Blogs

The Pros and Cons of Using Google Vault for Evidence

By Ann Halkett posted 07-12-2023
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Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of: Dave Caballes, Senior Manager and Leader of Deloitte Canada’s Computer Forensics practice. In the digital age, where vast amounts of information are stored electronically, organizations require efficient methods to manage and preserve electronic evidence for various purposes, including legal matters, investigations, and compliance. Google Vault, a robust data retention and eDiscovery tool, has gained popularity among businesses and individuals. This blog will discuss the pros and cons of using Google Vault for evidence preservation, helping you understand its benefits and potential limitations. The Pros of Using ...
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Project Validation for TAR: Part 1

By Brian Balistreri posted 05-08-2023
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Please enjoy this blog posted on behal f of the co-authors, Trevor Burroughs, Sr. E-Discovery Analytics Adv, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Adam Strayer, E-Discovery Analysis & Review Technology Manager, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Technology Assisted Review (TAR) is a process in e-discovery that leverages advanced technology to complement human review. Given the sophistication inherent in some TAR tools, it can be important to leverage and apply the right expertise when using TAR, including as part of the procedure to validate its results. Working with experts can speed up a TAR project while also ...
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Introducing eDiscovery Concepts to Newbies (For Those New to the Area - Even if Experienced in Other Areas): Technical Side

By Brian Balistreri posted 04-26-2023
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Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of the author, Ravi Sharma, Consultant, Sky Discovery. The eDiscovery industry is a fast-paced, dynamic area of legal technology. As a result, there are often a lot of concepts to navigate in a short space of time, particularly if you are from a non-legal background. Although understanding the lifecycle for an eDiscovery lifecycle ( the EDRM ) is a good starting point, I have listed 4 key concepts to be aware of for those with a technical background that are looking to take their first steps into the world of eDiscovery. Collection of evidence: it is essential that any evidence is handled in ...
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Project Validation for TAR: Part 2

By Brian Balistreri posted 04-26-2023
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Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of the author, Jonathan Kiang, Senior Electronic Discovery Consultant, Epiq. At the end of a long and tedious document review, the last thing any attorney wants to be told is that more documents need to be reviewed. Maybe the recent relevancy rates for documents selected based on the TAR model had reached near zero. And perhaps the number of documents marked relevant is close to the estimated total number of relevant documents. So why, after thousands or even millions of documents have already been reviewed, is more review for validation needed? TAR validation may seem like an afterthought, but it’s ...
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Coming to “Terms” with eDiscovery: What It Is and How it Works

By Brian Balistreri posted 04-25-2023
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Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of the author, Doug Austin, Editor of eDiscovery Today. Providing legal services in an era involving the cloud, social media, remote work and collaboration and artificial intelligence is more challenging than ever. Most of the evidence we work with today is generated electronically using technology, so having a basic understanding of electronic discovery is a “must” for any legal professional today. This article is designed for “newbies” of “eDiscovery” to help you understand what eDiscovery is, important terms to know, types of discoverable electronic evidence and how eDiscovery is conducted. What ...
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Introducing eDiscovery Concepts to Newbies (For Those New to the Area - Even if Experienced in Other Areas): Corporate Side

By Brian Balistreri posted 03-28-2023
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Pleased enjoy this blog posted on behalf of the author, James MacGregor, Partner, FORCYD. In today's digital age, the use of electronic data has become ubiquitous in business transactions and legal disputes. As a result, eDiscovery has emerged as a critical process to find, preserve, and analy s e electronic data for use in legal proceedings. However , for those new to eDiscovery, it can be overwhelming, with complex legal and technical concepts that can be challenging to understand. While its easy to get fixated on the legal and technical hurdles to overcome during the process of eDiscovery, for those new to the industry, it’s also fundamental ...
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Excel Tips for eDiscovery

By Brian Balistreri posted 01-16-2023
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***Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of the author Kathy Dallaire, CEDS, eDiscovery and Litigation Support Coordinator, Stikeman Elliot LLP. In this blog, we will demonstrate some handy Excel formulas commonly used to build load files where the information required is spread out over multiple spreadsheets or has been parsed out into separate cells. While there can be numerous situations which require manually building a load file, hopefully these tips will save you some time and effort. Combining values from multiple spreadsheets using VLookup. In this scenario, we want to append values for Title and Filename from separate sheets of an Excel ...
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Excel Tips for Litigation Teams (Or Anyone) - Pivot Tables

By Brian Balistreri posted 01-16-2023
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****Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of Julie Niebel. Julie has over 25 years of experience in Litigation Support / Information Services and is now retired. She is passionate about education, learning and trying to keep up with technology! Pivot Tables Pivot noun the central point, pin or column on which something turns or balances. [1] In the context of litigation and data sets, the two key words are: “column” and “turns”. A pivot table provides a way to “turn” or change the way you look at information by adjusting the data columns. Pivot tables in Excel are used to view and analyze complex information to identify patterns ...
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Excel Tips for Litigation Teams (or Anyone) - Cheat Sheet

By Brian Balistreri posted 01-13-2023
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****Please enjoy this quick cheat sheet posted on behalf of the author, Denise Ash, Event Education Manager, ILTA. Concatenate Have you ever been tasked with having to combine multiple fields? If so, hopefully you used a formula to do it! If not, you should definitely check out the Concatenate function. Here is how I always get to it because it’s how I found it initially. 1. Click the Insert Function button (it is an fx ) to the left of the Formula Bar. 2. The Insert Function box will appear. Type the word Join into the top text box and click Go . 3. Several options should appear; choose Concatenate and the following dialog box will appear: ...
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Automate, Automate, Automate! (Like Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Brady Bunch? Anyone? Sigh... Part 2

By Brian Balistreri posted 01-13-2023
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***Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf of the author, Phil Weldon, Director of eDiscovery and Litigation Support Technology, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. With Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), software has undertaken a Copernican Revolution. OpenAI's GPT3-5 has passed both Evidence and Torts on the bar exam . Where we used to have to point and click, we now have software that pushes its own buttons. We can now use low code RPA workflows coupled with API or GUI access to have software run itself. To your delight or dismay, this is already happening. Sneaker heads and Swifties have been using this technology ...
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Automate, Automate, Automate! (Like Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Brady Bunch? Anyone? Sigh... Part 1

By Brian Balistreri posted 01-13-2023
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***Please enjoy this blog posted on behalf o f the author, Stephanie Clerkin, Director of Litigation Support, Korein Tillery, LLC. Automation can be a powerful tool for streamlining processes, saving time, and increasing efficiency. Automation can also reduce the risk of human error, leading to more accurate and consistent results. However, it is important to approach automation with care, as there are also potential dangers to consider. Given I am a department of one, I have no choice but to turn to automation in order to stay on top of my workload. As a starting point, I automate as many repetitive, routine, or mundane tasks as possible. I ...
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How Do You Measure ROI and Why You Should: Practical How-to Advice

By Ann Halkett posted 09-28-2022
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Please enjoy this blog, posted on behalf of the author, Andrea Williams, Principal, Fides essociates Inc. When undertaking initiatives and new opportunities, it isn’t always possible or easy to deliver to the classic Return on Investment (ROI) formula. While showing the profitability, or savings, that has resulted is very important, there are frequently many more results and learnings identified that have significant benefits and impact to the organization beyond the baseline ROI calculation. It’s not a black and white world, so painting your ROI picture using more of your palette will reflect the additional dimensions. Why is it important and valuable? ...
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eDiscovery Project Management: Tools and Decision Tracking

By Tanya Pereira posted 04-26-2022
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Please enjoy this blog post authored by Tanya Pereira, Discovery Services and Litigation Support Coordinator, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. As a Discovery Services and Litigation Support Coordinator, I have a 360-degree view of how projects are managed, both on the internal legal operations side as well as the eDiscovery and client matters side. Legal project management is becoming increasingly prevalent in the industry as more firms build out dedicated project management offices and encourage teams to be trained in legal project management. In eDiscovery, it remains critical to adopt a standardized approach to projects due to the need to monitor ...
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Practical Tips/Strategies for Selling Innovation Upwards – The Constant Struggle of Litigation Support

By Charles Neal posted 02-25-2022
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Shawn McClurg moderated a pre-recorded roundtable discussion today with Peter Pepiton entitled Practical Tips/Strategies for Selling Innovation Upwards – The Constant Struggle of Litigation Support . The focus of this roundtable was determining ways that innovation could be achieved inside a law firm. How do you best identify an innovation ‘need’? There are a few ways in which you would identify an innovation need. First, a need might be glaringly obvious (i.e. a problem is out in the open and needs to be solved). If it is not easily identifiable, you might have to suss it out by talking to people and others in your firm about their pain points. And ...
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TAR Protocols: A Practical Guide - Second Blog

By Joel Sandler posted 01-27-2022
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Please enjoy this blog post co-authored by Joel Sandler, eData Practice Support Manager, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Ethan Ackerman, Senior Attorney, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Leonard Impagliazzo, Associate, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP. Introduction As we explored in the recent “ Crash Course in TAR ”, Technology Assisted Review (“TAR”) refers primarily to the use of machine learning to predict the relevancy of documents in a discovery project. The technology continues to evolve; we have progressed from the static models of TAR 1.0 to the active learning models of TAR 2.0 and are witnessing further innovation with workflows described ...
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A Crash Course in TAR: What Do You Really Need to Know?

By Rachel McAdams posted 01-24-2022
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Please enjoy this blog post co-authored by Andrew Lyons, eDiscovery Technology Specialist A&L Goodbody Solicitors and Kayode Okubanjo, eDiscovery Analyst, A&L Goodbody Solicitors. Technology-assisted review (TAR) has gone from a new technology to a critical element in a relatively short period of time. The first judicial approval of TAR in e-discovery was in the United States, in the February 2012 Opinion and Order in Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe. Ireland followed in 2015 and the UK in 2016, and the use of TAR is now an everyday occurrence across the globe. When embarking on a new project, the question of whether or not to use ...
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Demystifying eDiscovery Costs

By Gretel Best posted 09-13-2021
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Please enjoy this blog post authored by Gretel Best, Manager, Litigation Support & eDiscovery Management Group, Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP. As the volume of electronic data continues to grow, managing the cost of processing, reviewing and producing data as part of the electronic discovery (“eDiscovery”) process is becoming increasingly challenging. Leveraging technology and litigation support tools and retaining the assistance of vendors or alternative legal service providers (“ALSP”) are effective ways to manage these costs. However, implementing cost saving measures can itself present a complex undertaking for those who fail to approach tasks strategically ...
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Three Considerations for Outsourced Review

By Natasha Doucas posted 08-17-2021
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Written in collaboration by: - Marta Young LL.B - Review Manager, Ricoh Canada - Natasha Doucas - Business Development Executive, Ricoh Canada At the onset of a large litigation, one of the big decisions you’ll need to make is whether your legal team can handle the entire eDiscovery process, or whether parts of that process should be outsourced. One of the largest investments of time and resources is document review. Often, firms wait until all documents have been processed before deciding how review will be managed. Fortunately, we are starting to see more review planning at the data identification and collection stages. The earlier you begin planning, ...
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Litigation Support Tool Tip – Mastering Google Sleuthing

By Amy Bowser-Rollins posted 08-09-2021
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Please enjoy this blog post tip from Amy Bowser-Rollins, Instructor, Litigation Support Guru. Have you ever had an attorney ask you to track down “something” or “someone” by running Google searches? I know I have! Google has some nifty search tools that can help you narrow down what you’re trying to find. Let’s start with Google Advanced Search . If you don’t know the exact syntax to use, this tool can help prompt you for the information and then format the search syntax for you. Here are some examples you can try: You can add a dash (or hyphen) in front of a word to tell Google you don’t want that word in your search results -- the equivalent ...
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Certifications for eDiscovery Professionals

By Lauren Doucette posted 08-06-2021
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Please enjoy this blog post authored by Lauren Doucette, Senior Practice Technology & eDiscovery Project Manager, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP. EXAMS PASSED: Certified Paralegal, Relativity Certified Administrator, Relativity Analytics Specialist The world of certifications can seem incredible overwhelming and confusing. With so many to choose from and with such a range in schools of thought, I am often asked by my mentees, “Which certification should I choose and is it worth it?” To address the first part of this question, I think its important to ask the “why?” While some colleagues and even employers don’t find certifications worth ...
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