The Rundown: This Week in Legal Technology – 11.19.10

This week — in between tweeting some really funny stuff (such as how I want to blow up airports — it was so funny!), buying up every last can of Four Loko that I could get my hands on, and forwarding Skadden employee evaluations to all of my friends — I spent the rest of the time tracking the news articles and blog posts I wanted to cover in The Rundown.

Among other things in this edition, a prominent e-discovery company offers its predictions for 2011, a big fish swallows a little fish, and we engage in more Touro talk (this time positive).

There is even a crossword puzzle — seriously, a crossword puzzle…

* It’s that time of year again, when the crystal balls come out and predictions are made about the year to come. Clearwell Systems has already outlined its top five predictions for 2011. Number five on that list claims that e-discovery will “mature” across the globe. Monica Bay of Law Technology News seems to be underwhelmed.

* One of my favorite legal websites is Mondaq.com, which is a goldmine of articles published by attorneys and law firms in all fields from across the globe.  This week, I came across an interesting one by attorneys from Mayer Brown on social media and e-discovery, focusing on websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Specifically, the authors present a likely scenario about potentially discoverable information on these sites and then provide an effective framework for how to handle it in litigation.

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* From across the pond, John Lapraik of the Kennedys Law Firm discusses new Rule 31B of the UK Civil Procedure Rules on e-disclosure, which is what they call e-discovery overseas. Lapraik posted his article on Lexology, which is another extremely valuable site I scour for legal trends. Not so shockingly, the rule is designed to help control costs. Lapraik discusses potential cost savings, implications, and risks associated with this change. It’s interesting to see how closely e-disclosure changes in the UK match our own federal rules.

* Mergers: EMC Corporation continues to establish itself as an information juggernaut. Most recently, it has acquired Isilon Systems for a cool $2.25 billion. Isilon is an information storage company known for managing “Big Data.” This is the ninth acquisition for EMC since 2009. The Isilon pickup will greatly enhance EMC’s position in the data storage market, and will help it compete with storage giants such as Xerox and HP.

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* I know Touro Law has not received the best press from Elie as of late, but let’s give it some love, shall we? Assistant Professor of Law and Technology (and Yale Law alum) Jonathan Ezor has put together a short and interesting piece on how the ABA has dealt with email communications over the years, and how it is reaching out to the legal community for advice on handling social media and cloud-related issues in the future.

* Lastly, let’s go a little off the beaten path. Legal marketing guru Rob Robinson of Orange Legal Technologies has compiled a a fun crossword puzzle based on the recently published “Judge’s Guide to Cost-Effective E-Discovery” from the e-Discovery Institute. [Note: You will have to download a copy of the guide from the e-Discovery Institute website.]


Gabe Acevedo is an attorney in Washington, D.C. and the publisher of the e-discovery blog, Gabe’s Guide to the e-Discovery Universe. His articles on legal technology and discovery issues appear weekly on Above The Law. He can be reached at gabe@abovethelaw.com.

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