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Legaltech New York Prologue: E-Discovery Or Else

Welcome to the prologue for Legaltech New York, when legal technology products and services are automatically classified by one condition: e-discovery or else.

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We have officially moved into the prologue for Legaltech New York. The prologue marks the time when legal technology products and services are automatically classified by one condition: e-discovery or else. Today’s column celebrates the time with an update from kCura, makers of the e-discovery software platform Relativity, or else LexisNexis Legal and Professional.

E-DISCOVERY: KCURA RELATIVITY 9.3

KCura released on December 7 version 9.3 of its document review platform. The new version, first previewed at Relativity Fest, introduces 115 features and a “reimagined” interface for data analysis and custom dashboards, search and document review.

Relativity version 9.3 can create widgets with pivot charts using any metadata field or coding tag. Users can drag and drop widgets and document lists onto Web pages and save the pages as dashboards to access on demand. The visualizations, however, don’t pop off the page to drag onto a second monitor, yet.

The new visualizations are enabled by the JavaScript chart library C3.js built on the D3 visualization library released in version 9.2. The C3.js library allows users to create reusable charts that can be manipulated on Web pages. The charts support drill-down functionality using a click-and-drag feature to configure filtered criteria to dive deep into the data. Future releases will give users more options to export and automatically reuse chart data.

The new version 9.3 decoupled dependencies between the underlying SQL data presentation layer and the reporting or visualization interface. That gives Relativity future options to use other visualization tools and gives users the ability to use their preferred visualization software, such as Google Charts or Tableau, offline. But with the C3.js library, kCura is giving users plenty of reasons to keep their data in Relativity for analysis and review.

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Relativity’s “reimagined” interface also applies to the search function. The Relativity version 9 search interface follows an industry standard of visually organizing search conditions or facets in an interactive panel alongside a search results panel where searchers can toggle criteria on and off to view the real-time results. The new interface supports visually building complex Boolean queries.

A new search panel overlays the former quick search function that required knowledge of Boolean logic to fashion SQL queries. In the new panel, searchers can visually add search conditions, change Boolean operators, and reorder and nest search criteria via drag-and-drop operations. For those fluent in Boolean logic, you can still access the old quick search form, build a query with connectors, and bring it forward into the new interface to verify its validity.

The new document review user interface in version 9.3 is rebuilt from the ground up using the AngularJS JavaScript framework from Google Inc. The AngularJS development supports a dynamic, single-page application that dispenses with the old Web form architecture, which required reloading an entire page to display changes. With AngularJS, discrete data on pages can be refreshed without reloading the entire page. The new document UI no longer requires preloading bulk documents for review. Reviews can go from document 1 to 5,000 without reloading successive bulks of 1,000 or more documents from the database.

Version 9.3 has a new layout builder to customize Web pages. There is no longer an add field function to hunt and peck and configure the resulting pop-up. The new UI supports drag-and-drop functions to place fields onto a resulting (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) layout. Designers can stick to a one-page, modern design or create layout groups and arrange objects and features in a tabbed display. Objects can take on friendly names on pages; child and associative object lists need not be the last items placed on a page layout either–they can be arranged anywhere on the page, on demand.

Additional enhancements in Relativity 9.3 include:

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  • Better processing performance and tighter integration with Relativity’s NoSQL data store, the Data Grid.
  • Store greater volumes of data per case in Data Grid with concurrent search capabilities while data is loading.
  • More publicly available application programming interfaces for data queries and analyses, search construction and data processing.

ELSE: LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR

Remember when lawyers subscribed to loose-leaf materials and received regular updates to insert into ringed binders? Updates still issue for loose-leaf subscriptions but they are often irregular, few and far between.

Irregular updates don’t help lawyers stay current in their practice areas. Since major publishers infrequently update published materials, many lawyers troll non-traditional publications, such as blogs, websites and Wikis for practice updates. Enter: The Lexis Practice Advisor Journal, launched on December 3 by LexisNexis Legal and Professional.

Eric Bourget, group director of state practice and corporate law for Lexis Practice Advisor (LPA) and editor-in-chief of the journal, observed that “fewer and fewer full-size, deep treatises [are] published by leading legal minds.” The new quarterly publication gives transactional lawyers current news, issues and trends affecting their practice.

The inaugural issue of the Practice Advisor Journal includes practice news on emerging issues in business, banking, labor and securities affecting transactional practice. Stories include the Federal Trade Commission’s commitment to pursuing companies that fail to protect customer data, whether independent contractor status will survive new Department of Labor guidelines, and paid sick leave for federal contractors. Feature stories include the National Labor Relations Board’s position on regulating employees’ social media use and the tax challenges of the sharing economy.

The Lexis Practice Advisor Journal is published quarterly by the LexisNexis editorial team with articles written by more than 300 practicing attorneys as a supplement to the LPA found online in Lexis Advance. With the new journal, LexisNexis added a new LPA jurisdictional module for New York to its Lexis Practice Advisor, which includes components to complete transactions in business, commercial and family law in the Empire State.

Elaine Wynn, senior content and product initiative manager for LPA, demonstrated the New York Business & Commercial offering and introduced me to the first family law content in LPA, with other topic areas including estate planning, private equity, private mergers and acquisitions, and real estate. Like other LPA modules, each topic area includes a snapshot of the law, checklists for transactions, practice notes, model forms, case law and statutes, and legislative materials compiled and produced by practice specialists and experts.

The New York module helps subscribers conduct transactions and accomplish regulatory activities for New York business and commercial clients in and outside the state. It produces business and franchising content from all jurisdictions and entertainment transactions focused on New York and California law. For more information on Lexis Practice Advisor for New York Business & Commercial see the publication’s introductory video and product page.

Attorney Sean Doherty has been following enterprise and legal technology for more than 15 years as a former senior technology editor for UBM Tech (formerly CMP Media) and former technology editor for Law.com and ALM Media. Sean analyzes and reviews technology products and services for lawyers, law firms, and corporate legal departments. Contact him via email at sean@laroque-doherty.net and follow him on Twitter: @SeanD0herty.

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