Technology

Need Help Finding eDiscovery And Legal Tech Software? Here's Your Guide.

Welcome to the first ever eDiscovery Buyer's Guide.

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(Photo via Brett Burney and Chelsey Lambert)

One of the most difficult things about the explosion of legal technology is that it is a full-time job just to know what’s out there and how to find solutions that work for you and your firm or legal department. And we all have time for that on top of our other full-time jobs, right?

If you’ve been tasked with finding software, you know what I mean. It’s a never-ending loop of how do I find products, especially the new innovative products, will they work, and how do I go through the RFP process and get them working with the rest of our systems. I feel your pain. We spend A LOT of time looking at tools and advising clients on legal operations, especially eDiscovery, and it’s a constantly moving target to be up to date on the latest developments.

Enter Brett Burney and Chelsey Lambert, two litigation technology gurus. Brett Burney is the Principal of Burney Consultants where he advises clients on identifying and implementing technology. Brett is a nationally recognized speaker and I’ve had the privilege of doing webcasts with him for the ABA. Chelsey Lambert is also a Legal Technology Specialist, author of the 2017 Legal Technology Buyer’s Guide and former Practice Management Advisor for the Chicago Bar Association.

Together, they have identified the pain point and addressed it by creating the first eDiscovery Buyer’s Guide. The Guide has two primary goals:

  1. To provide you with options available to you and your firm so you can avoid the manual, time-wasting, and ineffective processes you’re currently using. The literal “Buyer’s Guide” includes reviews written to explain exactly what features and capabilities each tool offers so you can make an informed decision; and
  2. To empower you to be a more knowledgeable, competent, and trusted counselor. While you personally won’t use all of the products featured in this Guide, your clients might benefit from them in their own data collection efforts. Plus having some knowledge about other products means you can talk intelligently with opposing counsel on the products they use so you don’t look ignorant or uninformed.

While Burney suggests that the Guide focuses on the small to mid-size firm audience, I see much of the content is being very useful for legal departments and in several instances, for larger firms and departments that have specific needs. For example, CaseFleet is a product that we’ve been looking at using and I know at least one eDiscovery service provider is using to create timelines for their firm clients. It’s a nifty piece of software that you’ll want to check out.

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And don’t let the title fool you, while it has an eDiscovery focus, it’s not all eDiscovery even though most tools can be used in that context.

So, what does the Guide include? Glad you asked. Here’s a rundown:

  • Ninety-two pages of reviews of products and services relevant to the small to mid-size law firm market;
  • Information broken out into nine sections including social media collection, data identification, cloud based document review tools, and AI;
  • Highlighted features at the end of each review; and
  • Contributions from some of the most respected voices in eDiscovery including Craig Ball, Tom O’Connor, and Amy Bower-Rollins, the Lit Support Guru.

Burney and Lambert released the first version of the Guide a few weeks ago and will be updating it with a new edition to be released this week for ABA TECHSHOW. If you hop on now and sign up, you’ll be notified as soon as the new one is available this week. And for those of you with applications you want to have included in the Guide, you can reach out directly to them via the site.

If you’re at ABA TECHSHOW this week in Chicago, you’ll want to track down Brett and Chelsey and say hi. They are two people in the legal tech world you want to know. Chelsey will be on the Automating your Digital Marketing Strategy session from 8:45-9:45 on Thursday morning, March 8th, and Brett will be on the Seamless Workflows from Mac to iOS panel from 10:45 to 11:45 the same day. (Note to TECHSHOW: it’s hard to find which speakers are on what panels on the site with no search functionality.)

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Download your copy of the free guide. It’s a quick read and chances are good you’ll find something useful even if for a later day. Happy TECHSHOW and safe travels for those of you heading to Chicago from the east coast.

Kelly TwiggerKelly Twigger gave up the golden handcuffs of her Biglaw partnership to start ESI Attorneys, an eDiscovery and information law Firm, in 2009. She is passionate about teaching lawyers and legal professionals how to think about and use ESI to win, and does so regularly for her clients. The Wisconsin State Bar named Kelly a Legal Innovator in 2014 for her development of eDiscovery Assistant— an online research and eDiscovery playbook for lawyers and legal professionals. When she’s not thinking, writing or talking about ESI, Kelly is wandering in the mountains of Colorado, or watching Kentucky basketball. You can reach her by email at Kelly@ediscoveryassistant.com or on Twitter: @kellytwigger.

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