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eDiscovery Managed Services Series: Roles

By Bethany DeRuiter
“You put the right people in the right places, and then you trust them to do the right stuff.” - Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO   Where workflows are the “what” of eDiscovery, defined roles are the “who.” Workflows don’t work themselves. They require people to execute the work tasks. The roles of the people designated to perform the work in the workflow have just as much impact as the steps and sequencing. Roles and responsibilities are a significant piece of the eDiscovery puzzle. Staffing structures in law firms need to align with the firm’s strategic goals and objectives. Some firms in-source all eDiscovery (collection, processing, managed review, and ...
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Tip of the Week - Nuance’s PowerPDF (ver 3) - Open in New Window option J

By ILTA Tips
To change your PowerPDF program to open each PDF in a new WINDOW (instead of Tabs inside one open PDF) In PowerPDF, go to   File ,   Options ,   General , and click on   Startup.  Then UN-check the box under the   Basic Tools   area so it looks like this:   (See picture below also)   o  Open documents as new tabs within the same window.   Enjoy
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So Long In-House Lit Support

By John Sawyer
Long long ago my small firm realized the benefits of having some type of litigation support application.  At the time, as the Information Systems Manager of a small firm, litigation support and “eDiscovery” were certainly not my area of expertise.  eDiscovery was in its infancy, at least as far as a small firm was concerned.  Paper was king.  Perhaps I could turn to the litigation paralegals within the firm?  What were they seeing?  What did they know about this new trend?  Unfortunately, they were busy with cases and “litigation tech” was new and foreign to most of them, as well.  With the paralegals busy in the active support of litigation cases, the review ...
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Moving to the Cloud for eDiscovery

By Christopher Hunt
The cloud is often referred to as the great equalizer when it comes to technology. Organizations that can learn to leverage the flexibility and efficiencies of cloud-based platforms will quickly realize numerous benefits, from cost control to unlocking capabilities never-before available (and in some cases, may never have been available at all). Smaller firms and companies in particular find the appeal of the cloud tantalizing – gain modern technologies and efficiencies, literally jump years ahead in your process, with very little up-front investment in hardware and software. This is the position my firm found itself in a couple of years ago as we embarked ...
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Cloud-Based Discovery: The Agile Litigator’s Best Friend

By Aaron Crockett
Aaron Crockett, JD, in Portland, OR Oregon is on the cutting edge of beer, cannabis, and hipster-ism (it’s a thing).  But when it comes to electronic discovery, Oregon can feel like the land that time forgot.  Print-to-PDF is still the predominant method of collecting and producing email and relatively few attorneys, particularly in the older generation, have a solid grasp of metadata or why it is important and useful.  Oregon’s antiquated discovery rules are certainly no help. But we are still in the modern world and the impact of the data wave crashing into the legal industry is felt even here, however remote we may seem. Just like everywhere else, the ...
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Tip of the Week - the Old Alt X trick (Word, any version)

By ILTA Tips
The Old Alt + X trick Here is how to quickly insert symbols in Word without taking your fingers off the keyboard. Inserting Symbols into Word documents takes time when you have to go up to the ribbon Insert | Symbols | Symbol at the very least.    So why not just keep your fingers on the keyboard? Type in the hexadecimal Unicode value of the symbol you want, then press Alt + X.  The value will be changed to the Symbol automatically. Tips: The leading zeroes aren’t necessary – 00A5 and A5 both work to make the Yen symbol. Case doesn’t matter – a9 and A9 both work to make the Copyright symbol. Make a mistake? – as always, Undo is your friend ...
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Soft Skills That Are Not That Hard:  6 Soft Skills that will Elevate Your EDiscovery Career

By Nicole MacCallum
Often times, the term “eDiscovery professional” or “technologist” doesn’t immediately conjure up the image of a smooth talking, extroverted, social-chair. The first three qualities that come to mind when I hear “technologist,” are highly intelligent, great-with-data, and introverted.  These are of course three blatant stereotypes. That said, having strong communication skills and being a talented technologist are not mutually exclusive and one direction is not greater than the other.  But, if an individual is able to achieve both of those components, it will make him or her all the more successful, well rounded, and attractive to clients and or future employers. ...
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Tip of the Week - Hidden Features of Chrome

By ILTA Tips
From “How-to Geek” How to Access Hidden Chrome Features and Settings Using the Chrome:// Pages Chrome is a pretty simple browser on the outside, but there are tons of pages built in for advanced settings, tweaks, tests, and more. All of these pages are hidden behind the chrome:// prefix—here’s a look at some of the best. Before we get into that, however, it’s probably a good idea to explain how these chrome:// pages work. You enter   chrome://   into the omnibox, followed by the page you want to access—think of it like a web page, but instead of   http:// being the prefix, it’schrome://. So, for example, for the first option we’re going to ...
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Tip of the Week - Outlook > Check Meeting Attendee Status

By ILTA Tips
Outlook > Check Meeting Attendee Status   Did you know that if you organize a meeting using Outlook’s Meeting Request you can check who accepted and declined the invite?   Navigate to your Outlook Calendar. Double-click the meeting you want to check. On the   Meeting   tab, in the   Show   group, click the   Tracking    button (the Tracking button will not display unless you are the organizer). A list of attendees and their responses will display. You can copy the attendee status list and paste it into Excel: Click the   Tracking   drop down and select   Copy Status to Clipboard . Open Excel and paste. ...
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Building BlockLand in Cleveland – An Interview with Bernie Moreno

By Deborah Dobson
Building BlockLand in Cleveland – An Interview with Bernie Moreno I recently interviewed Bernie Moreno, a local luxury car dealer in Cleveland who wants to position Cleveland as a leader in blockchain research and development. Moreno has assembled a group of some of Cleveland’s most prominent business, education and government leaders to focus on different subjects in the BlockLand initiative. A central component of BlockLand is to organize a blockchain convention in Cleveland which has been booked for December 1-4, 2018. Recently I interviewed Bernie regarding the BlockLand initiative and upcoming convention. What got you interested in blockchain ...
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eDiscovery Managed Services Series: Issue Management

By Bethany DeRuiter
Every day we expect results: deliverables that are on time, on budget, and that meet specification. We deliver daily requests to service providers, following workflows that are designed to give us exactly what we need. But inevitably glitches occur in workflows. Maybe steps are skipped. Maybe there are holes in the design. Maybe time estimates are off.  What happens then when the deliverable you receive is not what you asked for? What can you do when there’s an issue with getting the results you expect? The first obvious response is to ask the vendor to fix the problem as quickly as possible to minimize impact and to ease case team frustrations. The concern ...
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ILTACON 2018 - Blockchain series

By Shengshi Zhao
ILTAcon 2018 introduced a new blockchain series - as expected. The new series contains four different sessions - Blockchain 101, real world blockchain example, how to build a blockchain app and the future of blockchain. The sessions are coordinated by the Global Blockchain Consortium which kicked off on Sunday before ILTA officially started. One refreshing thing to see at the conference is to see real life applications - whether they are used in actual production environment or whether they are designed as proof of concepts. These real life applications show the audience the potentials of Blockchain technologies and give audience a sense of reality. ...
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Data Analytics Series Coming to ILTACON 2018

By Steven Lastres
What is my legal exposure in this case? How much should I settle for? What’s market for this contractual provision? These are examples of key questions clients ask, and the answer from their lawyer is usually subjective in nature. To paraphrase   Ed Walters , CEO of Fastcase, the industry is far too reliant on “hunches” and too light on data and statistical responses. As firms seek to modernize and respond to evolving client expectations, the data use environment is changing. That should not be surprising, as the use of data in virtually every other industry is on the rise. In response to the increasing activity and interest in the crossroads of law, ...
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Blockchain & ILTACON 2018

By Deborah Dobson
Blockchain is all the buzz these days, but many are still trying to figure out what it is and is there a potential use case for this technology platform at your firm. The good news is that there will be a series of four sessions devoted to blockchain at ILTACON 2018 on August 19-23 rd in National Harbor, MD that you should sign up for. The series kicks off with “Blockchain 101: It’s Not Just Crypto-currency” on Monday, August 20 th . Jay Hull of Jay D. Hull Consulting will help you learn what blockchain is and why the technology matters. In addition, he will discuss importance of blockchain technology for the legal industry ...
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ILTACON 2018 - Sessions of Interest to Knowledge Management Professionals

By Sharon Lee
ILTACON 2018   kicks off in Washington, DC, in less than one week.  We reviewed the   Conference Session Grid   and curated a list of sessions that may be of particular interest to KMers.  Note that in addition to the sessions we highlighted, there are many others on Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Innovation, Leadership, Training and more, so be sure to review the full agenda, including the Business Partner Education sessions.  We encourage you to share which sessions you plan to attend in the comment section below. Sunday, August 19 Arriving on Sunday? Get a head start at ILTACON by joining other KMers at the   Knowledge Managers Collaboration ...
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Tip of the Week - Outlook-Message to Meeting, Quick Keystrokes

By ILTA Tips
Turn a message into a meeting Got an email thread that begs for setting up a meeting? Here's how to make that happen. Open the message Press these keys:  Ctrl + Alt + R   The message turns into a meeting invitation with attendees Set your Location, the start time, and end time, Click Send and your meeting is all set up. (Pictures in attachment). AND Jump around Outlook with ease Sometimes you need to be in your calendar, and then quickly switch back to mail. Here are some shortcut keys that can help you do that. Ctrl +1 takes you to Mail Ctrl +2 takes you to Calendar Ctrl + 3 takes you to People (contacts) Ctrl +4 takes you ...
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Ohio Jumps on the Bandwagon of States Legally Recognizing Blockchain Data

By Deborah Dobson
Ohio Jumps on the Bandwagon of States Legally Recognizing Blockchain Data In May 2018, Ohio lawmakers introduced SB 300 seeking to become one of the latest U.S. states to legally recognize smart contracts and records stored on a blockchain. Introduced by State Senator Matt Dolan, the bill amended sections of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act to include blockchain records and smart contracts as electronic records. The bill also allowed for smart contracts to be legally enforceable as any other contract would be. “In order for Ohio to compete for new investments and jobs, we must welcome innovation, new technology and advanced energy. ...
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Women in eDiscovery Interviews: Part 8

By Phil Weldon
As a content coordinating volunteer for ILTA, I was interested to learn more about our female leaders of today. In May of 2018, my ILTA colleague Chandra Foreman was able to put me in touch with the Chicago Chapter Board of Women in eDiscovery. As a non-profit organization, WiE holds monthly meetings for legal professional women with a primary focus on education and networking. They also collaborate, fundraise, and mentor. I enjoyed taking the interviews and am sincerely excited to share them with the ILTA community. “Women can empower other women” as Jennifer Roe so eloquently put. I hope you find these interviews as fun and insightful as I did. Interview ...
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eDiscovery Managed Services Series: Workflows

By Bethany DeRuiter
The business of eDiscovery is based on workflow. Collected electronically stored information moves through its various conversions on a path to its final destination, whether it’s a database or production volume. This path is the backbone of eDiscovery, and contains the details of what we do every day. But what does an eDiscovery workflow look like?  Where does it show up in the practice of litigation? What’s its relationship to managed services? One of the first pictures of an eDiscovery workflow in the legal industry showed up around 2005 with the launching of the now ubiquitous eDiscovery Reference Model (“EDRM”) ( http://www.edrm.net/frameworks-and-standards ...
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Trial Document - Preparing a War Room in 2018

By Derek Boor
Trial Planning can be very stressful if your organization has not prepared correctly. It takes a great deal of time and planning to carry out all the tasks needed to make a war room successful, whether it be at a hotel or even a client's/local counsel's office. We have come up with some helpful tips & tricks should your organization be headed that direction in the near future. When thinking of trial, it's important to keep these four topics in mind, Planning, Preparation, Execution and Shut-Down. Planning Planning is the single most important function regarding a trial. Trial's just don't come up, they are usually in the judge's docket for months if ...
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