Here's some data just in from the US on e-discovery trends. The research was conducted by the vendor IE Discovery gathering opinions and experiences from various government attorneys, records managers, paralegals and IT personnel regarding their perception of e-discovery preparedness within their government agency.
“This year’s survey results confirm the upward trend in the size, scope and effort required to deal with electronic discovery,” said Chris May, CEO of IE Discovery. The survey participants reported an increase of 8% in the time they spend dealing with electronic discovery issues with 71% of respondents spending up to 25% of their time on these issues. More than 30% of agencies have either hired or designated an 'e-discovery attorney'.
Participants also reported an increase in the percentage of the litigation budget that is now used for electronic discovery, although most participants did not list budgets as their biggest challenge. 'Internal systems and processes' was listed most often (38%) followed by 'Communication with the IT department' (20%); 'Finding good e-discovery staff with the right mix of IT and legal knowledge' (18%); 'Finding the budget to put systems and tools into place' (15%); and 'Getting buy-in from upper management' (10%).
Survey results overall show a recognition of the importance of planning as participants indicated increased efforts in the standardization of litigation holds and 30(b)(6)-witness designation and preparation as well as meet-and-confer protocols. The survey was conducted in the 9-day period from September 24 to October 7, 2008 – 77 government attorneys from 31 government agencies participated. An executive summary of survey results can be found at www.iediscovery.com/services/government/survey.aspx
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Friday, February 13
US government agency e-discovery trends
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 13 Feb 2009 08:17 GMT
Thursday, February 12
February issue of American Legal Technology Insider out now
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 12 Feb 2009 16:45 GMT
The 7th issue – February 2009 – of the American Legal Technology Insider
newsletter is out now. Click on the link to download your free copy as
a 396k PDF file.
Top stories include a report on the New York LegalTech show and how the recession is hitting law firm buying trends – in particular, is the litigation support and e-discovery sector heading for an early shakeout? When you can't walk down the corridors and aisles of LegalTech without been tackled by newly-fired execs from lit support suppliers wanting to thrust their newly minted – and in some cases with the ink still wet – CVs upon you, the answer is probably 'yes'. And we also look at Philips' increasingly aggressive plans for breaking into the North American digital dictation systems market. You can also register to receive it direct to your desktop as an email file attachment – just email to altisubs@legaltechnology.com with the word subscribe in the subject line. The next issue will be published on Thursday 12 March 2009.  1 Attachments
New appointments at LexisNexis
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 12 Feb 2009 09:53 GMT
LexisNexis this morning announced two new senior appointments to its Practice & Productivity Management business (aka the old Axxia & Visualfiles businesses). Peter Dye joins LexisNexis as Commercial Director, Corporate and Public Sector, and Bob Hadingham takes on the role of Commercial Director, Large Law.
"Following the acquisition and integration of Visualfiles and Axxia, these new appointments form part of a single, unified LexisNexis business that is positioned as a premium provider of integrated case, matter and practice management solutions to each of its identified market segments and sectors. "As Commercial Directors, both Peter Dye and Bob Hadingham are responsible for product line strategy, product planning and roadmap development, and financial management of the business in their respective market segments. They will both report directly to Tim Cheadle, General Manager, LexisNexis Practice & Productivity Management business. "Peter Dye brings with him over 20 years experience in the IT/software industry. Prior to this, Peter was Director of Product Management with CA Inc. and European Solution Strategist at Concord Communications Inc. for nine years. In these customer-focussed roles, he was responsible for communication with customers from inception through to product delivery and ongoing relationship management. "Bob Hadingham was previously Technology Champion at LexisNexis, where he worked closely with clients to drive the design and creation of applications to meet their needs. Of the 26 years he has been working in the IT industry, 18 years have been in the legal sector. He has been associated with Axxia since 1995, when he participated in the management buy-out that spun Axxia Systems from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). At the time, he became Support Director for the business and subsequently Development Director. "Cheadle commented, “As part of the senior team, Peter and Bob will play a crucial role in ensuring our business is closely aligned with the needs of our target market segments and delivers the product options, services and enhanced support to fulfil customers’ individual requirements. We are delighted they are on board and wish them the best in their new roles.” Note: despite the similarity in names, the LexisNexis Peter Dye should not be confused with long-time Quill Computer Systems' director Peter Dye. Wednesday, February 11
Interwoven and Autonomy - is there a cunning plan ?
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 11 Feb 2009 10:28 GMT
One of the hot topics around the bars and drinking dens at LegalTech New York was a discussion of the reasons behind Autonomy's planned acquisition of Interwoven. Despite attempts by various lawyers to get shareholders actions off the ground to fight the bid (a tactic now pretty standard on the US A&M scene) the general view is that in its present form Interwoven is too small to survive as an independent and that a merger or acquisition was inevitable sooner or later. But why Autonomy? And why now?
One theory doing the rounds is that Autonomy actually wanted to buy the e-discovery business Discovery Mining – and when this was bought by Interwoven in July 2008, Autonomy took the next logical step of buying Interwoven to get at the Discovery Mining business. (Autonomy, it should be noted, already has a strong litigation support/e-discovery business through its Zantaz/Aungate/Introspect operations.) However... having targetted Interwoven, Autonomy then realised the company also included a really useful document management business in the WorkSite family of products. Not only could this take Autonomy into new business areas (the mid-sized business DMS sector) but it also had the potential to widen the scope of Autonomy's e-discovery business. The graphic shows the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) which is widely used by the lit support industry to position its various products and services. While most vendors appear on the scene from the preservation & collections stage, heading right, the earlier stages – particularly the information management stage of getting your ESI (electronically stored information) house in order, tends to be less clear as it involves dealing with an organisation's existing office automation systems. But, if Autonomy were to add a DMS to its product portfolio, this would neatly address the information management stage of EDRM and give the company a cradle-to-the-grave document life-cycle management, litigation readiness and e-discovery platform. Maybe. Of course there still remains the issue of records management – Interwoven has its RecordsManager product while Autonomy has Merido. There is also the matter of the universal search engines – current betting is that Autonomy may offer a 'lite' version of its IDOL engine to replace the Interwoven Vivisimo offering, thereby avoiding imposing the burden of the full IDOL 7 system on users. And, we're also hearing rumours that post acquisition the Interwoven name may fade from the scene and be replaced by a return of the iManage brand for the DMS product suite – or not, as the case may be.  Tuesday, February 10
Open Text what!!!
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 10 Feb 2009 10:32 GMT
Our thanks to a reader (who shall be nameless, but its pretty obvious where he works) for drawing our attention to this posting on the DaniWeb IT discussion blog which reckons there are only 5 tech companies in the world currently making serious money today. They are, in alphabetical order:
• Akamai (apparently they deliver content to MTV & similar interactive websites - no, still none-the-wiser) • Amazon • Apple • IBM and • Open Text Yes, Open Text! But no Microsoft, no Google, no SAP. And certainly no LexisNexis nor IRIS. You can find the full posting here http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3948.html Monday, February 9
More on Microsoft and its Workflow Foundation
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 09 Feb 2009 10:45 GMT
Had a useful meeting with Microsoft in New York, discussing – among other things – the 'issue' of Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0. Microsoft's view is that the evolution from v 3.0 to v 4.0 is essential if the workflow tools are to keep pace with the evolution taking place within the rest of Microsoft's front and back office environments. (Remember, we've got Windows 7.0 – which, apparently, will permit a direct migration from XP to 7.0, skipping the Vista generation – and a new version of Office on the horizon next year.) Furthermore, although most of the whingeing about WF 4.0 is coming from some developers, particularly those with axes to grind in the Elite versus Aderant debate (Microsoft's wording was a little more tactful) – the move from 3.0 to 4.0 will actually benefit the developer community. For a useful discussion on the migration issues, check out this site...
http://blogs.msdn.com/endpoint/archive/2009/01/20/the-road-to-wf-4-0-part-1.aspx Friday, February 6
And yet more on Islington
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 06 Feb 2009 15:28 GMT
And here's another comment on Islington – and from another of those PMS guys – here's the release from SOS...
"Clearly not quantity but at least some quality at Legal IT 2009 this week "SOS has reported that although attendance was clearly down over the two days at Legal IT 2009 in Islington this week, some consolation could be had by the fact that those delegates from firms that did brave the elements to attend were giving serious consideration towards new legal software, despite the current economic climate. "David McNamara, managing director of SOS, explained: "This week, we have met with more firms who have been affected by the consolidation of legal software supplier companies which has been taking place over the past 24 months or so. Quite simply, development of their existing software has come to a halt with its support now limited and with a cut-off date also, so they are seriously reconsidering their options and moving to entirely new software." Whilst this has not come at a good time for most firms, SOS has already proved a very good move for other firms facing this predicament, with operational and efficiency gains more than justifying the move to a completely new integrated system. "The fact we have good software is one thing," says McNamara, "but being able to provide the assurance of long term product development and support of our software and clients is proving equally important in their decisions to switch to SOS."
More on Islington Legal IT show
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 06 Feb 2009 11:42 GMT
Two more comments have just come in from exhibitors who were at this week's event...
"Just got home, home from the range, where the buffalo roam and the tumbleweed blows. The PMS boys seemed busy but for most of today it was tumbleweed blowing down the aisles. I had to smile when Matthew Robinson (from the exhibition organisers) asked me if I wanted to sign up for next year and if I did he would hold 2009 rates." And here's a comment from one of those PMS boys... "I thought I would drop you a line as our experience of Legal IT this year was different from that of your other correspondents. We were not looking forward to this year’s show especially after the snow arrived and we were convinced that our larger stand was going to be populated by tumbleweeds blowing through the hall. The reality (for us at least) proved to be very different. "I think it is right to say there were less people there but the ones that didn’t turn up were the leaflet collectors and local authority representatives that didn’t have anything else to do. We also saw far fewer clients this year than before. This would back up what we are seeing in trading with the new business sales holding up well whilst the existing client business has slowed down. "We were busy for pretty much the whole of the two days (apart from a quiet patch on Thursday morning when Gerald Ratner was speaking). The venue still has appalling PA problems and it was difficult to hear any of the speakers. There were a couple of memorable occasions when a speaker was standing at the lectern talking through the PA system at full volume to their audience of three people. They would have been better chatting over a pint and a laptop! "The firms we saw appeared to have a set agenda and a good idea of the suppliers they wanted to see. Decisions made recently by some suppliers have created a market of new business opportunities and many of them were using the show to have initial meetings. As a result it was apparent that there were some stands that had to ask firms to come back and see them later as they ran out of demonstration pods whilst others had little to do. We were in the former of these camps but there were suppliers with stands close to us who would tell a very different story. "I would be very surprised if we do not sign at least one 100 user plus system as a direct result of being at the show which as you know will justify the cost of being there and give us some change. "We have already booked the same slot again for next year." Thursday, February 5
Legal IT Islington - Big Brother meets Friends Reunited ?
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 05 Feb 2009 12:37 GMT
Well it's Day 2 of the Legal IT Exhibition at the Design Centre in Islington (London) and although we were not present this year, two very reliable resources sent in these impressions of the first day of the event...
From an exhibitor: "Day One in the Big Brother Exhibition... The housemates have spent the day gossiping with each other, occasionally interspersed with the odd prospect/customer. Definitely a lot quieter than previous years and a lot of people suggesting they may not book again for next year." From an former exhibitor: "Visiting Legal I in Islington yesterday was like what I imagine a Friends Reunited gathering might be like... Lots of time for suppliers to catch up with close partners but not many new clients around. At least we didn't fork out to exhibit this year! Think many suppliers will think twice about next year." Funnily enough - says Insider editor Charles Christian - similar sentiments were being expressed at the LegalTech event in New York, with much muttering that the moment the first 'big' vendor (which in the US market means LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters) breaks ranks and drops out of the event, many more will follow. That said, some suppliers reported having a very good show - so possibly a bigger issue in New York is that in the current economic climate, the demand for some products has just flat-lined while others have become surprisingly hot. * Readers are invited to guess how many international air safety regulations were breached when, on Charles Christian's return flight (with a European carrier) one of the flight crew had to leave the cockpit during the landing phase to make room for two women the pilot invited into the cabin. (And yes the airline does issue steel cutlery, including knives, with its meals.) |
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Re: Osborne Clarke say goodbye to all that with £50 million outsource deal
Onsite3 has now issued the following statement...
"Arlington, Virginia (February 5, 2009) - ONSITE3, a leading global provider of electronic evidence solutions for law firms and corporations, today announced that it has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, and that it plans to be acquired by Integreon, the global leader of knowledge and legal process outsourcing. The Company also announced today that Integreon has completed the acquisition of ONSITE3's outstanding pre-bankruptcy secured debt and has agreed to provide debtor-in-possession financing to assure ONSITE3's continued operation throughout the reorganization process.
"Integreon's planned acquisition of ONSITE3's electronic discovery business will create an unrivaled end-to-end 'enterprise' set of litigation and compliance services for law firms and corporations under one roof. The expanded scope will include forensics and collection, proprietary E3 processing and eView hosted review applications, and will be coupled with Integreon's onshore and offshore document review," said Robert Ballou, chief executive officer, ONSITE3. "Our plan is to focus on our growing e-discovery business. We will close our declining paper discovery support operations, but preserve the continuity of our e-discovery operations around the U.S. We plan to immediately transition paper projects to other vendors, allowing us to focus on the core electronic offerings that our clients value most."
"The comprehensive range of ONSITE3's electronic discovery services and proprietary technologies dovetail well with our document review capability and significantly increases the scale and U.S. footprint of our own EDD capabilities," said Liam Brown, CEO of Integreon. "This planned transaction will result in the creation of a $40 million national electronic discovery division of Integreon with industrial-scale processing centers in Washington, DC and New York City, along with review centers in the U.S., India and the Philippines."
www.onsite3.com