Our final days at ILTA were spent visiting the booths in the vendor exhibit hall. While there were many interesting booths of various focus from knowledge management to IT staffing solutions, we limited our visits to vendors and services relating to eDiscovery, self-collection tools and records management. We saw the launching of new products, and talked to existing providers about improved functionality, new releases, and upgrades. These open discussions with vendors allow Wortzman Nickle to stay abreast of the changing landscape to the tools and technology in the eDiscovery market.
We attended an interesting session yesterday “Client Oriented Document Review”. We had to chuckle when one of the panelists described some of her experiences as the ‘dry cleaner effect’ – the lawyer drops off their eDiscovery project on Friday with the request that it be ready for pick up on Monday. One of the common threads in many of the sessions we attended this week was the need for efficient, defensible and repeatable processes; in other words, legal project management. While many lawyers and law firms may be using project management methodologies in their practices, the need for formalized processes seems to be the emphasis. In summary, our week at ILTA has been an informative experience to learn, explore and network. We had the opportunity to catch up with old friends, put faces to colleagues we frequently phone or email, and meet new friends from around the world. We are looking forward to de-briefing from the week, and getting ready for a busy fall. The day started with a great keynote session “Beyond Brainstorming” by Thomas Koulopoulos of Delphi Group. In an interactive session, he creatively explored how and why elements of typical brainstorming is flawed, and suggested alternative techniques for team problem solving. As a finale to the session, our groups were asked to create a wind generated vehicle from limited supplies provided and within limited time constraints. We scurried to find a solution to the problem with lots of laughs and interesting results, all a means to illustrate the different problem solving personalities in our group.
The vendor exhibit hall opened today and we’ve just begun exploring the booths and the tremendous amount of information to be obtained. More to come on the exhibits tomorrow. There are so many interesting and informative sessions to attend, it’s difficult to choose which ones to attend. One of our favorite sessions today discussed legal project management tools for all budgets. Great to hear the examples and scenarios of how others are managing their projects and which tools assist them. Hardly a week goes by when we don’t hear of a data breach. We recently heard about LinkedIn, a popular business social network, being hacked into (not for the first time). Many data breaches today are targeted at databases that contain collections of valuable data ripe for the taking (just ask Anonymous or Wikileaks).
There is a huge treasure trove of sensitive corporate documents sitting on litigation review platforms around the world. The convenience of logging into a review platform from anywhere makes these repositories attractive targets for corporate espionage, IP theft, and cyber gangs wanting to create mischief or embarrass a company. When sensitive IP leaves the firewall of an organization, there are both ethical and legal obligations to zealously protect client confidences, trade secrets, personal information and, more generally, confidential information. If the information is considered a high value target, the bad guys will work hard to try and find a way to get it. Very often, you will not even know of a data breach until long after the damage is done. Best practices requires in house counsel, with help from their IT people, to always review the security of a hosted review environment, and perhaps consult with a security expert when dealing with highly sensitive corporate data to make sure it remains secure during review. Wortzman Nickle has vetted the security of many hosted environments. If you have any questions or concerns, call us. |
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