From the President

In this issue we focus on e-discovery issues. E-discovery is a quickly-evolving subject, and I believe these articles will fill in some basic information for novices, as well as provide specific helpful hints and guidelines interesting to the more experienced.

Our feature article, “Top Trends in E-Discovery Noted at ILTA Conference,” covers ten of the hot information technology issues affecting firms today.

“Gear Up for Great War Rooms,” provides a helpful guide for you to follow when building the best central gathering place for your trial team.

Costs and cost economy is a factor when looking at e-discovery, and these issues are covered in “The Rising Costs of E-Discovery Requirements Impacting Litigants.”

This e-newsletter is a value-added aspect of our service to you.  I invite your suggestions and submissions on content matter, as well as your overall opinion.  As always, we strive to be the best for you.

Best regards,
Sheila Atkinson-Baker

Top Trends in E-Discovery Noted at the International Legal Technology Conference

By Ralph Losey
Co-Chair, e-Discovery Group
Akerman Senterfitt, Orlando, FL

I attended the annual convention last week of the International Legal Technology Association (“ILTA”). This conference is a big event for law firm IT staff, and a few lawyers like myself. Over 2,300 techies turned out to attend 190 different educational sessions and to check out the 150 vendors on display.

The ILTA event is also a networking and IT-social heaven; the big multi-vendor sponsored 007 party is rumored to have cost over a half million dollars. The seminars related to e-discovery were filled to capacity; whereas other areas seemed nearly empty.
Read More…

Gear Up for Great War Rooms

By Stacy Jackson
Corporate Counsel,
IE Discovery, Austin, TX

When most people use the term “war room,” they might conjure up images of camouflaged men and the thud-thud-thud of helicopter blades. But in reality, a properly planned litigation war room can become a respite from the day-to-day grind of trial, a place where, in addition to everything else, you can brainstorm new ideas and strategies with your fellow trial attorneys.

A properly planned war room can be a sanctuary, where you can run and make extra copies, grab a backup CD because yours does not work, or fax an important document to your expert witness. Although trial is analogous to war, your war room doesn’t have to be warlike.
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Rising Costs of E-Discovery Requirements Impacting Litigants

By Ann G. Fort
Partner, IP Group
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, Atlanta, GA

The first electronic database I supervised in litigation ended up costing a dollar a page. And that was before a single lawyer had looked at any of it.

Making TIFF images, using Optical Character Recognition software to create searchable text, entering basic descriptive coding for each document and exporting all this data into a usable format were handled by an outside vendor that charged separately for each step.

This was actually cheap, because we started with paper documents, not dozens of hard drives and servers full of e-mail, Word files, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets that first had to be forensically imaged and treated like evidence at a homicide scene on “CSI: Miami.” 
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