law (DSL) for public comment, reported Hui Xu, Gail E. Crawford, Jennifer C. Archie, Kieran Donovan, and Aster Y. Lin of Lathan & Watkins.
Privacy08/19/2020Japan passed amendments to its data privacy law, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (“APPI”), reported Scott Warren and Maika Kawaguchi of Squire Patton Boggs, that will results in stricter controls over transfers of personal information from Japan to third countries.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/19/2020E-discovery software company Venio Systems announced a majority investment from Software Growth Partners (SGP).
Enhancing Practice08/19/2020A recent Illinois state court bench trial, conducted virtually, went better than expected, reported Lyle Moran in the ABA Journal's Legal Rebels section. While there were some technical challenges, exhibits were screen-shared with witnesses, lawyers conducted cross examinations from their offices, and the the judge presided from him home.
Announcements, E-Discovery, Information Governance, Privacy08/18/2020The Sedona Conference announced that Volume 21 of The Sedona Conference Journal (684 pages long) is now available for free download from The Sedona Conference publications webpage.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/18/2020EDRM Headline News
Source: EDRM
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/18/2020Thomson Reuters announced an upgraded version of HighQ, its enterprise collaboration and file-sharing platform for the legal industry, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/18/2020Litigation support companies Innovative Litigation and iNSERViO3 announced they will begin operating as one brand under a new name, Array.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/18/2020ACEDS announced it has partnered with Relativity to offer structured e-discovery training for the Relativity Fellows program, with ACEDS providing training to program participants and speakers for the program's Fellows Forums.
Enhancing Practice, People08/18/2020Brian Kuhn, Vice President & General Manager, Digital Strategy & Solutions at Elevate, talked with Richard Tromans on Artificial Lawyer TV.
E-Discovery, People08/17/2020Michael Sarlo, Partner and Senior Executive Vice President of eDiscovery of Digital Forensics for HaystackID, was profiled by Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today in three posts: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
Enhancing Practice, People08/17/2020California attorney Erin Levine, creator of the do-it-yourself divorce platform Hello Divorce and 2020 recipient of the James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering, joined Bob Ambrogi on LawNext to share her story as well as that of Hello Divorce.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice08/17/2020"Explainable AI" offers a viable way to solve the artificial intelligence black box problem, according to an article published on Lawtomated.
Enhancing Practice, People08/17/2020Lucy Bassli, founder and principal of InnoLegal Services, was profiled by Zach Warren of Legaltech News, who talked with her about her background and ALSPs.
E-Discovery08/16/2020Rob Robinson of Complex Discovery published the results of his Fall 2020 Predictive Coding Technologies and Protocols Survey.
E-Discovery08/15/2020In a post about self-collection, Chris Dale of the eDisclosure Information Project pointed out some of the more subtle challenges with making self-collection work well, regardless of jurisdiction.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/14/2020Three New E-discovery Case Law Developments So Far in 2020
Source: Legaltech News
Author: Philip Favro (Driven)
Privacy08/14/2020The California Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”) approved the final regulations issued under the CCPA and filed them with the California Secretary of State, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth. The regulations went into effect immediately.
Enhancing Practice08/14/2020Chris Fowler of BT and Jon Pedersen of Digital Legal Exchange, as current and past general counsel shared ideas about how to begin and sustain a legal department's litigation transformation.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/13/2020Court Denies Plaintiff’s Sanctions Motion When Her Expert Found No Files Were Deleted: eDiscovery Case Week
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/13/2020Thomson Reuters announced the acquisition of CaseLines, a cloud-based court document and evidence management platform, reported Zach Warren of Legaltech News.
Enhancing Practice08/13/2020The Utah Supreme Court voted unanimously to authorize a two-year pilot program to test pioneering changes to the practice of law and changes designed to address the access-to-justice crisis in America, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites. The changes are meant to enable individuals and entities to explore creative ways to safely allow lawyers and non-lawyers to practice law and to reduce constraints on how lawyers market and promote their services.
Announcements, Privacy08/13/2020The Massachusetts Attorney announced the creation of the Data Privacy and Security Division to protect consumers from the surge of threats to the privacy and security of their data.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/13/2020ESI Analyst announced a new channel partnership with Complete Legal, a Kansas City, Missouri-based eDiscovery provider.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/12/2020Exterro announced a call for sponsors for E-Discovery Day 2020, which this year will be December 3.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/12/2020Court Grants Part of Plaintiff’s Motion, But Won’t Go “Where Angels Fear to Tread” on Search Terms: eDiscovery Case Week
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
E-Discovery08/12/2020Self-collection is not only discouraged but a possible ethical violation, reported David Horrigan of Relativity, examining a decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. M1 5100 Corp., d/b/a Jumbo Supermarket, Inc., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117243 (S.D. Fla. July 2, 2020).
Enhancing Practice08/12/2020ALSPs are delivering extensive and appreciated data metrics to corporate legal departments, but delivering those metrics has not yet provided ALSPs with a competitive advantage over law firms not put law firms under pressure to offer up similar metrics, reported Frank Ready of Legaltech News.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/12/2020ILTA announced the nine ILTA>ON 2020 Scholarship Recipients:
  • Ann Halkett (Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP) - Cheryl Disch Women in Technology
  • Cathleen Nuxoll (Gray, Ritter & Graham P.C.) - Small Firm
  • Chris Cummings - Networking
  • Christopher Hockey (Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC) - Rising Star
  • Holly Riccio (California Judicial Center Library) - Government, Law School & Non-Profit
  • Judy Kim-Park (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP) - Diversity & Inclusion
  • Mariana Figueirêdo (Rocha, Marinho E Sales Advogados) - Browning Marean Litigation Support
  • Rachel Shields Williams (Sidley Austin) - Rising Star
  • Richard Lourens (Bayer) - Veteran
Enhancing Practice08/12/2020Two types of AI tools - machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) - are becoming more commonly used by legal departments for contract review and negotiation, contract performance and analytics, litigation prediction and analytics, and legal research, and AI also is being used by companies more generally in recruiting and hiring, wrote David L. McCombs, Raghav Bajaj, Dina Blikshteyn, Jonathan Bowser, Eugene Goryunov, and Angela Oliver of Haynes and Boone.
Enhancing Practice08/12/2020While GPT-3 has intriguing potential, it also has inherent limitations, wrote Javid Lakha of Legatics. It cannot engage in logical reasoning or learn from its past interactions, he argued, restricting its potential application to the legal industry to tasks that require prediction and even then it faces challenges. Nonetheless, the author concluded that GPT-3 represents an important step on the path towards artificial expert intelligence in text-heavy domains such as the legal industry.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/11/2020E-discovery platform provider Reveal announced the acquisition of NexLP, a provider of artificial intelligence software to the legal industry, reported Zach Warren of Legaltech News.
Announcements, Privacy08/11/2020The Sedona Conference and its Working Group 7 (“Sedona Canada”) announced publication of the final, post-public-comment version of The Sedona Canada Commentary on Privacy and Information Security for Legal Service Providers: Principles and Guidelines.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/11/2020EDRM Headline News
Source: EDRM
Announcements, E-Discovery08/11/2020ProSearch announced the addition of Enriched Active Learning, a TAR tool, to its menu of tools and technology solutions for discovery review.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/11/2020Cost recovery solutions provider nQueue and cloud-based client service automation platform Zebraworks announced they would merge, reported Victoria Hudgins of Legaltech News, and will form a new, independent, private company called nQueue Zebraworks, Inc.
Privacy08/11/2020The U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the European Commissioner for Justice issued a joint statement on Privacy Shield III, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild. According to the press statement, the two organizations have initiated discussions to evaluate the potential for an enhanced EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework to comply with the July 16 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Schrems II case.
Privacy08/11/2020The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) has put together a CCPA Amendment Tracker, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild. Last updated July 30, the tracker shows 20 amendments that are live/stalled in committee (5), signed by governor (7), or presumed dead or unrelated (8).
Privacy08/11/2020With A European strategy for data, published earlier this year, the European Commission is making radical shift from protecting individual privacy to promoting data sharing as a civic duty, in the process becoming an active player in facilitating the use and monetization of its citizens’ personal data, wrote Anna Artyushina in MIT Technology Review.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/10/2020American Legal Technology announced the finalists for its inaugural American Legal Technology Awards, reported Bob Ambrogi of Law Sites and Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer.
Additional Articles, Cybersecurity08/10/2020The Impact of Deep Learning on Anomaly Detection
Source: Legaltech News
Authors: Xuning (Mike) Tang and Yihua Astle (BRG)
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/10/2020Court Orders Cost-Shifting for 'Needlessly Overbroad' Discovery
Source: Legaltech News
Authors: H. Christopher Boehning and Daniel J. Toal (Paul Weiss)
E-Discovery08/10/2020Danny Chan of Ricoh shared his take on Relativity's new user interface, Aero UI, due to be released on August 29.
Privacy08/07/2020The FTC plans to “continue to hold companies accountable for their privacy commitments, including privacy promises made under the Privacy Shield”, despite the Schrems II decision invalidating the Privacy Shield framework, reported Buckley LLP.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/06/2020ROSS Intelligence released an extension for the Chrome web browser that lets one highlight text anywhere online and search for related legal authority, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/06/2020Relativity announced that voting has opened for its Innovation Awards 2020. There are 12 finalists in four categories open to community voting: Attorney Tech Evangelist, Corporate Tech Evangelist, Lit Support All-Star, and Stellar Women in e-Discovery.
Enhancing Practice08/06/2020Thomson Reuters published its 2020 State of Corporate Law Departments, which looks at three strategic priorities: improving functional effectiveness, increasing efficiency, and safeguarding the company.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice08/06/2020Five ways corporate legal departments are evaluating their relationships with ALSPs, reported Frank Ready of Legaltech News, are:
Enhancing Practice08/06/2020Analyzing the results of Altman Weil's Law Firms in Transition 2020 flash survey, which reports on large law firm trends, in the second of two posts Ron Friedmann examined alternative staffing, efficiency initiatives, and pricing.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/06/2020Ayfie announced it has listed its shared for public trading on the the Oslo Stock Exchange's Merkur Market, a marketplace for small and medium sized companies, reported Caroline Hill of Legal IT Insider.
Enhancing Practice08/05/2020California attorney Erin Levine has begun to take her award-winning do-it-yourself divorce platform Hello Divorce nation-wide, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, initially expanding from California into Colorado and then Utah and Texas.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/05/2020How to Unravel the Story in Your Legal Matters with Cooperative Technology
Source: Relativity
Author: Sam Bock
Announcements, E-Discovery08/05/2020Xact Data Discovery (XDD) announced the acquisition of UK-based e-discovery services provider Anexsys Group Limited.
Enhancing Practice08/05/2020ALSPs continue to be threat to than partner with law firms, reported Frank Ready of Legaltech News. One way to address that threat, reported Dan Packel, also of Legaltech News, is for law firms to learn how to collaborate with ALSPs.
E-Discovery08/05/2020Herb Roitblat of Mimecast has written a paper, Is there something I’m missing? Topic Modeling in eDiscovery, noted Rob Robinson of Complex Discovery, in which Herb argues that discovery should be based on identifying the relevant facts of a case rather than on identifying all the documents containing those relevant facts.
Enhancing Practice08/05/2020Zach Warren of Legaltech News looked into what is meant by the phrase "New Law": a marketing phrase? Something you only know when you see it? Strategic positioning? The bottom line: it appears there is not yet a consensus.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/05/2020Lessons Learned: Destroying Relevant Evidence Can Be Catastrophic in Litigation
Source: Legaltech News
Authors: Michael W. Mitchell and Edward Roche (Smith Anderson)
Enhancing Practice08/05/2020To get a sense of what GPT-3 can (and cannot) do, look at Legaltech is "full of hype", says GPT-3. The article was written entirely by GPT-3 and published by Genie AI.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/04/2020HaystackID and NightOwl Global announced the combining of the companies as part of a merger facilitated by majority investor market private equity firm, Quad-C Management, Inc. The combined company will operate under the HaystackID brand, as noted in the HaystackID Merger FAQs.
E-Discovery08/04/2020Stacey Solliday of Relativity discussed and displayed navigational changes coming this month with the rollout of Aero UI in Relativity One.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice08/04/2020ILTA announced the finalists for the 2020 Distinguished Peer Awards program. Winners will be announced throughout ILTA>ON (August 24 – 28, 2020).
Additional Articles, E-Discovery08/04/2020EDRM Headline News
Source: EDRM
E-Discovery, Privacy08/03/2020In the first of two Law Journal Newsletter articles, Jared Coseglia of TRU Staffing Partners discussed the state of the the e-discovery and data privacy job markets, pre and post COVID-10.
E-Discovery08/03/2020Ari Kaplan of Ari Kaplan Advisors reflected on e-discovery trends in a Law Journal Newsletter article. Based on recent interviews with 27 e-discovery decisions makers, Ari concluded that e-discovery is expanding, particularly in the use of analytics, the impact of AI, and challenges from complex data types' corporations and law firm are investing in software, training, data mapping, and automation; law departments continue to move e-discovery in-house; use of remote document review and cloud-based systems is growing and privacy is having its impact; and clients continue to want high-quality providers to work with.
Enhancing Practice08/03/2020EY Law published the results of a new survey it performed, Realizing the benefits of legal managed services, reported Victoria Hudgins of Legaltech News. Cornelius Grossman and Nicholas Bruch of EY added further thoughts in a Bloomberg Law article.
Enhancing Practice08/03/2020The most recent issue of The Practice, a publication from Harvard Law School's Center on the Legal Profession, contained six articles on remote courts:
Enhancing Practice08/03/2020Caroline Hill of Legal IT Insider summed up her discussions with a raft of senior legal technologists about the potential impact of GPT-3 on the legal sector: what GPT-3 is; who in the legal sector has their hands on it; it's potential relevance to the legal sector; issues of privacy, confidentiality, and bias; and finally whether it is hype or a game changer.
Announcements, E-Discovery08/03/2020Logikcull announced InHouse, a one-day, peer-led users conference for in-house leaders.
Enhancing Practice08/02/2020Analyzing the results of Altman Weil's Law Firms in Transition 2020 flash survey, which reports on large law firm trends, in the first of two posts Ron Friedmann concluded that firms see a new for change but acting on the recognition remains a big challenge but also noted that firms appear to change only as fast as clients actually want (versus what they say they want).
Enhancing Practice08/02/2020With virtual hearings rapidly becoming the norm, at least temporarily, consider updating the arbitration provisions in your contacts to take advantage of the benefits that Zoom and similar hearing can offer, suggested Henry Chalmers of Arnall Golden Gregory in a recent ABA article.
Enhancing Practice08/01/2020Not all litigation analytics products deliver accurate and comprehensive results on a variety of litigation-related matters, according to a recent study conducted by law librarians, wrote Sean La Roque-Doherty in the ABA Journal.
Enhancing Practice07/31/2020View Bob Ambrogi's video interview of Kristen Sonday, cofounder and COO of Paladin, a platform that helps legal teams run more efficient pro bono platforms while increasing access to justice.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice07/31/2020Mitratech, a provider of legal and compliance software, announced the acquisition of Tracker Corp, a provider of SaaS I-9, E-Verify, and immigration management solutions.
Privacy07/31/2020The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued two new sets of FAQs in light of Schrems II, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth, FAQs – EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Program Update and FAQs – Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield.
E-Discovery07/30/2020Registration for Relativity Fest 2020 has opened - this year all virtual and all free from September 21-23.
E-Discovery, Privacy07/30/2020In his 100th post for Relativity, David Horrigan highlighted memorable moment from his posts over the past five years, covering advice on social media, women and the law, the judges, and data privacy and protection.
Enhancing Practice07/30/2020A new language model called GPT-3 from OpenAI holds not just promise but risks, reported Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer. The promise: Helping with applications that automatically read and produce text. The challenges: Privacy, computing costs, bias, and probably lack of sophistication.
Enhancing Practice07/30/2020Every Friday at 3 pm ET, the Legaltech Week Friday roundtable of legaltech journalists convenes to hash out what they consider to be the week’s top stories and trends in legal technology and innovation, noted Bob Ambrogi of LawSites. You can register to attend as well as get past episodes as a podcast or on YouTube.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/30/2020Epiq announced it won the FY20 Top Microsoft 365 Compliance Partner for this year’s Microsoft US Modern Work and Security Partner Awards.
Privacy07/30/2020Norway's data processing authority, Datatilsynet, issued FAQs on Schrems II, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild.
Privacy07/30/2020The Bailiwick of Guernsey’s Office of Data Protection Authority stated its position on Schrems II, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild.
Enhancing Practice07/30/2020In a Legaltech News article, James Drimmer of U.S. Legal Support discussed remote depositions pros, cons, and lessons learned.
E-Discovery07/30/2020Although clearly crafted to motivate readers to send work to Disco, Cat Casey's post on e-discovery pricing "misconceptions" sets forth a useful set of issues to consider when trying to establish what to pay (or be paid) for e-discovery work.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice07/29/2020Ropes & Gray announced the launch of a new consulting service, R&G Insights Lab, focused on analytics and behavioral science.
E-Discovery07/29/2020Valora Technologies added 10 new case studies to its list of ways auto classification can be used to address information governance, records management, legal, e-discovery, and regulatory challenges.
E-Discovery07/29/2020Addressing remote document review, Epiq enumerated five hurdles and three benefits and gave an overview of the results of a proprietary survey where clients and reviewers said remote document review met or exceeded their expectations and were open to using remote document review as a permanent solution.
E-Discovery07/29/2020Privilege logs are all about the description, wrote Kelly Twigger of eDiscovery Assistant. Noting that in the first 7 months of 2020 there already have been at least 88 decisions where parties disagreed over the whether documents on privilege logs should be there or were adequately represented or sought in camera review, Kelly examined a recent case where the judge denied an in camera review request.
Enhancing Practice07/29/2020Artificial Lawyer TV – "Are US Law Firms Really Innovating?"
Source: Artificial Lawyer
Author: Richard Troman
Enhancing Practice07/29/2020OpenAI recently unveiled GPT-3, a a new type of pretrained language model capable of generating natural language text and computer code with the most minimal of inputs, reported Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer, who added his take on GPT-3 and more generally the trend toward using language models to accomplish legal tasks.
Privacy07/29/2020Germany's data protection authority, Datenschutzkonferenz (DSK), issued its guidance on Schrems II, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild. Most notably, transfer of personal data to the US based on Privacy Shield is not permitted and must be discontinued immediately, and standard contractual clauses may continue to be used with potentially with limitations.
E-Discovery07/29/2020New Jersey Rule of Evidence (N.J.R.E.) 530 (Waiver of Privilege by Contract or Previous Disclosure) has been amended effective July 1, 2020 to provide a "safe harbor" to clients and attorneys who inadvertently disclose information protected by the attorney-client privilege or work-product doctrine, reported Brett M. Anders and Michael J. Nesse of Jackson Lewis in a National Law Review article.
Cybersecurity, Privacy07/29/2020Chief legal officers, general counsel, and legal departments as a whole are getting much more involved in how companies address data privacy and cybersecurity, according to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2020 State of Cybersecurity Report, wrote Dan Clark of Corporate Counsel.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/28/2020Work Smarter, Not Harder: How To Automate E-Discovery Processing
Source: Above the Law
Author: Mike Quartararo (ACEDS)
E-Discovery, Privacy07/28/2020Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today highlighted BONG!, a daily email blast from Jonathan Maas of The Maas Consulting Group that ranges across e-discovery (called e-disclosure in the UK), data privacy, and a variety of other topics.
Enhancing Practice07/28/2020According to a study conducted by Casetext, its Compose brief drafting tool delivered major time savings, reported Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer, cutting the average time to draft a motion to dismiss from 6 hours and 55 minutes to 1 hour and 41 minutes. Richard cautioned that the study was conducted by Casetext on its own tool, but concluded that the general point is well made: the software helps lawyers do the same job faster.
Enhancing Practice07/28/2020Law firms, once famously hesitant to adopt technology, have been forced by COVID-19 to transform themselves overnight and many may not be go back to old ways, reported Jason Brennan of Luminance in a Legaltech News article.
Enhancing Practice07/28/2020Rob Robinson of Complex Discovery offered an overview of Gartner's recently published Hype Cycle for Legal and Compliance Technologies, 2020 research.
Privacy07/28/2020The UK’s Information Commissioner Office’s issued a revised statement on the Schrems II decision, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild. In the statement the ICO noted that with the CJEU's judgement, "[i]nternational data transfers, that are so vital for the global economy, suddenly became open to question" and cautioned that "this judgment has wider implications than just the invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield."
Privacy07/28/2020The New York State Senate approved a measure, S.8450C/A.10500C, that would protect the privacy of contact tracing data, keeping that information confidential and ensuring it be used only for tracing efforts, reported Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/27/2020BDO announced the launch of Athenagy, its proprietary business intelligence platform for legal professionals.
E-Discovery07/27/2020In a Legaltech News article, Mike Horoho and Anthony Kelly of FTI Consulting discussed how to use exploratory data analysis to perform more effective data analytics.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice07/27/2020Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today pointed out that ABA Resolution 112, adopted in August 2019, urges courts and lawyers to address artificial intelligence: "RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges courts and lawyers to address the emerging ethical and legal issues related to the usage of artificial Intelligence ('AI') in the practice of law including: (1) bias, explainability, and transparency of automated decisions made by AI; (2) ethical and beneficial usage of AI; and (3) controls and oversight of AI and the vendors that provide AI." Doug also discussed the slow adoption rates of AI for e-discovery.
Enhancing Practice07/27/2020Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer took a look at Gartner's Legal Tech Hype Curve analysis for 2020, offering his thoughts on text analytics, e-discovery software, blockchain, smart contracts, chatbots, legal spend management, and predictive analytics.
Enhancing Practice07/27/2020Victoria Hudgins and Phillip Bantz of Corporate Counsel discussed common criteria corporate legal departments and law firms consider with selecting alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), in particular ability to meet client quality expectations, price, technology, and scalability.
Enhancing Practice07/27/2020Ron Friedmann of Prism Legal offered his observations of and implications for the legal tech market, starting with a discussion about two early stage legal technology software companies. His bottom line: Software development remains risky for lawyers turned legal tech entrepreneurs, although easier and less expensive in the past; fortunately for those entrepreneurs, law firms have become more receptive to new software solutions; but eventual commercial success remains hard to predict.
Enhancing Practice, Privacy07/27/2020Clifford Chance Applied Solutions introduced Cross-Border Publisher: Data Protection, a subscription-based expert system that handles GDPR and local data privacy questions across 17 jurisdictions, reported Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer.
Privacy07/27/2020The Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services announced final revisions to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulation codified at 42 CFR Part 2, reported Kate Heinzelman and Megan Svedman of Sidley. The final rule changed the regulations in numerous ways, including relaxing some of the restrictions imposed on holders of Part 2 information.
Privacy07/27/2020Germany's top court ruled that the public's right to information can supersede an individual's right to be forgotten, reported Eva von Schaper of Legaltech News.
E-Discovery07/24/2020Price continues to be a key factor driving whom legal clients choose to meet their e-discovery needs and legal departments continue to insource more work than ever, according to Ari Kaplan's 6th annual E-Discovery Unfiltered: A Survey of Current Trends and Candid Perspectives report, wrote Rhys Dipshan of Legaltech News. For highlights, see the Ari Kaplan Advisors press release.
Privacy07/24/2020Ian C. Ballon, Kate Black, and Tyler J. Laurence of Greenberg Traurig discussed how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) regulates online services directed to children under 13 years of age, a heightened issue with changes brought on by COVID-19.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/23/2020Andrew Haslam and Legal IT Insider announced publication of eDisclosure Systems – Buyers Guide, 2020 Edition, which covers 111 suppliers and 75 products.
Cybersecurity07/23/2020The Sedona Conference has published the July 2020 final version of The Sedona Conference Commentary on Law Firm Data Security.
E-Discovery07/23/2020Need to Channel Surf? Check Out the eDiscovery Channel!: eDiscovery Trends
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
E-Discovery07/23/20204 Data Management Trends Shaping Corporate Litigation
Source: Relativity
Author: Jim Neath (Morae)
E-Discovery07/23/2020E-discovery software can be used for more than just e-discovery, as noted by Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises in a post about how Maura Grossman and Gordon Cormack are deploying their TAR tools to help medical researchers find the information they need to accelerate progress in the study and treatment of COVID-19.
E-Discovery07/23/2020Life After COVID 19: E-Discovery Considerations for Attorneys and Clients
Source: JD Supra
Author: Starling Underwood (Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton)
Enhancing Practice07/23/2020The Surveillance Technology Overside Project published a report, Virtual Justice, that raises privacy and due process concerns about courts conducting business remotely via video and teleconferences, noted Bob Ambrogi of LawSites.
Privacy07/23/2020The European Data Protection Board released an information note on Binding Corporate Rules applicable to groups of undertakings or enterprises that have the UK ICO as their competent supervisory authority, reported Yung Shin Van Der Sype, Paul Greaves, and Wim Nauwelaerts of Alston & Bird.
Privacy07/23/2020Japan amended its Data Privacy Act, reported Aki Tanaka of Littler. Effective within two years, the amendments expand data subject rights by relaxing requirements to make objections to data processing and to request data deletion and require data controllers to report data breaches to the government and data subject.
Privacy07/23/2020New Zealand's parliament approved a privacy bill that amends the Privacy Act 1993, reported Naomi Seddon of Littler. Effected on Dec. 1, 2020, the amendments expand breach reporting requirements, introduce restrictions on overseas disclosure of personal information, and apply to actions taken by overseas organizations carrying on business in New Zealand.
Privacy07/23/2020The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) published the first two reports from participants in the ICO's regulatory sandbox. The JISC and Heathrow Airport Ltd. reports mark the first steps towards achieving the aim of the sandbox, launched in Sep. 2019, which is to show that data protection can be combined with real world innovative solutions.
E-Discovery07/22/2020The Sedona Conference has published a public comment version of its Commentary on ESI Evidence & Admissibility, Second Edition. Comments should be submitted by Sept. 20.
E-Discovery07/22/2020Doug Austin of eDiscovery Daily has prepared a three-part series on discovery of "newer" types of ESI, on the Exterro website: Part 1 - social media; part 2 - mobile devices and messaging/collaboration apps; and part 3 - audio and video files, and the internet of things.
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice07/22/2020Valora has published a 10-page e-book on the basics of auto-classification covering what it is, file versus rich metadata, how auto-classification works, and practical ways to use it.
Enhancing Practice07/22/2020A Chicago Bar task force has proposed changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct that would permit lawyers to partner with non lawyers to provide legal tech solutions in Illinois, reported Sam Skolnik of Bloomberg Law.
Privacy07/22/2020Regulator reactions in the immediate aftermath of Schrems II have included a statement and updated guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, a call from German data protection commissioner Maja Smoltczy for Berlin-based companies to return EU data currently stored in the U.S. back to the EU, and a statement from the European Data Protection Supervisor that it will continue to strive for a coherent approach among supervisory authorities regarding international transfers, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth.
E-Discovery07/21/2020Doug Austin of eDiscovery Daily published a short primer on releasing legal holds, on the Ipro website.
E-Discovery07/21/2020Laura Clewley of Ricoh wrote about the challenges of trying to share content for review by sending PDFs or printing emails and offered seven topics to consider before moving in that direction.
E-Discovery07/21/2020Stellar Women in e-Discovery: Allyship with Altlaw
Source: Relativity
Author: Mary Rechtoris
Enhancing Practice07/21/2020In a Forbes article, Mark A. Cohen of Legal Mosaic discussed what recent Axiom, Deloitte, and UnitedLex announcements suggest about the future of the practice and business of law.
Privacy07/21/2020According to a survey by Akamai, companies have been struggling to comply with CCPA at least in part because they have been slow to automate their processes, reported Rhys Dipshan of Legaltech News. More results of the survey were discussed by Veronica Combs of TechRepublic.
Privacy07/21/2020Recent survey data from Akamai found that trust and communication amongst businesses and consumers have increased by almost 60% as a result of privacy regulations, wrote Akamai's Steve Winterfeld.
Privacy07/21/2020The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 has qualified for California's Nov. 2020 ballot, reported Shannon Yavorsky and Nicholas Farnsworth of Orrick. In their article they lay out the timeline for this legislation, which they describe as "CCPA 2.0".
Cybersecurity07/20/2020Data breaches dropped by 3% in the first half of 2020, noted Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises, citing a report from the Identify Theft Resource Center.
E-Discovery07/20/2020Craig Ball has published an updated version of his "Perfect Preservation Letter", reported Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today.
E-Discovery07/20/2020Court Orders Plaintiffs to Correct Production Deficiencies and Tie Replacement to Previous Production: eDiscovery Case Law
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
Enhancing Practice07/20/2020Andrea Alliston of Stikeman Elliott published an overview of document automation and how to get started with it.
Enhancing Practice07/20/2020OpenAI's language generator GPT-3 looks shockingly good, reported Will Douglas Heaven of MIT Technology Review, who described it as the largest and most powerful language model ever created.
Privacy07/20/2020The European Data Protection Board published a statement on the outcome of the Schrems II judgment, acknowledging that the Privacy Shield no longer is available as a data transfer mechanism, calling for EU and US authorities to create a replacement legal framework, and providing insights into how companies should approach standard contractual clauses moving forward, reported Wim Nauwelaerts and Paul Greaves of Alston & Bird.
E-Discovery07/17/2020After looking at 444 decisions where parties moved for sanctions, Kelly Twigger and her colleagues at eDiscovery Assistant shared a key observation: Many parties bringing these motions are wasting time and money and court resources on motions that are guaranteed to fail.
Enhancing Practice07/17/2020Virtual civil bench trial went better than lawyers expected and might even be more efficient than traditional trials, reported Alaina Lancaster of Legaltech News.
Privacy07/17/2020The first wave of CCPA litigation has begun, reported Alysa Zeltzer Hutnik, Paul A. Rosenthal, Tara Marciano, and William Pierotti of Kelley Drye.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/17/2020Evaluate Your eDiscovery Sanctions Motion Carefully Before Bringing It
Source: eDiscovery Assistant
Author: Kelly Twigger
Announcements, E-Discovery07/16/2020Xact Data Discovery (XDD) announced the launch of its new XDD-360 Technology Suite.
Privacy07/16/2020On July 16, 2020, in Schrems II, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the EU-US Privacy Shield program was invalid but at least for now at least partially upheld the use of standard contractual clauses. Quite a few law firms have commented on this. Here is a sampling:
Privacy07/16/2020The California AG has begun CCPA enforcement, reported Jeewon Serrato, Andreas Kaltsounis, and Stanton Burke of BakerHostetler.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice07/15/2020NetDocuments announced the introduction of NetKnowledge powered by BA Insight, designed to make all content stored in NetDocuments part of a customer’s enterprise search.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/14/2020EDRM Headline News
Source: EDRM
Authors: Mary Mack and Kaylee Walstad
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/14/2020Stellar Women in e-Discovery: Susan Wortzman
Source: Relativity
Author: Mary Rechtoris
Announcements, E-Discovery07/14/2020Morae Global Corporation and The Stephen James Partnership announced they have teamed up to provide e-discovery and document review in the UK legal market.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/14/2020Exterro announced that its Slack integration had been approves as a Slack App and the company had been included in the Slack E-Discovery Partner ecosystem.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/14/2020Xact Data Discovery (XDD) announced the acquisition of LightSpeed Legal, an eDiscovery services company based in Washington, DC.
Enhancing Practice07/14/2020Telecoms giant Vodafone has begun providing access to "legal services" for its 500,000 business customers through a partnership with Sparqa Legal, a web-based platform, reported Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer. Vodafone's business customers sign up to the Sparqa Legal platform and receive credit toward customisable legal contracts and documents.
Privacy07/14/2020The California Attorney General’s office sent its first set of CCPA enforcement letters on July 1, reported Malia Rogers and David Stauss of Husch Blackwell.
Privacy07/14/2020Hunton Andrews Kurth's Centre for Information Policy Leadership has prepared a paper, Data Subject Rights under the GDPR in a Global Data Driven and Connected World, that looks at how data subject rights should be applied.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/13/2020Aureus Tech Systems announced it has integrated its e-discovery platform with Microsoft Azure and Azure AI.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice07/13/2020Deloitte announced the launch of its Legal Business Services practice in the U.S., a suite of legal management consulting and technologically-enabled legal managed services for corporate legal departments designed to accelerate the transformation of the business of law.
See also The Talent in Deloitte's New Legal Business Practice Has ALSP Roots, Frank Ready, Legaltech News.
E-Discovery07/13/2020Court Orders Parties to Confer After Defendant Conducts Unsupervised Self Collection: eDiscovery Case Law
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
Enhancing Practice07/13/2020In an Above the Law article, Bob Ambrogi discussed four ways in which law librarians play an essential role when it comes to helping lawyers make effective use of technology: as gatekeepers, guides, ethicists, and interpreters.
Enhancing Practice07/13/2020Six international law firms have begun developing a protocol to help deliver a globally consistent approach to the use of online case management platforms for conducting disputes, reported Caroline Hill of Legal IT Insider.
Enhancing Practice07/13/2020Some law firm partners fear AI is damaging junior lawyers' skills, reported Hannah Roberts of Legal Week.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/10/2020Thought Leader Interview with John Wilson of HaystackID: eDiscovery Trends and Best Practices, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice, Privacy07/10/2020The Blickstein Group, Corporate Counsel Business Journal, and Exterro have published their 4th Annual Study of Effective Legal Spend Management, focused this year on legal operations (implement a comprehensive strategy), data privacy processes (ensure defensibility and compliance), and e-discovery activities (do more yourself to minimize spend).
Enhancing Practice07/10/2020Casetext and Gravity Legal are offering free access to their products to attorneys involved in civil rights matters, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites. Casetext is offering free access to its Compose brief automation for Title VII motions through the remainder of the summer. Gravity Legal will offer $50,000 of free credit card processing to firms that focus primarily on civil rights.
Privacy07/10/2020New Zealand has a new Privacy Bill set to go into effect on Dec. 1, 2020, replacing its Privacy Act 1993, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/09/2020Exterro announced enhancements to its Legal GRC Platform today with the launch of Exterro Policy Management, meant to offer legal defensibility and insight into organizational efforts to comply with company policies and applicable state and federal requirements.
E-Discovery07/09/2020Zach Warren of Legaltech published his interview with Ron Hedges and Ken Withers, senior editors of The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation: Resources for the Judiciary, Third Edition.
E-Discovery07/09/2020Phil Beckett of Alvarez & Marsal published a simple guide to e-disclosure (or e-discovery) in the UK. To get a sense of some of the differences between the UK and US systems, go to the "Disclosure Pilot Scheme" section of the article.
E-Discovery07/09/2020Interview: Jamie Berry of Integreon on how Relativity supports large document reviews
Source: eDisclosure Information Project
Author: Chris Dale
E-Discovery, Privacy07/09/2020The Sedona Conference published the public-comment version of its Commentary on the Enforceability in U.S. Courts of Orders and Judgments Entered under GDPR, reported Doug Austin of eDiscovery Daily.
Enhancing Practice07/09/2020Altman Weil recently published its 2020 Law Firms in Transition 87-page report, noted Casey Sullivan of Logikcull. The tone of the report is evident in the first sentence of the survey highlights section: "Law firms in general have not demonstrated the will to change their legal service delivery model to increase the value being delivered to clients."
Enhancing Practice07/09/2020As executive director of the nonprofit Immigrants Like Us, former Big Law attorney Jonathan Petts is using the no-code product Community Lawyer to expand access to legal services for low-income immigrants, reported Amy Guthrie of Legaltech News.
Enhancing Practice07/09/2020The Washington Supreme Court's Limited License Legal Technicians program, announced in 2012, has met its demise, reported Lyle Moran of the ABA Journal. Meant to permit licensing of nonlawyers to undertake certain legal tasks, the program was sensated by the Washington Supreme Court on June 4.
Enhancing Practice07/09/2020In the first of two Corporate Counsel articles, E. Leigh Dance (Global Counsel Leaders Circle) and Jon Pedersen (Digital Legal Exchange) summarized discussions of more than 80 global corporate legal and compliance leaders in six weeks of virtual roundtables. Part 1 focused on technology and digital advancement: digital as top of mind; the desire for higher-value work and increased efficiency; the benefits accruing from the singular focus required during the pandemic's early days; and the need for IT and digital skills and competencies.
Enhancing Practice07/09/2020Barak Cohen, Angela R. Jones, Zachary Chalett, and Karen O. Lisko of Perkins Coie published a short primer on remote depositions and other remote testimony.
Enhancing Practice07/09/2020In an Above the Law article, Nicole Black of MyCase listed some of the ways lawyers have been exploring and adopting technology over the past few months.
Privacy07/09/2020The Dubai International Financial Centre (“DIFC”) Data Protection Law No. 5 of 2020 became effective on July 1, with a COVID-driven three-month grace period, reported David Pang, Olivia R. Lee, and Jenna N. Rode of Hunton Andrews Kurth.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/08/2020Xact Data Discovery (XDD) announced the acquisition of RVM Enterprises, expanding XDD's presence in the New York and New Jersey corridor.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice07/08/2020EasyRogs announced the release of a system for automatically generating finished forms and responses to discovery requests, designed specifically for California civil practice.
Enhancing Practice07/08/2020A growing number of law firms are blurring the distinction between law firms and alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), according to Victoria Hudgins of Legaltech News, doing this by adopting cross-disciplinary technology and consultancy services unique to the ALSP market.
Announcements, E-Discovery07/07/2020Ipro announced the acquisition of NetGovern, culminating a strategic partnership announced in January and expanding Ipro's information archiving and governance capabilities.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice07/07/2020DocuSign announced the acquisition of Liveoak Technologies for $38M in an all-stock transaction, to leverage Liveoak's technology and expertise to accelerate the launch of DocuSign Notary, a remote online notarization capability.
E-Discovery07/07/2020Jonathan G. Hardin and Ryan Parietti of Perkins Coie published a short primer on the discoverability of virtual meetings.
E-Discovery07/07/2020For nearly as long as there has been e-discovery, companies in adjoining areas have tried to hop the fence into e-discovery's yard. Frank Ready of Legaltech News reported on the most recent group to try to cross that barrier, contract companies.
E-Discovery07/07/2020In a Law260 article, Jessica Brown and Collin James Vierra of Gibson Dunn addressed how companies using channel-based platforms such as Slack can manage the use of those platforms and the data to be well-positioned for when those platforms become subject to discovery.
E-Discovery, Privacy07/07/2020Ralph Nickl and Brian Evans of Canopy published a three-part series on nine differences between data breach and litigation reviews: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Enhancing Practice07/07/2020Chris Plauschinn of Ricoh ranked the level of security of six popular messaging platforms, from least secure to most: text messages, email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/06/2020How Lawyer Corey Lee E-Discovered Himself, And What He's Learned
Source: Legaltech News
Author: Raychel Lean
E-Discovery, Enhancing Practice07/06/2020In an ACEDS Blog post, Helen Geib of Hoover Hull Turner gave an overview explanation of lawyers' duty of competence in three areas: legal practice tech tools, data security, and e-discovery.
E-Discovery, Privacy07/06/2020In a Legaltech News article, Ryan Costello of ProSearch offered subsections for an e-discovery approach for responding to data subject access requests (DSARs).
Enhancing Practice07/06/2020An article published on the ABA's site contains an interview with Hugh Logue, author of the new book, “Automating Legal Services: Justice Through Technology”. In the book and interview, Logue argued that lawyers should automate mundane legal services to free attorneys to carry out the creative tasks they enjoy and clients value the most.
Enhancing Practice07/06/2020ICYMI: My Litera TV Interview with Legal Technologist and Innovator Dennis Kennedy
Source: LawSites
Author: Bob Ambrogi
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/02/2020Mind Your Ediscovery Gaps
Source: DISCO
Author: Cat Casey
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/02/2020The Expanding Role and Influence of the Modern Litigation Support or E-Discovery Manager - Ari Kaplan Interviews ACEDS Advisory Board Member Sonya Judkins
Source: ACEDS Blog
Author: Ari Kaplan
Additional Articles, Privacy07/02/2020The 4 Keys to Mastering Data Privacy
Source: Legaltech News
Author: Rebecca Perry (Exterro)
Announcements, E-Discovery07/02/2020George Jon announced it had chosen Dublin as home for its first international office.
Cybersecurity07/02/2020Verizon's 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report is available online and as a download. Weighing in at 119 pages, the report covers Verizon's analysis of 157,525 data breach incidents.
E-Discovery07/02/2020G2, a tech marketplace that maintains reviews of business technology, has a section of their website dedicated to e-discovery software. G2 lists and ranks software providers - 108 so far - and scores them in a G2 Grid. As with all such complications, this set of materials should be used with care and caution, at most as one more tool to help guide a buying decision and not as a substitute for independent assessment and evaluation.
Enhancing Practice07/02/2020Global Legal Tech Report has released reports covering Asia and New Zealand, wrote Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, following an earlier report on Australia and as part of a series of regional reports on legal tech worldwide that is to culminate in November.
Enhancing Practice07/02/2020Citing an article by Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises, Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that New York could soon join the two, Florida and North Carolina, that require technology training as part of a lawyer’s obligation to undergo continuing legal education. On June 13, the New York State Bar Association announced it had approved a report recommending amending the mandatory continuing legal education rule to require one credit in cybersecurity.
Enhancing Practice07/02/2020Craig Ball described how to up your Zoom game with the "weather map" technique.
Privacy07/02/2020On June 25, the California State Senate significantly amended California Assembly Bill 1281, reported Glenn A. Brown, Shalin Sood, and Lydia de la Torre of Squire Patton Boggs, removing proposed enhanced protections for the use of facial recognition technologies and focusing on extending by one year the B2B and employee exemptions provided for under the CCPA.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/01/2020The Unique Path to e-Discovery: One Engineer's True Story
Source: Relativity
Author: Kristy Esparza
Additional Articles, E-Discovery07/01/2020Recent Case Law Illustrates the Importance of Addressing BYOD in Your Organization
Source: Ipro
Author: Doug Austin (eDiscovery Today)
Announcements, E-Discovery07/01/2020Morae Global announced the acquisition of legal management consultancy Janders Dean, establishing a UK-based legal advisory practice group to complement the company's existing US-based advisory team.
Cybersecurity07/01/2020Kenya Parrish-Dixon of Empire Technologies Risk Management Group offered four sets of recommendations for securing data when working remotely: Assets, Antivirus and Additional Protocols; Reboot, Reboot and Reboot Some More; Too Many Passwords; and Zoom and Teams (but Primarily Zoom).
Enhancing Practice07/01/2020To mark its 300th episode, Litera TV has announced a new summer lineup of well-known legal tech experts who will join with programs of their own, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites.
Enhancing Practice07/01/2020The Australian government has rolled out an AI named Amica to help those getting divorced divide money and property and make appropriate parenting arrangements without hiring a lawyer, reported Nishit Raghuwanshi of Fossbytes Media.
Enhancing Practice07/01/2020FTI Consulting testifying expert A.J. Gravel offered insights on how experts and their attorney can best prepare for remote depositions. As one who has participated in remote depositions as an attorney and expert since the 1990s, I can vouch of the soundness of his recommendations.
Privacy07/01/2020More than 1/2 of technology companies' general counsel say that are unprepared for new privacy regulations, according to a survey by Ethyca and TechGC, reported Dan Clark of Legaltech News and The Global Legal Post.
E-Discovery07/01/2020In an ABA publication, Alex Nunn of the University of Arkansas School of Law explored two aspects of machine-generated evidence: recognizing how machine-generated evidence differs from testimony and other traditional evidence, and how best to evaluate machine-generated evidence at trial.
Additional Articles, E-Discovery06/30/2020Defendant Ordered to Produce Legal Hold After Deleting Electronic Copies of Emails Produced in Hard Copy: eDiscovery Case Law
Source: eDiscovery Today
Author: Doug Austin
Additional Articles, E-Discovery06/30/2020In It for the Long Haul: The Duty to Preserve Social Media Accounts Is Not Terminated Upon an Initial Production
Source: Gibbons E-Discovery Law Alert
Author: Briella A. Basso
Announcements, E-Discovery06/30/2020The Sedona Conference announced publication of The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation: Resources for the Judiciary, Third Edition (“Judicial Resources”), available for download. This is the first revision of the Judicial Resources since 2014.
Announcements, Privacy06/30/2020OneTrust announced the acquisition of Integris Software, adding to its data discovery and classification capabilities.
E-Discovery06/30/2020E-discovery software is being used in the battle against COVID-19, reported Bob Ambrogi of LawSites. In one case, Maura Grossman and Gordon Cormack have been using their Continuous Active Learning TAR protocol to automate literature searches related to COVID-19. In another, Relativity has been contributing to an initiative by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop text- and data-mining techniques to help scientists search data for answers to high-priority questions about COVID-19.
Privacy06/30/2020CCPA revisions from March contain a "financial incentives" requirement, noted Law.com's Frank Ready in a Corporate Counsel article. The requirement prohibits businesses from offering a different price or service based on a consumer’s willingness to exchange personal data, unless that difference is “reasonably related to the value of the data”, wrote Ready. For more information, see an article, CCPA Enforcement on Track for July 1, 2020: Breaking Down the Latest Revisions to CCPA Proposed Regulations, posted on the Crowell & Moring website.
Privacy06/30/2020The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the revision of the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems, reported Hunton Andrews Kurth. The review is needed, according the revision proposal, because "[d]espite progress made with the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems, cybersecurity capabilities in the Member States remain unequal and the level of protection in the EU is insufficient."
Privacy06/30/2020On June 30, Florida's governor approved HB 1189, Genetic Information for Insurance Purposes. The law, which went into effect on July 1, "[p]rohibits life insurers & long-term care insurers from canceling, limiting, or denying coverage, or establishing differentials in premium rates based on genetic information; prohibits such insurers from taking certain actions relating to genetic information for any insurance purpose."
Announcements, Enhancing Practice06/26/2020Microsoft's legal department announced the winners of its legal innovation challenge, reported Gina Passarella Cipriani of The American Lawyer. Nine teams, comprised of 13 firms, competed for a chance to move into a Microsoft accelerator program. Winning were the trio of Greenberg Traurig, Perkins Coie, and Davis Wright Tremaine, and the pitch by K&L Gates.
Announcements, E-Discovery06/23/2020ESI Analyst announced a channel partnership with SullivanStrickler, pursuant to which SullivanStrickler's computer forensics and disputes practice will deploy ESI Analyst's data analytics and investigation tools.
Privacy06/23/2020Republican Senators Graham, Cotton, and Blackburn introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, a bill designed to end the use of "warrant-proof" encrypted technology, according to a press release from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
E-Discovery, Privacy06/22/2020Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) represent the most recent convergence of e-discovery and data privacy, as Doug Austin noted in a article where he outlined DSAR basics.
Privacy06/19/2020Uncertainly continues to be the most certain thing about the CCPA, according to a Legaltech News article by Frank Ready, where he reports that the data on which final regulations submitted by the California Attorney General's Office to the California Office of Administrative Law go into effect could be anytime between July 1 and October 1.
Announcements, E-Discovery06/17/2020Onna announced it has raised $27M in Series B funding. For a discussion about Onna and what the funding means, see Richard Tromans' Artificial Lawyer article.
Announcements, Privacy06/17/2020TrustArc announced the results of its 2020 Global Privacy BenchMark survey, for which it polled more than 1,500 respondents. Highlights include:
  • Respondents aren't ready to comply with CCPA.
  • They lack adequate technology tools to build privacy programs.
  • Working remotely is creating new privacy challenges.
  • Even as respondents expect revenues to decline due to COVID-19, the still plan on prioritizing privacy-related investments.
  • Privacy mandates are coming from the highest levels in organizations.
For a recap, see Frank Ready's Legaltech News article.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice06/16/2020Litera announced it acquired Bestpractix, an AI-powered contract drafting platform. For a look at the acquisition, go Richard Tromans' Artificial Lawyer article.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice06/16/2020Lex Machina announced it has introduced its COVID-19 Impact Analyzer App. The app provides data and analytics regarding:
  • New total case filings
  • New case filings by practice area
  • Findings, such as court-enforceable determinations
  • Complaints mentioning COVID-19 or related terms.
For additional information, see Victoria Hudgins' Legaltech News article.
Enhancing Practice06/16/2020In-house counsel feel they overspend on outside counsel and intend to reduce that spend, according to a report from In The House and LegalBillReview.com based on 167 survey responses along with anecdotal observations. One way to reduce the spend? Increase efficiency by using technology, noted Dan Clark in a Corporate Counsel article about the report.
Enhancing Practice06/15/2020The Pennsylvania Bar Association issued new guidance to attorneys working from home during the pandemic, Formal Opinion 2020-30. The opinion covers, among other things, an attorney’s duty of technological competence when handling sensitive client information in a home environment, reported John M. McNichols in an ABA publication.
E-Discovery06/12/2020For Microsoft 365 eDiscovery practical resources and an overview of M365 plans and licensing options, go to the ACEDS Blog article by Jennifer Knox (Consilio), Edward Lawrence (Consilio), Rahul Chhabra (Schulte Roth & Zabel), and Bruce Malter (Consilio).
Announcements, Enhancing Practice06/11/2020UnitedLex announced it acquired Paul Hasting's data science team and its technology services group, a possibility Paul Hastings says it foresaw when it launched that initiative six years ago.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice06/11/2020Eversheds Sutherland is formally rolling out its alternative legal services provider subsidiary, Konexo, in the United States, wrote Dan Packel in a Legaltech News article. Konexo offers legal, legal resourcing, corporate secretarial, human resources, and financial services.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice06/10/2020In a Legaltech News article, Rhys Dipshan discussed six legal tech companies that received funding this spring:
  • Bodhala, a legal spend analytics platform: $10M
  • BRYTER, a no-code automation tool: $16M
  • Casetext, which recently launched automated legal brief writing software: $8.2M
  • Intelllex, a knowledge management company: $2.1M
  • LawGeex, a contract review platform: $20M
  • LexCheck, a contract review platform: $3M
E-Discovery06/10/2020Cat Casey of DISCO started a recent LinkedIn discussion, "**HOW** did you become a legal tech guru??", with a set of questions and her initial set of luminaries that, at least count, has received 101 comments. If you want to see who has shaped whom in the e-discovery world, check out the discussion.
Privacy06/10/2020In a pair of posts on the ACEDS site, Jason Velasco gave a quick overview of data access subject requests (DSARs): what a DSAR is and basic steps for responding to a DSAR request.
Announcements, E-Discovery06/09/2020Seyfarth announced it launched Seyfarth Scout, "a one-click application service to remotely conduct digital forensic triage, employee investigations, and eDiscovery preservation of remote computers via the internet." For a short discussion about remote collection, go to Victoria Hudgins' Legaltech News article on the topic.
Announcements, Enhancing Practice 06/09/2020ACC announced its 2020 ACC Value Champions. The program, discussed in Dan Clark's American Lawyer article, highlights corporate law departments and their external partners that optimize legal services by embracing creative, data-driven solutions to streamline operations.
E-Discovery02/19/2020More from Legalweek –
Privacy02/14/2020Washington state senate passed privacy act – David Stauss, Malia Rogers, Bob Bowman, Megan Herr, and Erik Dullea of Husch Blackwell reported that for a second year the Washington state senate passed comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, the Washington Privacy Act. The legislation moves to the state house of representatives where it failed last year.
E-Discovery02/13/2020The Legalweek that was –
E-Discovery02/13/2020Predictive coding (aka TAR) –
Privacy02/12/2020Processing personal data through video devices – Diletta De Cicco and Charles-Albert Helleputte of Mayer Brown reported that On January 29, 2020, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) released Guidelines 3/2019 on processing personal data through video devices (“Guidelines”). They also published “10 Commandments for Processing Personal Data Through Video Devices in the European Union”.
Privacy02/11/2020Proposed changes to proposed CCPA regulations – Glenn A. Brown, Lydia de la Torre, Elliot Golding, and Ann J. LaFrance of Squire Patton Boggs reported that on Feb. 7 the California AG announced changes to the CCPA proposed regulations.
Privacy02/11/2020Data privacy legislation introduced in Florida – Crystal B. Carswell of Hunton Andrews Kurth reported that the Florida legislature has introduced bills that would require companies operating online services in the state to inform Florida consumers whether they are collecting personal information and provide opt out capabilities.
Privacy02/10/2020Sedona Conference Incident Response Guide – Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises reported that the 139-page Sedona Conference Incident Response Guide now is available.
E-Discovery02/03/2020E-discovery and Microsoft Teams and Yammer – Alym Rayani of Microsoft 365 recently announced that Microsoft has added several new capabilities in Microsoft 365 to help with managing e-discovery in Teams and Yammer: legal hold for Teams; Teams conversation reconstruction; eDiscovery for Yammer; a public preview of Advanced eDiscovery for Yammer; and previews of a customizable Advanced eDiscovery dashboard and tenant-level reports.
E-Discovery01/29/2020Legalweek overview – Doug Austin of CloudNine has published an overview of his take on the highlight’s of next week’s Legalweek.
Enhancing Practice01/29/2020Law department operations survey results – The results of the 2019 E-Discovery Sanctions Case Law Update are available.
Privacy01/29/2020IAPP US privacy law comparison tool – Mitchell Noordyke of Faegre Baker Daniels maintains a US State Comprehensive Privacy Law Comparison section on the IAPP website. The section tracks proposed and enacted comprehensive privacy bills from across the country.
E-Discovery01/24/2020New document production obligations go into effect in California civil matters – Elisa M. Cariño of Proskauer reported that effective Jan. 1, 2020, the California Code of Civil Procedure now requires “[a]ny documents or category of documents produced in response to a demand for inspection, copying, testing, or sampling shall be identified with the specific request number to which the documents respond.” Cal. Civ. Pro. § 2031.280(a). Cariño noted that the California Senate Judiciary Committee is of the view that the rule, which applies to all pending matters as well as new ones, “will provide more streamlined and responsive document production, if at the slight expense of the producing parties.” Experience suggests otherwise.
E-Discovery01/24/2020Active Learning activity – In an article about Relativity’s Active Learning TAR tool, the company’s Jacque Flaherty noted that since Relativity launched the capability in Dec. 2017, the tool as been used to make predictions on over 750 million documents.
E-Discovery01/23/2020Emoji law – Santa Clara University School of Law professor Eric Goldman published an update to his report on the number of cases referencing “emoji” or “emoticon” – 101 in 2019, nearly double the number from the year before.
Privacy01/23/2020Maryland – Analyzing the 2020 Maryland Right to Opt Out of Third-Party Disclosures Act, David Stauss, Erik Dullea, and Malia Rogers (Husch Blackwell)
Cybersecurity01/22/2020Cyberinsurance costs rising – Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises noted a recent report from Insurance Journal that U.S. insurers are ramping up cyber-insurance rates by as much as 25% and trying to curb exposure to vulnerable customers after a surge of costly claims.
Privacy01/22/2020US retailers blocking European website visitors – David A. Zetoony reported that according to a recent study performed by his lawfirm, BCLP, 25% of Fortune 500 retailers had blocked their websites from being visited by European IP addresses – demonstrating the impact of the GDRP.
Privacy01/22/2020California – Proposed CCPA amendment would provide significant clarity to health care and life sciences companies, Alexis Cocco and Kimberly Gold (Reed Smith)
Privacy01/22/2020NIST Privacy Framework – Deborah George and Linn Foster Freedman of Robinson+Cole reported that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its first privacy framework tool (the “Privacy Framework”) on January 16, 2020.
Enhancing Practice01/20/2020Five requirements for tech to improve access to justice – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported on a recent talk by outgoing Legal Services Corporation’s president James Sandman, in which he outlined the five requirements he believes are necessary if we are to realize the potential for technology to improve access to justice.
Privacy01/20/2020Virginia – Analyzing the 2020 Virginia Privacy Act and Sale of Personal Data Act, David Stauss and Malia Rogers (Husch Blackwell) (Jan. 20).
Privacy01/20/2020GDPR data breach survey – DLA Piper published its 2020 GDPR Data Breach Survey results.
Privacy01/16/2020New version of Washington Privacy Act – Scott T. Lashway and Matthew M.K. Stein of Manatt reported that a new version of the proposed Washington Privacy Act, Senate Bill 6281, has been introduced in the Washington state Senate. The new version combines key features of the CCPA and the GDPR.
Privacy01/14/2020California – Q&A: How Amgen prepared for the CCPA, Alison O’Connell (Lexology)
Cybersecurity01/13/2020Medical devices – William RM Long, Francesca Blythe, and Josefine Sommer of Sidley wrote that in December 2019, the Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) published its guidance on cybersecurity for medical devices (the Guidance).
Cybersecurity01/10/2020New data breach laws – Keisha M. McClellan, Melissa K. Ventrone of Clark Hill put together a list of seven data breach updates for 2020:
  • California: 1/1/2020 CCPA went into effect
  • Illinois: 1/1/2020 SB 1624 began requiring businesses to notify state AG of breaches involving more than 500 people
  • Oregon: 1/1/2020 SB 684, the Oregon Consumer Information Protection Act, expanded scope of data breach notification rules for vendors
  • Texas: 1/1/2020 HB 4390 required notice of breach to all affected parties within 60 days of determining a breach has occurred and for incidents involving 250 Texas residents or more requiring notice to state AG
  • Washington: 3/1/2020 HB 1071 will expand definition of personal information and reduce notification window New York: 3/21/2020 SHIELD Act data security requirements will take effect
  • Maine: 7/1/2020 LD 946, An Act to Protect the Privacy of Online Customer Information, will become enforceable
E-Discovery01/10/2020Judge Grimm on good faith in discovery – In an article published in the Winter 2020 issue of the ABA Litigation Journal, U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm argued that “much of the unpleasantness that characterizes discovery can be avoided by following both the letter and spirit of a single rule of civil procedure—one that has been part of the rules since 1983, yet seems to have been forgotten or overlooked by lawyers and judges. That rule is Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(g)…”
E-Discovery01/10/2020Bill Hamilton on the need for better use of social media in e-discovery – In another article in the same publication, University of Florida Levin College of Law professor Bill Hamilton implored lawyers and e-discovery software providers and vendors to pay closer attention to – and make better use of – the discovery of social media content.
E-Discovery01/08/2020Sedona Conference Rule 45 commentary – The Sedona Conference has published a public comment version of its Commentary on Rule 45 Subpoenas to Non-Parties, Second Edition. Comments should be submitted by March 6.
Enhancing Practice01/08/2020TR 2020 Report on the State of the Legal Market – Thomson Reuters released its 22-page annual law firm report, prepared with Georgetown University Law Center and Peer Monitor. Perhaps tellingly, only at page 19 does the report begin to discuss expanded use of technology to improve legal work processes.
Privacy01/02/2020New Oregon data breach notification requirement – Colleen Theresa Brown and Clayton G. Northouse of Sidley reported that a unique new data breach notification law, the Oregon Consumer [Identity Theft] Information Protection Act, went into effective on Jan. 1. The law imposed a direct obligation on vendors to provide regulatory notice to the state as well as to provide notice to data owners within 10 days.
E-Discovery12/31/2019New Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16.1 – Brian T. Rafferty and Brandon C. Mumby of Polsinelli reported that on Dec. 1 the new Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16.1 went into effect. The rule, they wrote, “functions as a response to concerns regarding the manner and timing of the production of voluminous Electronically Stored Information (ESI) in complex cases.”
E-Discovery12/31/20192019 Litigation Trends Survey – Norton Rose Fulbright has published its 15th annual Litigation Trends Survey. Their top-level summary: “The 15th annual Litigation Trends Survey has identified two major trends that began impacting the industry more intensively in 2019 and are predicted to accelerate in 2020. More organizations than ever before anticipate dispute volume to rise in the year ahead, and they are putting in place preventative measures in order to manage the increased risk. Despite the increase in proactive risk mitigation, the findings show that companies are still underutilizing one of the most effective measures available – embedding lawyers in business operations.” Unlike in many years past, however, this year’s report makes no mention of e-discovery.
Enhancing Practice12/18/2019Transformation and acceleration of legal analytics – Patrick Flanagan and Michelle H. Dewey of BakerHostetler prepared a 24-page article, Where do we go from Here? Transformation and Acceleration of Legal Analytics in Practice, published in the Georgia State University Law Review, that evaluates current technologies and systems used to publish and analyze legal information from a researcher’s perspective.
E-Discovery12/11/2019DLA Global Litigation Guide – DLA Piper has published it’s Global Litigation Guide12/22/2019. The Guide contains information about various aspects of civil litigation in 30 jurisdictions worldwide, include brief discussions of various jurisdictions’ discovery requirements.
Privacy12/11/2019GDPR changes proposed – Anna Oberschelp de Meneses, Ulrike Elteste, and Kristof Van Quathem of Covington reported that German Supervisory Authorities issued a report evaluating the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in Germany and recommending changes to the GDPR.
Privacy12/11/2019Maryland data breach notification law amended – Joseph J. Lazzarotti and Maya Atrakchi of Jackson Lewis reported that with HB 1154 Maryland once again has amended its Personal Information Protection Act, enhancing requirements for businesses once they become aware of data security breaches.
Enhancing Practice12/10/2019Where judges are AI and verdicts come via chat app – Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises wrote an intriguing piece about a novel approach China is pursuing to streamline case handing. Sharon reported that China’s Supreme People’s recently released a policy paper about the country’s first “cybercourt” where litigants appear by video chat while an AI judge prompts them to present their cases.
Enhancing Practice12/09/2019Winners of 202 ABA TECHSHOW Startup Alley Competition – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported the results of readers’ votes on which 15 legal technology startups will get to participate in the fourth annual Startup Alley at the ABA’s TECHSHOW conference, Feb. 26-29 in Chicago. Bob lists each of the winners along with a short description clearly provided by the winner.
Privacy12/09/2019German authorities issued GDPR fining methodology guidelines – William RM Long, Kolja Stehl, Lauren Cuyvers, and Anna-Shari Melin of Sidley reported that the Association of German Data Protection Authorities issued guidelines setting a five-step GDPR fining methodology.
Enhancing Practice12/06/2019Survey on outside counsel guidelines – Caroline Hill of Legal IT Insider reported on the results of the 1st Annual Law Firm Leader Survey on Outside Counsel Guidelines, conducted by Bellefield Systems and the Association of Legal Administrators. In particular, Hill noted that “[t]he improvement firms most desire, however, is not more staff but better technology in order to comply with outside counsel guidelines (45.07%).”
Privacy12/06/2019CCPA rulemaking hearings – Alicia Baiardo, Anthony Le, Neelam Takhar, and Justin Yedor of McGuire Woods reported on the first and second hearings.
Privacy12/05/2019CCPA rulemaking hearings – Aaron Burstein & Alysa Zeltzer Hutnik of Kelley Drye reported on the second of four public hearings held by the California Attorney General’s Office as part of the 45-day period for public comments on the proposed CCPA implementation regulations.
Privacy12/05/2019Potential proposed EU e-privacy regulation – Lisa Peets, Paul Maynard, and Sam Jungyun Choi of Covington reported that the EU’s new Commissioner for the Internal Market recently suggested a change of approach to the proposed e-Privacy Regulation may be necessary.
Enhancing Practice12/04/2019James I. Keane Memorial Award nominations still open – There still is time to submit a nomination for American Bar Association’s James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering. Jim was an early and ardent user and promoter of technology to support and enhance the practice of law. The purpose of the award is to give recognition to law offices that have developed legal service innovations that are delivered over the Internet. The focus of the award is on the innovative delivery of personal legal services, with special attention given to firms and entities that serve both moderate income individuals and the broad middle class.
E-Discovery12/03/2019Reiterating the importance of social media in e-discovery – Chris Dale of the eDisclosure Information Project wrote his second post in recent weeks about the importance of social media in e-discovery.
Privacy12/03/2019EDPB adopted data protection guidelines – William RM Long and Lauren Cuyvers of Sidley reported that the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) adopted guidelines on the GDPR’s data protection by design and by default principle.
Privacy12/03/2019Proposed New York Data Privacy Act – The Buckley law firm reported that the New York Senate’s Committee on Consumer Protection and Committee on Internet and Technology recently held a joint hearing which discussed the proposed New York Privacy Act, SB S5642.
Enhancing Practice12/02/2019Canadian federation adopted duty of technology competence – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported on an article by Amy Salyzyn published in Slaw, that the Federation of Law Societies of Canada has amended its Model Code of Professional Responsibility to include a duty of technology competence similar to ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1, Comment 8. Amy Salyzyn’s article sets out and discusses the new commentary in the Code. The next step is for the individual provincial and territorial law societies to add it to their respective codes.
Enhancing Practice12/02/2019South Carolina makes it 38 – Bob also wrote that the Supreme Court of South Carolina has approved a package of amendments to the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct, based on the 2012 amendments to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and including a duty of technology competence, making it the 38th state to adopt the duty. To see a map and a full list, go to the Tech Competence page that Bob maintains.
Enhancing Practice12/02/2019The more things change – In yet another article, 5 Legal Technologies You Thought Were Dead But Aren’t, Bob noted that according to results in the 2019 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, for all the technology advances lawyers have made some of us still at least have the option of turning to print materials (95%), CD-ROMs (6%), faxes (77%), BlackBerrys (1%), and WordPerfect (18%).
E-Discovery11/30/2019Curious about iOS forensics? – For a glimpse into the world of people who focus on iOS forensics, check out the post, Checkm8, Checkra1n and the new “golden age” for iOS Forensics, by Mattia Epifani of Zena Forensics.
Privacy11/29/2019New UK ICO special category data guidance – Dan Cooper, Gemma Nash, and Laura Richardson of Covington reported that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) has published detailed guidance on the processing of special category data under the GDPF and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. Special category data includes genetic and biometric data as well as information about a person’s health, sex life, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, and trade union membership.
Enhancing Practice11/28/2019ELTAcon19 report – Ivan Rasic published a detailed report on the recently-held European Legal Tech Association’s annual Congress in Madrid, ELTAcon19.
Privacy11/26/2019COPRA introduced – James Yoon of Covington reported that a group of Democratic senators has introduced a comprehensive privacy bill, the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA). As stated at the beginning of the bill, its purpose is “[t]o provide consumers with foundational data privacy rights, create strong oversight mechanisms, and establish meaningful enforcement.”
E-Discovery11/25/2019Mary Mack’s and Kaylee Walstad’s plans for EDRM – Chris Dale published a video interview of Mary Mack and Kaylee Walstad, in which they discuss EDRM and their plans for it.
E-Discovery11/22/2019On sanctions – Matthew Verga of XDD has put together a set of five articles on spoliation decisions since the Dec. 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure:
Privacy11/22/2019China encryption law passed – Hogan Lovells reported that the People’s Republic of China Encryption Law was passed on Oct. 26 and goes into effect on Jan. 1.
E-Discovery11/21/2019On text messages – Melinda F. Levitt of Foley & Lardner prepared a detailed article on the discovery of text messages and the attendant threat to privacy.
Privacy11/21/2019The Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law Review, 6th Ed. – The sixth edition of The Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law Review now is available, reported contributing firm Sidley.
Privacy11/20/2019CCPA – Responding to Requests to Delete – Morgan Lewis Practical Advice on Privacy: Guide to the CCPA Carla B. Oakley, Gregory T. Parks, W. Reece Hirsch, Mark L. Krotoski, and Gene K. Park (Morgan Lewis)
Privacy11/19/2019EDPR adopted GDPR territorial scope guidelines – Cynthia O’Donoghue and Daniel Millard of Reed Smith reported that the European Data Protection Board has adopted final guidelines on the territorial scope of the General Data Protection Regulation.
E-Discovery11/18/2019Amendments to New Jersey’s evidence rules – Abigail Luhn and Kaitlyn Stone of Drinker Biddle wrote that as a result of the increasing use of electronic discovery in litigation and the attendant high risk of inadvertent disclosures, the New Jersey Supreme Court has adopted proposed amendments to the New Jersey Rules of Evidence. The amendments change the substance of N.J.R.E. 530 (Waiver of Privilege by Contract or Previous Disclosure; Limitations); the substance of N.J.R.E. 608 (Evidence of Character for Truthfulness or Untruthfulness and Evidence of a Prior False Accusation); and the styling of 46 other Rules of Evidence. These amendments take effect on July 1, 2020.
Privacy11/18/2019CCPA – CCPA Uncertainty May Put Cloud Agreements Up in the Air, Frank Ready (Legaltech News)
Privacy11/18/2019New Jersey increasing focus on privacy and cybersecurity – Alysa Zeltzer Hutnik, Lauri Mazzuchetti, Paul A. Rosenthal, and Glenn Graham of Kelley Drye wrote that the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office recently emphasized how it is prioritizing its enforcement of privacy and cybersecurity issues.
Privacy11/16/2019CCPA – New Draft of California Privacy Ballot Initiative Released, Kate T. Spelman, David P. Saunders, and Effiong K. Dampha (Jenner & Block)
E-Discovery11/15/2019New e-discovery benchmarking report – Exterro, ACEDS, and In The House have published their 2019 In-House Benchmarking Report, in which they discuss conclusions drawn from a survey of in-house legal personnel about e-discovery, legal services, information governance, and data privacy.
E-Discovery11/14/2019E-Discovery Day activities – Dec. 4 is E-Discovery Day. Check the E-Discovery Day for webinars and other events. If the past is a guide, activities will continue to be added until day of.
E-Discovery11/12/2019Text Analytics Forum highlights – Bill Dimm of Clustify gave highlights from the Nov. 6-7 Text Analytics Forum, now part of the KMWorld conference, as well as a link to most of the slides used at the forum.
Privacy11/12/2019Online Privacy Act of 2019 introduced – Gretchen A. Ramos & Jonathan H. Becker of Greenberg Traurig reported that on Nov. 5, California Congresswomen Anna G. Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren introduced the Online Privacy Act of 2019, H.R. 4978. The bill’s summary states that it is “To provide for individual rights relating to privacy of personal information, to establish privacy and security requirements for covered entities relating to personal information, and to establish an agency to be known as the United States Digital Privacy Agency to enforce such rights and requirements, and for other purposes.”
Privacy11/12/2019CCPA goes nationwide? – Elizabeth Montalbano of Threatpost reported that Microsoft is extending the CCPA to all its users in the United States. That, she wrote, means that as a practical matter the California law will apply throughout the United States.
Privacy11/11/2019German DPA GDPR readiness audit results – Sven Schonhofen and Thomas Fischl summarized the findings of an audit that the Lower Saxony Data Protection Authority conducted of 50 large- and medium-sized organizations with respect to their implementation of GDPR requirements since June 2018. The DPAs report is available in German here.
Enhancing Practice11/07/2019ABA Survey: More Lawyers Using Cloud Computing in 2019 Than Ever Before, Nicole Black (MyCase): 58% of lawyers reported that they use cloud computing technology for work-related tasks.
E-Discovery11/06/2019The challenges of emoticons – Martin Nikel of Deloitte offered thoughts on the challenges arising from working with emoticons in investigations.
Privacy11/06/2019PII for GDPR and more – Marc Staimer of Dragon Slayer Consulting published an overview of PII compliance for GDPR and other data privacy laws and regulations.
Privacy11/06/20193rd annual EU Privacy Shield report released – Cynthia O’Donoghue and John O’Brien of Reed Smith reported that the European Commission has released its report on the third annual review of the functioning of the EU-US Privacy Shield. They concluded by noting that “on the whole, the Commission’s report confirms that the United States continues to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data transfers in the context of Privacy Shield. However, there are some gaps between the expectations of the Commission and U.S. authorities in terms of how Privacy Shield compliance can be achieved.”
Privacy11/06/2019Spanish data protection authority published the “Guide to Privacy by Design”, posted Santiago De Ampuero Castellanos of Hogan Lovells.
Enhancing Practice11/05/2019Are Corporations Moving Their Data To The Cloud Or Not?, Mike Quartararo (ACEDS): No clear answer provided, but Mike seems to be tilting slightly towards yes.
Privacy11/05/2019Interactive Advertising Bureau launched CCPA compliance framework – Jesse M. Brody of Manatt noted that the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its affiliated standard-setting body, the IAB Technology Laboratory, have released a public comment draft CCPA compliance framework for publishers and technology companies.
E-Discovery11/04/2019Craig Ball’s processing primer – The ever-prolific Craig Ball is at it again, this time with a 55-page treatise on processing in e-discovery. (Thanks, by the way, for your re-imagining of the EDRM diagram.) Start with Craig’s post, then dive into the primer itself.
Privacy10/31/2019New privacy protections introduced in Illinois – Robert Fallah of Fisher Phillips wrote that Illinois has introduced new workplace privacy legislation, HB2557, governing the use of artificial intelligence during the job interview process.
Privacy10/29/2019Data protection and privacy commissioners meeting recap – Alan Charles Raul of Sidley offered observations from the 41st Annual International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, which took place on Oct. 23-24 in Albania.
E-Discovery10/21/2019Relativity Fest – If you missed the keynote for the 10th Relativity Fest and want to find out what was covered, go to the recap by Chris Brown of Relativity. You can watch the entire 1:29:50 video, read the highlights posted by Chris, and look at shorter clips about Relativity Collect and the Aero UI, and see screen captures of family review and production.
Privacy10/21/2019GDPR data breach trends – The Irish Data Protection Commission has published Data Breach Trends from the First Year of the GDPR, an overview of trends observed by the DPC over the first year of mandatory breach reporting introduced by the GDPR.
Privacy10/17/2019CCPA comments to CA AG due by 12/6 – In materials from a recent webinar, Hogan Lovells attorneys reminded us that comments about the California Attorney General’s proposed CCPA regulations are due by Dec. 6 at 5 pm ET. Also noted: four public hearings have been announced: Sacramento, Dec. 2; Los Angeles, Dec. 3; San Francisco, Dec. 4; and Fresno, Dec. 5.
Privacy10/16/2019Florida – Analyzing the 2020 Florida Consumer Data Privacy Act, David Stauss & Malia Rogers (Husch Blackwell)
Privacy10/16/2019California privacy ballot initiative – Perkins Coie reported that a new California ballot initiative, the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020, has been introduced. If it were to go into effect, starting Jan. 1, 2021, it would make the CCPA significantly stricter.
Privacy10/16/2019Draft CCPA regulations – The California Attorney General has published draft CCPA regulations, discussed in the following articles:
Enhancing Practice10/15/2019More movement toward nonlawyer ownership of legal practices – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that an Arizona task force has called for fundamental changes in the regulation of legal services including eliminating the ban on nonlawyer ownership of legal practices. These recommendations are similar to those recently approved by the Utah Supreme Court as well as ones called for by a California task force.
Privacy10/14/2019Council of EU Member States released draft ePrivacy Regulation – Kristof Van Quathem of Covington reported that the Council of EU Member States has released a new draft version of the ePrivacy Regulation (“EPR”).
Privacy10/14/2019Countdown to CCPA #4: Governor Signs CCPA Amendment to Add Additional Exemptions, Catherine D. Meyer, Deborah S. Thoren-Peden, JiJi Park, and Daniel C. Wood (Pillsbury).
Privacy10/10/2019California Consumer Privacy Act FAQs for Covered Businesses, Joseph J. Lazzarotti and Jason C. Gavejian (Jackson Lewis).
E-Discovery10/09/2019New Michigan civil discovery rules to go into effect Jan 1 – As Zach Warren of Legaltech News reported, on Jan. 1, 2020, updated civil discovery rules will go into effect in Michigan. Information about the changes – the biggest in 30 years – are at https://www.michbar.org/civildiscovery, a website set up by the State Bar of Michigan. The site includes useful links to, among other things, the Michigan Supreme Court order detailing the changes; a 104-page Civil Discovery Guidebook prepared by the Bar, the Detroit Chapter of ACEDS, and attorneys at Dickinson Wright and Warner Norcross + Judd; and a 4-page overview prepared by Daniel Quick of Dickinson Wright.
E-Discovery10/09/2019The CLOUD Act – Attention is starting to focus on the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (the CLOUD Act):
E-Discovery10/09/201930(b)(6) dos and don’ts – Tom O’Connor has prepared a set of six posts on the dos and don’ts of 30(b)(6) depositions:
Privacy10/09/2019NIST released Privacy Framework preliminary draft – Covington reported that the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a preliminary draft of the “NIST Privacy Framework: A Tool for Improving Privacy through Enterprise Risk Management”. NIST will be taking public comments through Oct. 24.
Privacy10/09/2019CCPA –
Privacy10/09/2019GDPR –
E-Discovery10/07/2019Mike Quartararo and Ari Kaplan join ACEDS – As noted by Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, Stephen Fredette, the Chairman and CEO of BARBRI, announced that on Oct. 1 Mike Quartararo joined the organization as President of ACEDS and Professional Development and that Ari Kaplan will consult with the company to help build a new ACEDS Global Advisory Board and act as Chairperson for that group.
Enhancing Practice10/07/20192019 ILTA Legal Tech Survey Executive Summary released – Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises reported that the International Legal Technology Association has released an executive summary of its 2019 Technology Survey, which looks at what law firms are doing with technology. The full survey, to be released later this month, will be available to ILTA members for $500.
Privacy10/07/2019Maine and Nevada privacy laws – Sean Klammer of Porter Wright prepared an overview of Nevada’s privacy law, which became effective on Oct. 1, and Maine’s new Broadband Internet Access Service Customer Privacy act, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2020.
Enhancing Practice09/18/2019Michigan 37th state to adopt ethical duty of competence for lawyers – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that the Michigan Supreme Court issued an order adopting a variation of Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8, of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct – making it the 37th state of adopt the ethical duty of competence for lawyers. The amendment takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
Privacy09/18/2019CCPA –
Privacy09/18/2019GDPR –
E-Discovery09/17/2019Missouri updated its e-discovery rules – Rachel Harris of Thompson Coburn wrote that the Missouri governor signed into law Senate Bill 223 which amended that state’s discovery rules to, among other things, attempt to bring the state’s e-discovery rules more in line with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
E-Discovery09/17/2019New UF Law career path program – Mike Quartararo of eDPM Advisory Services reported that the University of Florida Levin College of Law eDiscovery Project, run by Bill Hamilton, has partnered with Consilio on a new summer internship program, offering graduates opportunities to learn the business of e-discovery.
Enhancing Practice09/16/2019$1.1 billion and counting – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that legal tech investments this year already have surpassed $1.1 billion. By comparison, last year was the first time those investments reached $1 billion, and there are still 3 months left before year end. Included in the post is a list of this year’s investments.
E-Discovery09/14/2019Litigation Support Tip of the Night – Sean O’Shea of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP has assigned himself a daunting goal, to post a new litigation support tip each night. He may not have managed to do this every single night, but his blog, Litigation Support Tip of the Night, contains over 1,000 tips going back to April 2015. For a recent example, check out his Sept. 14 post, Ringtail – Some cool features.
Enhancing Practice09/13/2019GCs place top priority on scaling up legal processes – Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer reported that according to a survey of 30 high tech growth company general counsel conducted by contract management software company Juro and the Wilson Sonsini law firm, scaling up legal processes inside the inhouse team is a top-three concern (87%), followed by tooling and technology (74%) and adding value to business (61%). Cutting costs was not a great priority, coming in at 13%.
Privacy09/13/2019California first-in-nation IoT security law to go into effect Jan. 1 – Daniel Pepper of BakerHostetler discussed California’s Internet of Things security law, Security of Connected Devices (SB-327), which goes into effect on Jan. 1.
Enhancing Practice09/12/2019Interested in entering the ABA TECHSHOW 2020’s Startup Alley? – If you are interested in submitting an entry to the ABA TECHSHOW 2020’s Startup Alley competition, go to Bob Ambrogi of LawSites’s post on the schedule for entering. Fifteen legal tech startups will be selected to exhibit in a special Startup Alley in the TECHSHOW exhibit hall. They also will face off in an opening-night pitch competition to be judged by conference attendees.
Privacy09/12/2019NIST released draft privacy framework – Deborah George of Robinson+Cole wrote that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a preliminary draft of its NIST Privacy Framework: A Tool for Improving Privacy through Enterprise Risk Management (Privacy Framework). NIST is accepting public comments until 5 pm ET on Oct. 24.
Enhancing Practice09/11/2019COLPM’s InnovAction Awards winners – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that the College of Law Practice Management’s 2019 InnovAction Awards went to two organizations. Immigration law firm Siskind Susser won for Visalaw.ai, a series of apps the firm has spend more than three years building using Neota Logic’s AI-based expert system; the apps replicate legal analysis and automate routine and complex tasks and document generation. Suffolk University Law School won for its Legal Innovation and Technology Lab, a joint project between the school’s clinical programs and its LIT Institute.
Privacy09/11/2019CCPA –
Privacy09/11/2019GDPR –
Privacy09/11/2019Getting ready for Brazil’s new data protection law – Mauricio F. Paez, Artur L. Badra, Guillermo E. Larrea 0f Jones Day and José Eduardo Pieri of Barbosa, Müssnich, Aragão offered guidance on preparing for the Brazilian General Data Protection Law, which goes into effect in August 2020.
Enhancing Practice09/09/2019On law firm transformation more generally – Anders Spile of Contractbook suggested that law firms need to move from a fortress mentality to an open ecosystem model, one that includes legal tech incubators and similar initiatives.
Privacy09/09/2019China issued new cybersecurity law to protect children – Wei-Chun (Lex) Kuo, Weina (Grace) Gao, and Cheng-Ling Chen of Latham & Watkins wrote that the Cyberspace Administration of China has released a new data privacy regulation related to children, the Provisions on Cyber Protection of Personal Information of Children, that will go into effect on Oct. 1.
Privacy09/06/2019DoD released draft Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification – Susan B. Cassidy, Samantha Clark, Ryan Burnette, and Ian Brekke of Covington reported that the Department of Defense’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition released Version 0.4 of its draft Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification for public comment along with an overview briefing. Cassidy et al. also gave their own overview of the current CCMC framework and discussed open questions and issues for contractors.
Privacy09/06/2019Turkey extended Data Controller registry registration deadline – Ekin Inal of Norton Rose Fulbright wrote that the Turkish Data Protection Authority announced that the registration requirement under Turkey’s data protection legislation has been postponed for some data controllers until the end of the year.
E-Discovery09/05/2019Predictive coding survey results – Rob Robinson published the results of his twice-a-year survey of predictive coding technologies and protocols. There were 100 responses (39 law firms, 37 service or software providers, 12 consultancy, 6 corporation, 3 government, and 3 other). Some of the findings are:
  • 86% have at least one primary predictive coding platform; 14 % have no primary platform.
  • 86% use active learning; 51% use only one predictive coding technology and 48% use more than one; and 1% do not use any predictive coding technology.
  • Rob groups predictive coding into three categories: TAR 1.0, TAR 2.0, and TAR 3.0. 66% use TAR 2.0 workflows, 13% use TAR 3.0, and 12% use TAR 1.0
Privacy09/05/2019COPPA Rule comment period ends Oct. 23 – Timothy Tobin, Laurie Lai, Catherine Essig, and Marco Peraza of Hogan Lovells posted a reminder that the Federal Trade Commission is taking public comments on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA Rule”), in particular the effectiveness of the 2013 amendments. Comments are due Oct. 23.
Privacy09/05/2019Recently enacted biometric privacy legislation – Thomas F. Zych, Steven G. Stransky, and Brian Doyle-Wenger of Thompson Hine gave an update on existing and recently enacted biometric privacy legislation.
Privacy09/05/2019Enhanced Illinois data breach notification requirements – Joseph J. Lazzarotti, Jason C. Gavejian, and Maya Atrakchi of Jackson Lewis wrote that the Illinois governor signed into law an amendment to Illinois’ Personal Information Protection Act, SB 1624. The amendment, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, requires that if a data collector is required to notify more than 500 Illinois residents of a single data breach, the data collection also must notify the Illinois Attorney General’s office.
E-Discovery09/04/2019Legal hold series – Brad Harris of Zapproved has published a five-part series on legal hold practices:
E-Discovery09/04/2019ILTACON news –
Privacy09/04/2019New Maryland Insurance Administration reporting requirement – Patrick H. Haggerty of BakerHostetler reported that the Maryland Insurance Administration has issued Bulletin 19-14, which informs insurers, nonprofit health service plans, health maintenance organizations, managed care organizations, managed general agents, and third-party administrators of a new security breach reporting requirement effective Oct. 1.
Privacy09/04/2019CCPA –
Privacy09/04/2019Maine – Victoria E. Beckman and Melissa A. Kern of Frost Brown Todd put together an overview of Maine’s recently signed privacy law, An Act To Protect the Privacy of Online Customer Information (S.P. 275 – L.D. 946), discussing who must comply, who and what data are protected, how to comply, exceptions, and penalties.
Privacy09/04/2019New York’s SHIELD Act –
Privacy09/04/2019GDPR –
Privacy09/03/2019Recent changes to U.S. state data breach notification laws – Caleb Skeath and Brooke Kahn of Covington offered a round up of amendments made to state data breach notification laws over the past several months, looking at Arkansas (HB1943), Illinois (SB1624), Maine (LD 696), New Jersey (S52), New York (S5575B), Oregon (SB 684), Texas (HB 4390), Virginia (HB 2396), and Washington (HB 1071).
Privacy09/03/2019Nevada privacy policy statute amendments to take effect Oct. 1 – David Stauss of Husch Blackwell wrote a reminder that the amendments to Nevada’s privacy policy statute take effect on Oct. 1. This means, among other things, that entities subject to the statute should revise their online privacy policies by that date.
Privacy09/02/2019BEC insurance filings outpace ransomware and data breach ones – Catalin Cimpanu of ZD Net reported that according to AIG last year business email compromise has become the dominant reason companies filed cyber-insurance claims in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Asia), surpassing ransomware and data breaches.
E-Discovery08/30/2019Which party pays for e-discovery costs? – Mark Berman of Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer offered an overview of which parties are likely to have to pay for e-discovery costs, including non-party vendor costs and attorney fees, costs incurred by opposing parties to re-review productions not properly performed the first time, and the costs of court-approved experts.
E-Discovery08/30/2019Backing up iPhones without iTunes – In his most recent post, Craig Ball lamented the loss of iTunes as a means of preserving iPhone data and offered an alternative backup methodology.
Enhancing Practice08/29/2019Utah Supreme Court approves non-traditional legal services pilot – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites reported that the Utah Supreme Court voted unanimously to approve recommendations of the Utah Work Group on Regulatory Reform. The group’s recommendations proposed creation of a new structure for regulating legal services. The structure would allow for broad-based investment and participation in business entities that provide legal services, including non-lawyer investment in and ownership of these entities. The court anticipates issuing a press release providing further details.
E-Discovery08/28/2019On using TAR – In an ABA article, Jason Rubinstein and Meredith Neely of Gilbert LLP offered a short example of how they have been able to make effective use of TAR. In their example, “lead attorneys use keyword searching to identify documents that are most likely to be of relevance, code a representative sample of those documents, and feed those documents into a database that builds profiles for ‘relevant’ or ‘responsive’ versus ‘non-relevant’ or ‘non-responsive’ documents. The CAL application then stratifies (potentially millions of) un-reviewed documents based on those profiles, organizing the non-human reviewed documents from most to least likely to be of interest.”
E-Discovery08/28/2019Musings on the future of legal technology conferences – In a three-part series hosted by eDiscovery Daily Blog (part 1, part 2, and part 3), Tom O’Connor offered his throughs on the future of legal technology conferences.
E-Discovery08/28/2019News from ILTACON –
Privacy08/28/2019CCPA –
Privacy08/28/2019New York –
Enhancing Practice08/27/2019What GCs want from legal technology – Gina Passarella Cipriani and Zach Warren of Legaltech News wrote about why corporations don’t always adopt new legal technology. First, they note, there are too many poorly defined and largely undifferentiated options that don’t clearly address a problem in need of solving. Second, adoption and implementation can be too costly and confusing. Finally, corporate legal buyers typically are not in a rush to be the first at adopting something new.
Enhancing Practice08/27/2019Non-lawyer ownership of law firms coming to Utah? – Bob Ambrogi reported that a task force appointed by the Utah Supreme Court to study innovative approaches to increasing access to and affordability of legal services has issued a report, Narrowing the Access-to-Justice Gap by Reimagining Regulation, in which it proposes a regulatory structure that would include non-lawyer investment in and ownership of business entities that provide legal services.
E-Discovery08/26/2019Pro bono in e-discovery – Daniel L. Regard and Avani Patel wrote about the e-discovery pro bono program adopted by their company, iDS, which includes a budget, a formal approval and budgeting process, internal processes tied to employee goals and objectives, and public promotion of the program.
Privacy08/26/2019Illinois biometric information litigation – Steven P. Benenson of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman reported that a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a California district court’s order permitting a class action against Facebook for allegedly using facial-recognition technology without users’ written consent or a data retention policy in violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.
Privacy08/23/2019New Hampshire Insurance Data Security Law – Dorian Simmons of Alston & Bird wrote that New Hampshire recently passed its Insurance Data Security Law, based on the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law. Other states with similar laws include Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, and South Carolina.
E-Discovery08/20/2019Third-party subpoenas and the duty to preserve – U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs and Ethan Bercot (Nelson Mullins) prepared an article published by the American Bar Association discussing third-party subpoenas and the duty to preserve. Their conclusion: companies generally have a duty to preserve data responsive to a third-party subpoena; and if the company determines that (a) the subpoena should not cause it to reasonably anticipate becoming a party in litigation and (b) there are not other independent obligations to preserve the data at issue, then the company likely will be able to limit the costs and disruptions involved in responding.
Privacy08/20/2019Bahrain’s data protection law – Natasha G. Kohne, Mazen Baddar, and Diana E. Schaffner of Akin Gump reported that Bahrain’s Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. (30) of 2018) took effect on Aug. 1.
Privacy08/20/2019Brazil’s general privacy law – Liisa Thomas of Sheppard Mullin wrote that Brazil’s general privacy law, the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessaoais, designed to be similar to the GDPR, is set to go into effect one year from now.
Privacy08/16/2019ISO 27001 recommended for law firms – Joseph Lamport of PinHawk posted his interview of Greg Spicer, CRO at Braintrace, in which Greg discussed the growing importance of information security management and option law firms have to register under ISO 27001.
E-Discovery08/15/2019Don’t remember the difference between AI, machine learning, and deep learning? – Igor Bobriakov of Data Science Central prepared a primer to explain the differences between artificial intelligence, machine learning (he outlined seven types), and deep learning.
E-Discovery08/13/2019CCPA –
E-Discovery08/13/2019GDPR –
Privacy08/10/2019Cybersecurity alarms continue to ring for law firms – As reported in ABA News, at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting last month the push continued to raise awareness among lawyers and law firms about cybersecurity threats and the need for attorneys and firms to take necessary steps before an attack.
E-Discovery08/09/2019NAIC Data Security Model Law – Joseph J. Lazzarotti of Jackson Lewis discussed the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Insurance Data Security Model Law and its implications. Adopted by the NAIC in 2017, the Model Law in intended to provide a benchmark for any cybersecurity program.
Privacy08/09/2019GDPR – UK ICO Issues New Draft Data Sharing Code of Practice, William RM Long and Eleanor Dodding (Sidley)
E-Discovery08/08/2019Cyber insurance coverage – Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises noted that Lloyd’s of London has called for insurance policies to be explicit about cyber coverage. In Market Bulletin Ref. Y5258, Llyod’s stated that “Lloyd’s view is that it is in the best interests of customers, brokers and syndicates for all policies to be clear on whether coverage is provided for losses caused by a cyber event. This clarity should be provided by either excluding coverage or by providing affirmative coverage in the (re)insurance policy.” (Emphasis in original.)
E-Discovery08/07/2019Delaware insurance data security law – As reported by Riker Danzig, Delaware’s governor has signed the Insurance Data Security Act (House Bill 174), which is based on the NAIC Model Law.
E-Discovery08/07/2019Chinese draft guidelines on cross-border transfer of PI – Myles Seto and Sean Wang of Deacons reported that the Cyberspace Administration of China released for public comment a draft version of Measures for Security Assessment of Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information.
Privacy08/07/2019CCPA –
Privacy08/07/2019Data privacy and security legislation in states other than California – Kendall C. Burman, Rajesh De, Mickey Leibner, Lei Shen, Joshua M. Silverstein, David A. Simon, Jeffrey P. Taft, Howard W. Waltzman, and Lisa V. Zivkovic from Mayer Brown published a piece about efforts to pass stricter data privacy and security legislation in Nevada (SB 220), New York (the SHIELD Act, SB 5575; SB 5642; and SB S224), Maine (SP 275), North Dakota, Massachusetts (S.120), New Jersey (SB 2834), and Pennsylvania (HB 1049).
Privacy08/07/2019France: CNIL updated guidelines for cookies and other trackers – Olivier Haas, Evgenia Nosareva, and Hatziri Minaudier of Jones Day reported that CNIL, the French data protection authority, has released new guidelines on the use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Except in limited circumstances, trackers may not be deployed on smartphones, computers, and any other connected devices and when they are then clear information relating to the tracker’s purpose and implementation should be provided to the user.
Privacy08/07/2019UK: Comments sought on ICO draft data sharing code of practice – The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office is seeking input on the draft update to its data sharing code of practice, first published in 2011. The ICO will be taking public feedback, via survey or email, until Sept 9.
E-Discovery08/06/2019New Hampshire insurance data security law – As reported in a Hunton Andrews Kurth post, New Hampshire’s governor has signed that state’s Insurance Data Security Law (SB 194). The law, effective Jan 1, 2020, requires insurers licensed in the state to put into place data security programs and report cybersecurity events.
Privacy08/06/2019Germany: HDPC concerned that Google voice assistant program violated GDPR – Theodore F. Claypoole and Dominic Dhil Panakal of Womble Bond Dickinson reported that the Hamburg Data Protection Commission (HDPC) has opened an administrative procedure to prohibit Google from carrying out evaluations of their voice assistant program by employees and third parties for a period of three months. They note that the HDPC believes temporary halting of Google’s voice recording evaluation process is necessary to allow sufficient time to determine whether there is effective protection of the rights and freedoms of those whose private conversations are being listening to, documented, and evaluated by third parties.
Privacy08/05/2019UK: GDPR certification is coming – Lisa Rix of Littler reported that later this year companies that show compliance with a particular “certification schemes” will be issued “certification” certificates, seals, or mark the companies will be able to display to demonstrate compliance. Note the quotations marks and future tense.
Privacy08/03/2019Germany: Internal recorded statements and notes are personal data that must be disclosed – Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild reported that on July 26 the Higher Regional Court of Cologne Germany held that internal recorded statements, conversation notes or telephone notes constitute personal data and copies of them must be disclosed in response to data access requests.
Enhancing Practice08/02/2019Four big legal tech themes – Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer has pulled together what he sees as the four key themes that help make sense of what is happening in the realm of legal tech and law firm innovation: (1) Consolidation and Platformization; (2) Continued Proliferation of Legal Tech Companies; (3) Incubator/Accelerator Growth; and (4) More Than Law – Law Firms as Tech Producers.
E-Discovery08/01/2019ACEDS NY Chapter newsletter – The ACEDS NY Metro Chapter has published is first quarterly newsletter.
E-Discovery08/01/2019On the challenges of e-discovery training – Frank Ready of Corporate Counsel wrote about the challenges associated with training attorneys and staff about e-discovery, whether in detail or at a high level. For the article, Frank drew on discussions with Debbie Reynolds of Eimer Stahl, David Hasman of Bricker & Eckler, Joseph Tate of Cozen O’Connor, and me.
Privacy08/01/2019Cayman Islands Data Protection Law to take effect Sept. 30 – The Cayman Islands’ Data Protection Law, 2017 is currently scheduled to come into effect on Sept. 30, reported the Ogier law firm.
Enhancing Practice07/31/2019Guidance for validation of AI-based algorithms – Nathaniel M. Glasser, Adam S. Forman, and Matthew Savage Aibel of Epstein Becker & Green pointed out two sets of resources for employers using or contemplating using artificial intelligence algorithms in their employee selection processes: the Uniform Guidelines On Employee Selection Procedures, in particular Section 14: Technical standards for validity studies; and the recently updated Frequently Asked Questions from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, especially its Validation of Employee Selection Procedures FAQs.
Enhancing Practice07/31/2019Law firm project management – ILTA published the results of its 2019 project management survey, which looks at law firms. ILTA last conducted this survey in 2015 and, according to the survey’s summary, the results do not appear to differ significantly.
Privacy07/31/2019New York strengthened data breach protections for consumers – New York’s governor signed two bills meant to strengthen protections for consumers whose private information gets compromised in data breaches, reported the Buckley law firm: the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act) (A5635B); and A2374, which requires consumer credit reporting agencies to offer identify theft prevention and mitigation services in the case of breaches of the agencies’ systems.
Privacy07/31/2019NYC moved to prohibit sharing location data – Womble Bond Dickinson reported that the New York City Counsel is considering legislation, Int 1632-2019, that would prohibit telecommunications carriers and mobile applications from sharing cellphone users’ geo-location data with third parties, when data is collected while mobile devices are in NYC.
Privacy07/31/2019CCPA –
E-Discovery07/30/20197-part e-discovery blog series – Brad Harris of Zapproved published a seven-part series on e-discovery, Driving Down the Cost of Ediscovery:
E-Discovery07/30/2019Advanced strategies for analyzing mobile data – Martha Louks of McDermott, Joe Sremack of BDO, and I published the third in our series on mobile device data. In Part 1, we discussed preserving and collecting mobile device data. In Part 2, we turned to the types of information you can expect to encounter with mobile devices and key considerations for analyzing, reviewing, and producing these types of data. In Part 3, we examine advanced strategies for analyzing device data and how you can apply those strategies to your cases.
Privacy07/30/2019Adding a Facebook “Like” button to a website might make you a joint controller – Daniel Felz of Alston & Bird discussed the European Court of Justice’s decision in FashionID GmbH & Co. KG v. Verbraucherzentrale NRW, in which the ECJ found that websites integrating Facebook plugins are jointly responsible for the data collected by those plugins and sent to Facebook.
E-Discovery07/29/2019On using supervised machine learning – Rasmus Mandøe Jensen and Christian Scott Uhlig of Pelsner examined the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority’s recently published guidelines on the use of supervised machine learning. Although the guidelines are meant for financial companies, the Pelsner attorneys’ analysis of them offers useful insights applicable to the use of TAR in litigation.
Privacy07/29/2019Security risks accompanying collaboration tools – Richard Walters of CensorNet warned that as law firms adopt digital collaborate tools to improve communications with their clients – as most of the top 100 law firms have done, according to a recent PwC report – the law firms should pay close attention to security risks attendant with the use of those tools.
Privacy07/29/2019OIPC (Ontario) annual privacy report – Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner has released his 2018 Annual Report: Privacy and Accountability for a Digital Ontario. The 44-page report recommends initiatives to enhance access to information and protection of privacy in Ontario, including a call to modernize Ontario’s privacy laws to address risks posed by smart city technologies. For a summary, see the post written by Ruth Promislow and Katherine Rusk of Bennett Jones.
Privacy07/26/2019NY enacted SHIELD Act – Joseph Lazzarotti, Jason Gavejian, Damon Silver, Mary Costigan, and Maya Atrakchi of Jackson Lewis discussed highlights of the New York Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act) recently signed into law.
Cybersecurity07/25/2019Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification – Mary Beth Bosco and Eric Crusius of Holland & Knight reported on new cybersecurity standards, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) standards, being promulgated by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment’s new cybersecurity standards, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) standards. They noted that compliance with this new set of security standards will be required for DoD contractors to compete for contracts. Details are at the CMMC website.
E-Discovery07/25/2019When a phone goes missing – David Horrigan of Relativity, dug into Commonwealth v. Fowler, a case that turned not on the facts of an alleged July 2016 sexual assault but rather on a July 2019 court hearing about the whereabouts and contents of the allegedly assaulted person’s missing mobile phone. The key message: mobile device data matters.
E-Discovery07/25/2019Proportionality and privacy – Nicole Allen of Kilpatrick Townsend analyzed the interconnections between proportionality under FRCP 26(b)(1) and privacy and offered three lessons: privacy now is a proportionality limitation, legitimate privacy concerns will be recognized, and that the parties must cooperate.
Privacy07/25/2019Cyber incident and breach trends report – The Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance released their 2018 Cyber Incident & Breach Trends Report. Highlights of the 15-page document, as summarized by LLM, include the better (numbers of incidents, data breaches, and exposed records all are down), the worse (the impact of incidents was greatly on the rise), and the bad (even with the numbers down, there were 6,515 breaches, 5 billion exposed records, and 447 million sensitive records exposed).
E-Discovery07/24/2019Office 365 video series – Tom O’Connor of the Gulf Legal Tech Center and Rachi Messing of Microsoft are putting on a video series on the e-discovery features in Office 365. Each episode is a little under ½ hour long. Episodes so far, including the newest, Part 8, are:
Enhancing Practice07/24/2019CLOC survey results – CLOC has published a 26-page report with results and analysis of its 2019 State of the Industry survey. CLOC looked at information about corporate legal departments gathered from over 200 companies of various sizes in over 30 industries and 18 countries. The report covers legal expenditures, legal department headcount, technology and innovation, and law firm evaluations. Dan Clark of Legaltech News and Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer both reported on the results.
Enhancing Practice07/24/2019More activity on the contract front – From Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer:
Enhancing Practice07/24/2019LawFest 2019 presentations – Slides and videos from LawFest 2019, held in New Zealand last March, are available on line:
Privacy07/24/2019Data breach costs – Jean Tomasco of Robinson+Cole, discussing the results the 76-page 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report recently released by the Ponemon Institute and IBM Security, noted that health care organizations have the highest costs for data breaches – an average cost of $6.45 million per breach and $429 per record compromised.
Privacy07/24/2019CCPA –
Privacy07/24/2019NIST mobile device security publication – The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a draft version of Mobile Device Security Corporate-Owned Personally-Enabled (COPE), a 351-page practice guide that focuses on the challenge of securing mobile devices within an enterprise. The document is organized into three volumes:
  • Volume A: Executive Summary
  • Volume B: Approach, Architecture, and Security Characteristics – consisting of a summary; section on how to use the guide, approach, architecture, security characteristic analysis, and future build considerations; and eight glossaries
  • Volume C: How-to Guides – consisting of an introduction, nine product installation guides, and three appendices
E-Discovery07/23/2019Ethical e-discovery – In an ACEDS post, Peter Borella of Trustpoint discussed how lawyers retained in matters involving e-discovery meet their ethical obligations under the New York Rules of Professional Conduct.
Enhancing Practice07/23/2019New brief analysis tools – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites called attention in articles on his site and Above the Law to two new brief-analysis tools, Quick Check from Thomson Reuters, which Bob also looked at here, and Bloomberg Law’s forthcoming Brief Analyzer, which Bob discussed in an earlier post.
Privacy07/23/2019Board of directors’ cyber-risk oversight practices – Melissa Krasnow of VLP Law Group summarized the results of two National Association of Corporate Directors surveys on cyber-risk oversight practices performed by boards of directors, the 2018-2019 Public Company Governance Survey and the 2018–2019 Private Company Governance Survey (membership required to download). Of the 16 cyber-risk oversight practices performed by public and private boards of directors over the past year, the top three were: (1) reviewing the current approach to securing the most critical data assets against cyberattacks, (2) reviewing the approach to data privacy protections, and (3) communicating with management about types of cyber−risk information the board requires.
Privacy07/23/2019Draft EU guidelines on processing personal data through video devices – Ataikor Ngerebara, James Clark, and Patrick van Eecke of DLA Piper reported that the European Data Protection Board has published a draft version of Guidelines 3/2019 on processing of personal data through video devices. Comments on the draft are due by September 9.
Privacy07/23/2019CLOUD Act assessment – Kristof Van Quathem and Nicholas Shepherd of Covington wrote that the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (“EDPS”) recently issued a 10-page joint initial legal assessment of the impact of the U.S. Clarifying Overseas Use of Data Act (“CLOUD Act”) on the EU legal framework for protection of personal data.
Privacy07/23/2019Can anonymized data truly be anonymous? – Alex Hern of The Guardian reported that according to a recent study, successfully anonymizing data is practically impossible for any complex dataset. Researchers Luc Rocher, Julien M. Hendrickx, and Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye from Université catholique de Louvain and Imperial College London wrote, in the abstract to their Nature Communications article Estimating the success of re-identifications in incomplete datasets using generative models, that “Using our model, we find that 99.98% of Americans would be correctly re-identified in any dataset using 15 demographic attributes. Our results suggest that even heavily sampled anonymized datasets are unlikely to satisfy the modern standards for anonymization set forth by GDPR and seriously challenge the technical and legal adequacy of the de-identification release-and-forget model.”
Privacy07/22/2019Dutch regulators addressed use of transaction data for marketing purposes – Chris Ewing, Tim Hickman, and Nathalie Colin of White & Case wrote that the Dutch Data Protection Authority sent the Dutch Banking Association a letter informing it that processing individuals’ transaction data for direct marketing purposes may not comply with the GDPR. Appended to the letter was guidance meant to help banks determine whether processing transaction data for direct marketing purposes would be compatible with the original propose for which the data had been collected.
Privacy07/18/2019New York SHIELD Act awaits governor’s signature – In the same Alert, Kramer Levin noted that New York’s Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Handling (SHIELD) Act, which updates New York’s data breach laws, passed the state senate and assembly and awaits the governor’s signature.
Privacy07/17/2019New York Privacy Act presumed dead – On July 17 Alysa Zeltzer Hutnik and Lauren Myers of Kelley Drye reported that New York’s efforts to pass the New York Privacy Act, SB5642, have failed, leaving the CCPA as the only comprehensive privacy state statute. The next day, Kramer Levin published an Alert discussing the bill and stating that its future is unclear.
Privacy07/17/2019ePrivacy Regulation update – Melinda McLellan and Kyle Fath of BakerHostetler wrote that the Council of the European Union’s ePrivacy Regulation likely will not be implemented before late 2021, and discussed key concepts of the regulation up for debate and the subject of amendments. Adoption of the regulation, introduced in 2017 and originally slated to go into effect with the GDPR, may be delayed even further due to changes in oversight of the Council. According to the New York State Senate site, the bill is in committee, having been referred to Consumer Protection on May 9.
Privacy07/17/2019COPPA Rule comments sought – As Alysa Zeltzer Hutnik and Lauren Myers of Kelley Drye reported, the FTC announced on July 17 that it is seeking comment on the effectiveness of amendments the FTC made to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) in 2013 and whether additional changes are needed. The COPPA rule went into effect in 2000 to implement the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The public comment period is open for 90 days after notice is published in the Federal Register.
Privacy07/17/2019Data security management in China – Xinlan Liu of Perkins Coie prepared an overview of the draft Measures for Data Security Management published for public comment in May by the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs of China (official Chinese version and unofficial English translation). These measures, along with other recent draft measures (including the Measures for Network Security Review, the Regulations for the Network Protection of Children’s Personal Information and the Measures for Safety Assessment on Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Information) would be the supporting documents of the Network Security Law.
Enhancing Practice07/16/2019Law firms in transition – As noted by Jim Gill of Ipro, Altman Weil has released an 80-page report on the results of its Law Firms in Transition 2019 survey. The report substantive sections are Market Forces, Productivity, Lawyer Staffing Strategies, Efficiency of Legal Service Delivery, Pricing Strategies, Law Firm Profitability, Practice Groups, Leading Change, Financial Performance, and Bonus Question.
Enhancing Practice07/16/2019AI regulation – Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises noted that the Law Library of Congress released a report, Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in Selected Jurisdictions, that looks at AI regulation and policy in jurisdictions around the world.
E-Discovery07/12/2019July’s Notable Cases and Events in E-Discovery – From Sidley, summaries of People v. Spicer, 2019 IL App (3d) 170814 (Ill. App. Ct. Mar. 7, 2019), Shamrock-Shamrock, Inc. v. Remark, 2019 WL 1868175 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Apr. 26, 2019), Flynn v. FCA US LLC, 2019 WL 1746266 (S.D. Ill. April 18, 2019), and Franklin v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, 2019 WL 1130477 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 12, 2019).
E-Discovery07/10/2019Translating with AI – Elizabeth Beattie of Asian Legal Business reported that Hogan Lovells worked with Knovos to use AI to translate and scan Korean documents for a DOJ investigation, saving, according to the firm, 8,300 hours of review time.
E-Discovery07/10/2019Turning the e-discovery tables – James Beck of Reed Smith discussed implementation of a plaintiff-focused e-discovery strategy in the Taxotere MDL.
E-Discovery07/08/2019More on the challenges of emojis – Samantha Murphy Kelly of CNN wrote an article about the increasing appearance of emojis in court cases and the challenges they pose to judges, citing numbers from Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman (33 reported cases with emojis as evidence in 2017, 53 in 2018, and 50 in the first half of 2019). While there are more than 2,823 emojis set by the Unicode Consortium, courts have not yet developed guidelines on how they should be approached.
Enhancing Practice07/07/2019Law firm legal technology sanity check – Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, analyzing the results of the 2019 Aderant Business of Law and Legal Technology Survey, notes that the most effective tech tools are not the ones sucking up all the oxygen in the room – AI or blockchain, for example – but rather far more prosaic technologies such as document management and time and billing.
Privacy07/03/2019State “omnibus” privacy law comparison sheet – Baker McKenzie has published a comparison chart of new or proposed state privacy laws. The chart covers bills from California’s CCPA (SB 1121) and laws from Maine (LD 945 / SP 275), Nevada (SB 220), and Pennsylvania (HB 1049).
E-Discovery06/30/2019Egypt draft data protection law – Youssef Sallam of Al Tamimi & Company wrote that the Egyptian Cabinet of Ministers recently approved a draft data protection law, akin to the GDPR, which is being reviewed by the Parliament of Egypt.
E-Discovery06/27/2019Garter e-discovery solutions market guide summary – Exterro has made available a reprint of a 15-page summary of Gartner’s Market Guide for E-Discovery Solutions. A full version can be purchased from Gartner for $1,295. As I have noted in the past, these types of guides are best used to help develop a general understanding of the options available in the market and never should be used as the primary source of information for making decisions about which e-discovery software or services to buy.
E-Discovery05/14/2019Subpoenaing wearable technology data – In an ABA article, Meghan A. Rigney of Wiedner & McAuliffe offered advice on subpoenaing wearable technology data, in particular FitBit and Apple data.
E-Discovery11/12/2018Complex commercial litigation described – In e-discovery circles we frequently talk about “complex commercial litigation” but how many of us have a solid understanding of what that means? Ryan Frei and Ashley Peterson of McGuireWoods have prepared a primer that covers the basics and more.