Dennis Kennedy's Eight Legal Technology Trends for 2008

My friend Dennis Kennedy has posted his annual predictions on LLRX.com. This year's edition is called "Eight Legal Technology Trends for 2008 – Good Times, Bad Times or Hard Times in Legal Tech?" I'll specifically note numbers 1 and 2 and let you follow the link for the rest.

1. "Making Better Use of What You Already Own." This is always a important concept, but even more so during tough economic times. Law firms sometimes can pay for new software and training without even understanding that the current software might do all or part of what they need-- if someone would only explore the advanced features.
2. "Lawyers Win Round 1 in the E-discovery Battle . . . by a Wide Margin." I have to confess this one caught me a little off guard. But Dennis correctly notes that while there were many predictions of the immediate changes in litigation this year, "electronic discovery remains a trickle rather than a flood in today's litigation world." But, to borrow the analogy, one round does not make a match. So, we'll see how this progresses as much is happening on the electronic discovery front. I would point out a prior post by Dennis "26 Electronic Discovery Trends for 2008" and Craig Ball's recent 17 electronic discovery predictions.

Kansas U.S. District Court Rules Provide Great Electronic Discovery Primer

Last night was one of my more fun and unusual presentations. At the Hudson-Hall-Wheaton chapter meeting of the American Inns of Court in Tulsa, they combined electronic data discovery with a Saturday Night Live theme. So after giving a serious talk on EDD, I sat down to be interviewed by the Church Lady, who soon brought up the Evil One's role in EDD. I was followed by Hanz and Franz.

Hanz was played by none other than the Honorable Sam A. Joyner, Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. He made us aware of an EDD resource that I had not seen before, Guidelines for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information from the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. This three page PDF file is a truly great summary of counsel's obligations with regard to EDD. Since it is only three pages, I suggest it is worth everyone's time to download and read, even if you are stil trying to convince yourself that you can avoid EDD and ESI for the reminder of your career.

EDD Update Blog Seeks to Become "Go To" Source for Electronic Data Discovery News and Analysis

Law.com has released the EDD Update blog, which will focus on "electronic data discovery news and analysis." Given the number of well-known pundits and experts that have signed on as authors, the endeavor seems destined to be a success. For a good example of the content you will find there, check out Craig Ball's common-sense post on getting electronic evidence admitted in court.

Site of the Week: Richmond Journal of Law and Technology - E-Discovery Archives

If you do not have much to do the next few days, here's one way to fill up your spare time. Check out this collection: the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT)  E-Discovery Archives. Several weeks ago the Spring, 2007 issue of the online law journal, which is focused solely on Electronic Discovery, was added to the archives.

One of the student editors informed me of the publication."Our publication is a student-run law journal housed at the University of Richmond School of Law. JOLT was first published in 1995 as the first exclusively on-line law journal and has continued to publish articles on the intersection of law and technology for over ten years. JOLT is available online, free of charge, to anyone who visits our website....Each year, we publish an issue dedicated to the emerging issues in Electronic Discovery. The most recent annual survey focuses on the recent changes in the federal rules and contains six articles from authors with various perspectives on E-Discovery."

Over 250 pages are contained in the new issue.

What Lies Beneath: Native Format Production and Discovery of Metadata in Federal Court

We have many great scholarly articles published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal. But they are all generally outside of the subject matter of this weblog. Imagine my surprise to find tucked into the Law Day theme issue of the Bar Journal, the article "What Lies Beneath: Native Format Production and Discovery of Metadata in Federal Court" by Elliot Paul Anderson. This is an easy-to-read article on the topic of when discoverable digital evidence must be produced in native format with the metadata intact and when images or other formats are permissable. If you are handling litigation and the prior sentence doesn't mean much to you, you had better check out this article. Even the most knowledgeable litigator will want to read this article for its list of opinions from trial courts on this issue. Nice work, Mr. Anderson.

Ten Tips Leading to Efficient and Effective eDiscovery for the Small Law Firm

I just received my copy of the ABA GPSOLO's Technology eReport. In my continuing effort to pass along e-discovery information of use to mid-sized and smaller law firms, I refer you you to Ten Tips Leading to Efficient and Effective eDiscovery for the Small Law Firm. It is brief and written by some very well-qualified authors.

Law Technology Today is Launched!

I am pleased to note the launch of a new free e-zine, Law Technology Today, which is published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. The inaugural issue, dated March, 2007, is now available online. Like its sister publication, Law Practice Today, it is free and I strongly suggest that you subscribe to both e-zines. (Subscribe to LTT  Subscribe to LPT ) I understand that there will be a lot of electronic evidence and discovery issues covered in this new publication.

My Report About ABA TECHSHOW 2007

ABA TECHSHOW 2007 is over. Congratulations to my friend TECHSHOW chair Dan Pinnington and the TECHSHOW Planning Board (and the great faculty) for another superb event. I’m far from unbiased, but TECHSHOW is my favorite annual event and this year’s edition was one of the best I’ve attended. Both the speakers and the attendees were well versed in legal technology and eager to share their knowledge.

Here are my short take observations:

1. As usual, there was good chemistry between the speakers and the attendees. A Taste of Techshow featured pairs of speakers hosting small dinner gatherings which led to an even more collegial atmosphere. See Adriana Linares’s list of the dinners.
2. Electronic discovery and electronic evidence management remain as the hottest of topics. Some law firms sent several lawyers to these sessions. Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, author of the Zubulake opinions, gave an impressive and engaging keynote address about ED issues. Her remarks will be available as a podcast from the TS website soon.
3. Tips programs are hot. There were four different 60 Tips sessions and a Best of the Tips session. The last session was still packed, even at the end of a long day. These Tips programs are popular everywhere. I think it is because attendees always get a tip or two that they can put to use immediately. I think there’s a lesson for law firm trainers and IT departments here. The minimum training session need not be an hour or 50 minutes. Ten or fifteen minutes of training before or after a staff meeting may have more impact in terms of what is retained and used.
4. Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional is hot. Several sessions on various aspects of Adobe were well attended. Adobe’s Rick Borstein spoke to a standing room only group.
5. For fun and education, the 2007 60 Sites in 60 Minutes list is now online!

If you wait a week to comment, then you can link to lots of blog posts and articles from others.

Brett Burney did a great TECHSHOW round up for law.com. A must read!

Dan Pinnington posted post-show comments on the TS blog.

Kevin O’Keefe didn’t attend, but noted the lack of live blogging from TS and got Bob Ambrogi to agree. I’ll stay with Bob’s former position that sometimes there are more important things to do at TS than blog. I have done some live blogging from TS before, but this year I was too busy. I didn’t get to spend all the time I wanted at the vendor’s floor this year. I did note one blog post from a speaker during his time at the podium and one first post for a new blog live from TS.

This blog hosted a recapitulation of the 60 marketing tips panel I moderated. (Personally I am more impressed with analysis of and reporting on a presentation than reposting so much of the content of a program.)

Nerino Petro liked my tip about what to do with the TS materials CD. Read this carefully. It could be big for a few of you.

Matt Homann posted his Web 2.0 TS materials in a Google Doc.

Kevin Thompson only attended one day of TS, but gave an extensive review.

Among the new people I met at TS this year was Dominic Jaar, who writes the Wines and Information Management Blog. (Only one of those during working hours, please.) He reported on the presentation Laura Calloway and I gave on speech recognition software and several other presentations. He was a first time attendee and I’m confident he will be back.

Here’s one lawyer’s booth-by-booth trek through the TS Exhibit Hall.

Don’t forget that if you missed ABA TECHSHOW, you can soon purchase the TS materials CD. (Well, I assume you can.)

But ABA TECHSHOW 2008 will be bigger and better than ever, maybe the best ever. It starts with a better hotel. Mark your calendar now for March 13 -15, 2008 at the Chicago Hilton. But even more significant is that Tom Mighell has been named ABA TECHSHOW 2008 chair and so we know that it will be a great show! (No pressure, Tom.) Congratulations to Tom.

Oklahoma Bar Journal's Management and Technology Theme Issue Offers Lots of Great Reading

The November issue of the Oklahoma Bar Journal was a special Management and Technology-themed issue and I was the guest editor. As events unfolded, I ended up writing a lot of it myself.

A Lawyer's Guide to Mobile Computer Security was co-authored by Ellen Freedman, Reid Trautz and myself. Did you know that a personal computer is lost or stolen every 12 seconds? We cover some important points about protecting sensitive client information in these days when so many lawyers are carrying laptop computers or USB flash drives containing client information. This article will also be published (maybe with some additions) in the Pennsylvania Lawyer and American Immigration Lawyers Association magazine. I regret that we didn't have time to review some interesting security tools that I received. Maybe we will do a follow up or update in the future. But for the present, feel free to pass along this link (or the permalink to this blog post) to laptop-packing lawyers you know.

E-Discovery: The New Federal Rules by Jerry Green and Susan K. Carns covers the all of the changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relating to electronically stored information (ESI) that go into effective December 1, 2006. Even lawyers who never handle litigation or venture inside a courtroom should be aware of these changes. It is critical information for those who advise businesses.

Maximizing Your E-Potential is by Jacob Williams. I believe this is his first article published in the Bar Journal and I predict you will hear more from him. He notes, "Three of the Internet’s resources offered for free that I adopted were RSS feeds, electronic monitoring (e-monitoring) and electronic alerts (e-alerts). They have now established themselves as the wave of the future. If you do not employ them in your practice, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage."

He outlines how Oklahoma lawyers whose case dockets are online with the OCIS docketing system can set up a system so that they are immediately notified every time a document is filed or a docket entry made. This only costs $20 a year by using WatchThatPage.com. He does note a needed tweak to do for each of these pages so that you don't get a notice every day as the date changes.

My article, Conflict Checking Systems from A to Z, turned out to be much longer and more comprehensive than I originally anticipated. Although I think the time for paper-based conflict check systems has passed us by, outlining implementation of a paper-based system seemed to be the best way to go through all of the requirements before moving on to software applications. So I'll immodestly suggest that every lawyer should read this one, whether they use computers or file cards and ledgers.

Motivating Law Firm Staff is a brief Top Ten List from me for small firm lawyers who have to serve as their own Director of Human Relations. But lawyers who work in larger firms can read it, too.

Websites Worth a Visit was the title of my regular Law Practice Tips column in the Oklahoma Bar Journal. I think that is self-explanatory. Some of you will be familiar with most of these. (By now, my colleagues may have figured out why I was complaining about being so overloaded this fall.)

Addiction and the Law: How Dependency Issues Continue to Affect the Legal Profession is a condensed version of an article By Cliff Collins which was originally published in the August/September 2006 issue of the Oregon State Bar Bulletin. We don't normally do reprints, but this is an important issue.

You can download the entire copy of this Bar Journal in PDF format from this link. That might be a better option if you want to print several of these articles to stick in your briefcase. The above link is for the current Oklahoma Bar Journal issue. When the December Bar Journal is posted, this issue will be archived here, which is not a valid link until then.

Craig Ball: Five Articles on Electronic Discovery

With changes to the Federal Rules on the horizon for December, many firms are scrambling to get up to speed on electronic discovery issues.  My good friend (and noted legal technologist) Craig Ball has compiled five of his articles on electronic data discovery into one file for your free downloading pleasure.

Please note that this is a direct link to a 104 page PDF file that exceeds 1 MB in size. Thanks for sharing with us, Craig.