10 Steps to Manage E-Discovery Projects

From Law.com

Like it or not, lawyers involved in e-discovery matters must become project managers. In addition to advising and representing clients, they must help clients select and supervise vendors of e-discovery services (from simple photocopying, to forensic analysis, to data retrieval and production, to expert testimony on the adequacy of e-discovery efforts). This article outlines 10 key steps in a typical e-discovery project, suggesting ways that lawyers can help ensure that such projects proceed successfully.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Networks used for Personal Injury claim investigations

From Law.com comes an interesting article about how Paralegals are diving into social networks as part of their research into personal injury lawsuits and claims:

Paralegals now also turn their attention to the cyberworld, including social and professional networking sites, to investigate personal injury claims. Oftentimes, these sites can provide a deluge of data, including specific communications and entries concerning parties to the action.

Catch the full article here

TERIS has its own Facebook page - you should come by to say hello!

American Bar Association Publishes Next Generation Book on Electronic Discovery

MIAMI, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Akerman Senterfitt, today announced that the American Bar Association has published and released Introduction to E-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques, authored by Akerman attorney Ralph Losey. This marks the second book on e-discovery to be authored by Mr. Losey in the past 13 months.

Mr. Losey, a leading authority on e-discovery, has more than 30 years of experience in computer technology; with 28 years of experience in associated commercial litigation leading more than 70 published legal opinions. He has authored numerous law review articles, including reviews of the mathematics underlying e-discovery and the "ethics" of e-discovery. In addition to these articles, Mr. Losey's first book E-Discovery: Current Trends and Cases is one of the ABA's bestsellers and has already been cited by several judges and commentators. Both books are based on Losey's popular weekly blog, "e-discovery Team" (www.ralphlosey.wordpress.com).

"In this economic environment, e-discovery has become recognized as an important part of any responsible corporate strategy to reduce costs," commented Michael McMahon, Chair of Akerman's Litigation Practice Group. "There is a universal need for people to understand the e-discovery process, and we are pleased to have an Akerman attorney leading the discussion of opinion in this space."

Mr. Losey's book explains, in easy to read language, the complex legal and technology issues involved in electronic discovery. Similar to his first effort, this book helps lawyers and IT experts better understand the latest thinking and techniques for transferring critical information from the computer to the courtroom. It includes examinations of new case law and opinions of jurists and experts in the field, and provides a diverse number of views on the subject, including the two most popular e-discovery guides used by judges. Furthermore, the book outlines the interdisciplinary team approach to solving the unique problems of e-discovery and also covers:

• Self-organization and development of evidence preservation protocols
• New articles of interest on e-discovery teams
• The future of e-discovery suggested by a recent litigation survey
• How negligent e-records management is creating stunning business risks
• E-discovery at the Harvard Club in New York City
• New California proposals for e-discovery laws
• The conflict between our rules of discovery and the privacy laws of the rest of the world
• The limitations of checklists and how to work best using them

Akerman Senterfitt's e-Discovery team, led by Ralph Losey and Akerman Shareholder Michael Simon, is comprised of attorneys and IT professionals throughout the firm's offices in Florida, New York, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Los Angeles, and represent a variety of practice areas, including trial law and intellectual property. They represent and consult with corporate clients, governments, and other law firms concerning a variety of technology law issues, ranging from litigation defense to prevention.

The team routinely handles the e-discovery aspects of major litigation and serves as "national e-counsel" to coordinate the discovery work of local counsel. They are also pioneering a new type of legal service where they assist clients to prepare for litigation by helping them to organize and operate their own internal e-discovery teams. The new "team-related" services include advice on: initial organization and budgeting of the e-discovery team; records retention policies, litigation hold procedures; ESI identification, retrieval, search and analysis; information management; software; hardware; and vendor selection.

About Akerman Senterfitt

Akerman is ranked among the top 100 law firms in the United States by The National Law Journal NLJ 250 (2008) in number of lawyers and is one of the largest firms in Florida. With more than 500 lawyers and governmental affairs professionals, the firm serves clients in major business centers throughout the United States, including Miami, New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. For additional information, please visit the firm's Web site at www.akerman.com.

    Contact:
   Pat Tucker
   RF|Binder Partners, Inc.
   (212) 994-7561
   patrick.Tucker@rfbinder.com

   Walter Fowler
   RF|Binder Partners, Inc.
   (212) 994-7512
   walter.fowler@rfbinder.com

Upcoming Digital Forensic Industry events

Mark your calendars for some upcoming Digital Forensic Industry events (listing courtesy of DFI News - you can subscribe to their great newsletter here):


April 13-15, 2009

Cell Phone Forensics I Washington, DC

h11-digital-forensics.com

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April 15-16, 2009

8th Annual Security Conference

Las Vegas, NV

security-conference.org

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April 27-29, 2009

The Computer Forensics Show

Washington, DC

computerforensicshow.com

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April 27-29, 2009

eDiscovery

San Francisco, CA

ediscoveryevent.com

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May 5–7, 2009

Cell Phone Forensics

Pittsburgh, PA

bkforensics.com


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May 12–14, 2009

Cell Phone Forensics

(Law Enforcement Only)

Allentown, PA

bkforensics.com

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May 17-20, 2009

CEIC 2009

Orlando, FL

www.ceicconference.com

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May 17-21, 2009

CSI SX 2009

Las Vegas, NV

www.csisx.com

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May 20-22, 2009

ADFSL Conference

Burlington, VT

digitalforensics-conference.org

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May 22, 2009

SADFE

Oakland, CA

conf.ncku.edu.tw/sadfe/

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May 26-30, 2009

Mobile Forensics World

Chicago, IL

mobileforensicsworld.com

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May 31-June 3, 2009

Techno Security Conference

Myrtle Beach, SC

www.techsec.com

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July 7-9, 2009

Cell Phone Forensics II Washington, DC

h11-digital-forensics.com

June 28-July 3, 2009

FIRST Kyoto Japan

www.first.org/events/first

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July 25-28, 2009

USA 2009 Black Hat

Las Vegas, NV

www.blackhat.com


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August 3-5, 2009

Computer Forensics Show

San Jose , CA

computerforensicshow.com

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August 13-14, 2009

Third International Workshop on Computational Forensics

The Hague, The Netherlands

iwcf09.arsforensica.org

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August 17-19, 2009

Digital Forensic Research Workshop

Montreal, Canada

www.dfrws.org

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August 23-26, 2009

2009 HTCIA International Training Conference

Lake Tahoe, CA

www.htcia.org

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October 23-24, 2009

A National Symposium on the Collection, Analysis and Legal Applications of Digital Evidence - The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law

Pittsburgh, PA

www.forensics.duq.edu

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October 26-28, 2009

2009 Techno Forensic Conference

Gaithersburg, MD

www.techsec.com


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November 8-11, 2009

PFIC 2009

Park City, UT
www.pfic2009.com


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Did you know that TERIS offers Digital Forensic services as well? You can contact us to learn more!

New Blog Alert - Check out new eDiscovery best practices blog written by law students

We just came across this blog and the great folks behind it via Twitter.

E-lessons learned is an educational blog about e-discovery best practices that features insightful content authored by noted attorney and e-discovery law professor Fernando M. Pinguelo and his team of law students from across the country.

You can find the new blog at www.ellblog.com

We look forward to their posts and learning more in this area!

Lawyer Helps Smithsonian Find Secret Message on Abe Lincoln’s Gold Watch

We've had so much bad news in the legal industry recently (layoffs announced nearly daily) we thought we would lighten things up a bit and share this tidbit, courtesy of ABA Journal:

On the day the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, in a salvo that began the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln's gold pocket watch happened to be in a repair shop in the Washington, D.C., area.

So, the watchmaker later told his family—and, in 1906, the New York Times—he wrote a secret message on the inner workings. Passed down through the generations in the watchmaker's family, the story intrigued Douglas Stiles, his great-great-grandson, who practices real estate law in Waukegan, Ill., near Chicago. Stiles found the old New York Times article, and alerted the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, which was given the watch in 1958, recounts the Washington Post.

The rest of the story can be found here

Laid-Off Lawyers and Other Professionals

Excellent post today on WSJ.com, "Laid off lawyers and other professionals"

Writer E. Kinney Zalesne discusses the broad impact that the loss of these kinds of jobs have on the economy both locally (in cities such as San Francisco, New York and Boston) but also nationally. It is rightly pointed out that these are unprecedented times given the shift of labor in our work force (the move towards professional positions - especially among women).

An excerpt:

We don't know how deep this recession will be and how much of this class will be wiped out. At first the idea of "laid-off lawyers" seems like the butt of a joke. "About time they got theirs," many people will say to themselves. But it's not a laughing matter to the hundreds of thousands of people and their families in all the professions who worked and studied hard to get to the next level in life, only to have their jobs and careers wiped out along with so many others.

Court holds that overlooking e-discovery information due to honest mistake may serve to avoid court-imposed sanctions

From IBLS.com (Internet Business Law Services):

In the case of R & R Sails, Inc. v. Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, Case No. 07-cv-0998-H (POR) (S.D.Cal., Apr. 18, 2008), the court held that overlooking e-discovery information due to honest mistake may serve to avoid court-imposed sanctions. Though, the court found proper to impose sanctions upon the party claiming to have omitted production due to honest mistake when a reasonable inquiry into the nature of the requested material might have prevented the mistake from occurring.

In R & R Sails, Inc. v. Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, Case No. 07-cv-0998-H (POR) (S.D.Cal., Apr. 18, 2008) (R&R Sails), plaintiff requested several documents from defendant in the course of litigation. Plaintiff defined "document" as including every other means of recording any tangible thing and form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols or combinations thereof.

Upon plaintiff’s notification that electronic and handwritten daily activity records were missing from defendant’s response, defendant explained that it did not maintain daily logs or telephone records. Subsequently, the defendant realized that the requested records existed in an AEGIS computerized database and sent the electronic notes to plaintiff, conceding that his previous declaration was incorrect and was an honest mistake, and that a claim log was maintained electronically.

The full story can be found here

Software capable of reassembling deleted photos

Interesting article in TG Daily yesterday that discusses technology that allows users to recover deleted photos - even those that have been cleared out of a recycling bin.

As the article notes, this has implications for individuals as well as legal and law enforcement officials:

This software serves not only the purpose of recovering photos which have accidentally been deleted by consumers, but also could aid law enforcement in the restoration of photos which have been purposefully deleted -- for instance in child pornography cases, where forensic analysis by police officers could help gather information for cases.

The full article can be found here