Announcements

Legal Technology Leadership Summit: Last Day to Cash In Your Deal at The Ritz

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We are less than a month away from our Legal Technology Leadership Summit. It’s taking place from September 6 – 8 on Amelia Island, Florida. You can check out the full agenda here.

It should be an interesting couple of days. You know what else will be fun? Staying at the Ritz off the East Coast of Northern Florida.

Please note that today is the last day that conference attendees will be able to take advantage of our special rate at the hotel for just $199 a night. Click here to register for the conference.

A special thanks to our generous Summit Ambassadors who are making this event possible: Applied Discovery, Autonomy, Clearwell Systems (now a part of Symantec), Datacert, Dell, Ernst & Young, Falcon Discovery, FTI Technology, Guidance Software, Mitratech, Nextpoint, Nuix, Pangea3, Planet Data, ProSearch Strategies, QuisLex, Recommind, Robert Half eDiscovery Services, TCDI, Valora Technologies, and WestlawNext.

We would also like to thank our Law Firm Sponsors: Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, and Winston & Strawn LLP.

We hope to see you there. There’s all kinds of fun we can get into during the event.

Elie’s Vacation Memo: On Marriage

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As I approach the completion of my third full year at Above the Law, you’d think I wouldn’t feel the need to write a memo every time I take a week off so people don’t start partying like I’ve been fired. Yet… well, let’s just say that Dan Savage came to me in a dream and said, “It gets better — except for you, Elie.”

I jest. As regular readers know, this is the time I take off to celebrate my wedding anniversary. I leave you in the always capable hands of managing editor David Lat and ATL’s newest staff writer, Staci Zaretsky. Please send all tips and story ideas to them at tips@abovethelaw.com.

Marriage has been on my mind a lot this summer. I attended the wonderful wedding of an old friend last weekend. But mainly I’ve been thinking about marriage and family in the context of the many strong reactions to my debt posts.

Some of the most surprising reactions were from people who contended that I was essentially being a bad husband by quitting my Biglaw job while still saddled with serious debts. According to these people, including some women, a better husband would have stuck it out in Biglaw for however long it took until my wife and I could be debt-free.

Are these people insane?

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Legal Technology Leadership Summit: Fun in the Sun (and Some CLE Credits, Too)

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If you’re a golf fan, then you should seriously consider attending the 2011 Legal Technology Leadership Summit from September 6 – 8, at Amelia Island, Florida. Attendees will have the chance to go golfing with their legal colleagues shortly after noon on Tuesday, September 6.

Regardless of skill level, foursomes (comprised of 3 golfers and a cart driver/putter) will be able to hit the green and have some fun in the Florida sun. For more information on the courses that will be used for the golf outing, see the Ritz-Carlton website.

But a fun golf outing isn’t all that you’ll get when you attend the Summit. You can take a look at the full conference agenda here. Many experts in the legal technology field will be speaking at the Summit, and after working on your golf swing, you can earn some much-needed continuing legal education credits. We have been approved for CLE credits in the following states (and an accreditation request is pending in Florida):

  • Alabama
  • California
  • Illinois
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina
  • Pennsylvania

Please sign up to attend. We hope to see you there!

Legal Technology Leadership Summit: Getting Feedback from the Judges

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It has been almost six years since the ESI parts of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure became effective on December 1, 2006. In this new age of technology, judges have a lot to say about the level of technical competence of the lawyers appearing before them.

The Legal Technology Leadership Summit at Amelia Island, Florida, from September 6 – 8, will feature a panel of distinguished judges who will offer thoughts on what steps can be taken to have technology-assisted review be deemed defensible. If you attend, you’ll have the chance to hear from these panelists:

  • U.S. Magistrate Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia, D. New Mexico
  • U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig M. Kellison, E.D. California
  • U.S. Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith, M.D. Georgia
  • U.S. Magistrate Judge David J. Waxse, D. Kansas

You can take a look at the full agenda here. Feedback from federal judges isn’t all that you will receive if you attend the Legal Technology Leadership Summit. We have been approved for CLE credits in the following states:

  • Alabama
  • Illinois
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina
  • Pennsylvania

Accreditation requests are pending in the following jurisdictions:

  • California
  • Florida

Please sign up to attend. We hope to see you there!

Legal Technology Leadership Summit: Surviving E-Discovery Nightmares

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If you think lawyers can only risk sanctions for legal or ethical mistakes, think again. Judges can impose sanctions on clients and their lawyers simply for e-discovery breakdowns, even when the cause is not (yet) known. Just ask the former lawyers for Qualcomm.

The Legal Technology Leadership Summit at Amelia Island, Florida, from September 6 – 8, will feature a panel that reconsiders the sanctioning of Qualcomm and six of its attorneys, and the ensuing two-plus-year legal battle to have the sanctions order vacated, as it ultimately was. The panel will feature Adam Bier, one of the “Qualcomm Six,” and Frank Cialone, a lawyer who represented two other former lawyers for Qualcomm.

You can check out the full agenda here. Learning how to survive e-discovery nightmares isn’t all you’ll be getting when you come to the Legal Tech Leadership Summit. We’ve also applied for CLE in a number of states. Here are the states where we’ve been approved:

  • Alabama
  • Illinois
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina

And accreditation is still pending in the following jurisdictions:

  • California
  • Florida
  • New York
  • Pennsylvania

Sign up here to attend. We hope to see you there.

Legal Technology Leadership Summit: We’ll Bring The Heat, You Make The Rain

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So we’ve put together quite a group of people for the Legal Technology Leadership Summit. These speakers have already said they’ll be coming to Amelia Island, Florida, from September 6 – 8 — and more are on the way.

With all of these interesting people gathered together, we’re hoping that practicing attorneys will come join us and have a field day. Do you want to make partner at your law firm? Make rain. Do you want your small practice to survive and thrive through a challenging economy? Make rain. Two days at a resort in Florida jam-packed with potential clients is how you put fish in a barrel without angering PETA.

If you want to attend the Legal Technology Leadership Summit, you can sign up here. We’ve applied for CLE, so you’ll hopefully be able to pick up a few credits while you are meeting people and making connections.

For more information about the Summit, click here. We hope to see you there.

Legal Technology Leadership Summit: In-House Counsel, Tell Us What You Really Think

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A couple of days ago, we invited in-house counsel to join this group of interesting speakers at the Legal Technology Leadership Summit, taking place on September 6 -8 in Amelia Island, Florida.

We received a bunch of responses from people who work with in-house counsel, which is nice. But that still leaves us looking for a few more attorneys who actually work in-house. We want to hear the thoughts, concerns, hopes, and demands of in-house counsel, directly from their mouths.

So, if you are working in-house and you have something to say, please take this opportunity to tell people how you prefer to be served. For free, at the Ritz, right after Labor Day.

If you would like to participate, submit a speaker proposal via email, to speakers@abovethelaw.com (subject: “Summit Speaking Proposal”). Let us know the company where you work, your title, and the subject on which you would like to speak, picked from the Summit agenda located here. Speakers will attend the event for free. Travel scholarships are available for qualified corporate counsel, and applications for CLE credits have been submitted. But obviously space is limited.

And if you don’t work in-house but want to hear what these in-house lawyers have to say (as well as network with them), you should sign up to attend the conference, over here.

The Legal Technology Summit: Seeking Corporate Legal, Records Management and IT Experts

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Are you looking for an opportunity to present information about legal technology to your colleagues? Would like to join this illustrious group of speakers? Then look no further, because a handful of speaking opportunities are still available at the 2011 Legal Technology Leadership Summit.

If you would like to submit a speaker proposal, please email speakers@abovethelaw.com (subject: “Summit Speaking Proposal”). Let us know the company where you work, your title, and the subject on which you would like to speak, picked from the Summit agenda located here.

Those whose speaker proposals are accepted will receive a free pass to the event, and speakers will be able to attend all portions of the Summit. Please hurry, as we have only a handful of opportunities left. Travel scholarships are available for qualified corporate counsel, and applications for CLE credits have been submitted.

The Summit will take place on September 6 – 8, in Amelia Island, Florida. If you are interested in attending the Summit, please sign up here to join us. You can also take a look at the full agenda for the event here.

Help Wanted: Above the Law Seeks A Second In-House Columnist

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Our first column for in-house counsel — Inside Straight, by Mark Herrmann — has been received warmly, by Above the Law readers and advertisers alike. Inspired by its success, we have decided to seek a second columnist to cover the world of corporate counsel.

We already have two writers on the small-firm beat (Jay Shepherd and Valerie Katz). Given the importance of the in-house world to the legal profession, we feel that it too should be covered by multiple dedicated columnists, in addition to the in-house stories already generated by ATL’s full-time staff (Lat, Elie, and Staci). There are so many people who want to go in-house; we need to hear more from the people who are already there.

Are you interested in writing about the corporate legal world for Above the Law, or do you know someone who might be? If so, please read on for the details….

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The Legal Technology Leadership Summit: Revisiting Qualcomm and Possible Ethics Sanctions

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As we learned in Qualcomm v. Broadcom, e-discovery can be tricky. While there is an ethical rule against disclosing client confidences, there is an exception to that rule. In order to properly invoke that exception, certain procedural and ethical steps must be taken.

A special ethics and e-discovery panel at the Legal Technology Leadership Summit will reexamine the Qualcomm e-discovery sanctions opinions, particularly as they affected six of the attorneys representing Qualcomm.

On January 7, 2008, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara L. Major of the Southern District of California imposed sanctions on those attorneys for Qualcomm’s failure to produce certain electronic discovery (2008 WL 66932). Just under two months later that part of the opinion was vacated and remanded by U.S. District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster (March 5, 2008, 2008 WL 638108). A little over two years after remand, Judge Major ultimately declined to impose sanctions and dissolved the order to show cause (April 2, 2010, 2010 WL 1336937).

Attorney Adam Arthur Bier, the junior-most attorney identified in the Qualcomm case, plans to discuss the impact of ethical sanctions and will offer some thoughts on ways to avoid such situations. Attorney Frank Cialone, who defended several of the six attorneys involved in the case, will discuss the self-defense exception to the ethical rule against disclosing client confidences and will describe what has to be done procedurally and ethically to invoke the exception. Cialone will also suggest the ways in which law firms and clients can work together to avoid such circumstances.

The Summit will take place on September 6 – 8, in Amelia Island, Florida. If you are interested in attending the Summit, please sign up here to join us. You can also take a look at the full agenda for the event here.

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