Legal Operations

Top 10 'New Rules' For 2019

Think of these new rules as a sort of aspirational wish list for legal operations and technology specialists.

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Bill Maher (Photo by Jemal Countess/WireImage)

In the spirit of the New Year, it seems appropriate to start 2019 by simultaneously poking fun at the legal profession and providing some insight into issues facing legal operations and technology professionals. There are plenty of lawyer jokes out there. This is not that. These are more in the spirit of new year’s resolutions we all make and hardly ever stick to. Think of these new rules as a sort of aspirational wish list. And for anyone taking life too seriously right now, these quips are meant to be funny, silly, and generally harmless. If you feel otherwise, write your congressional representative or local bar, not me.

New Rule: Any lawyer who says technology and innovation in the legal business is putting lawyers out of work should have credits deducted from their CLE account.  I mean, c’mon, we’re better than this in the legal business, aren’t we? If you don’t respect and value technologies as tools to make the practice of law more efficient and thereby make time for new or more prosperous opportunities, perhaps you’re in the wrong business.

New Rule: Anyone who thinks they will save money by “self-collecting” ESI in discovery should be forced to pay an immediate 10 percent rate increase. Look, the horror stories are legion when it comes to self-collection. It rarely works out well and there are some good legal reasons why companies should not self-collect ESI. Do yourself a favor and consult an expert (or at least someone who’s done it before).

New Rule: Anyone who mentions “blockchain” in a presentation must stop and explain blockchain, how it works, and its application to the current presentation. It’s just gotten crazy out there. It’s not alright to just throw around the latest buzzwords and marketing terms and trends. Blockchain is just the latest in the litany of shiny new objects. Not much happening there yet. But there are well-intentioned people, some of whom haven’t got a clue, who actually believe some of this hype.

New Rule: The next person to say that eyes on every document is the safest route should be fined (or at least be made to put eyes on every document). It’s 2019, people. We have the technology today to eliminate some of the waste in document review. I know, document review was and in some instances still is a money maker. But the simple fact is, if you can eliminate 50 percent of the documents in a collection because you can determine to a reasonable certainty that they are irrelevant, isn’t that a good thing?

New Rule: Anyone who thinks it’s too expensive to hire an expert to do the job should be forced to hire an amateur. This one is actually a modification of a famous quote by Red Adair, who built a career out of extinguishing oil well fires — by using explosives, of all things. We all know an amateur who can suck the air out a room. Be certain the expert you hire is the right person for the job.

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New Rule: The next lawyer who decides to choose a vendor based on a +/-$40 bottle of wine without first doing some homework on the vendor should be forced to wear a dunce cap. This will likely get me in trouble with my friends on the service provider side, but hey, let’s face it, not all service providers are the same. Different people, different cases, different technology, different expectations. Truth is a project could go off the rails at any vendor at any time. At least do some basic due diligence and don’t let gifts influence important decisions.

New Rule: Next person to use the words “artificial intelligence” in the legal technology space has to pay for drinks. We get it, the computer revolution has invaded the industry. But it’s been more than a decade now. No one is using pure AI in legal, plain and simple.  And we can debate whether machine learning is AI, but after 10 years can we find something else to fixate on?

New Rule: No one should assume that greater attention to disciplines like privacy, cybersecurity, or information governance will diminish the need for eDiscovery. Let’s not get complacent about eDiscovery. Investing in these other disciplines is necessary, but lawyers still believe the devil is in the details and eDiscovery is still an area that can cost you if you’re not careful about it.

New Rule: No more renaming the use of analytics or machine learning technologies. We’ve got TAR, CAR, CAL, SAL, structured this and predictive that. Really? Sure, there are differences, but at some point can we all just a agree that tan and beige are basically the same color? Can we just get to using the technology and move on already?

New Rule: No firm or company in the legal industry is allowed to lay people off right before the December holiday season. I know, Trump shut down the federal government and there’s hundreds of thousands of government employees who didn’t get a paycheck before Christmas, but do you really want to be in the same category with that guy? I mean, who does this? I’ve never seen or heard of this before.

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I am indebted to friends and colleagues who contributed to and/or inspired this column. I could not possibly have divined these rules on my own, so I reached out to the community. Thanks Brad, Catherine, Tom, Ari, Herb, Craig, Rob, Scott, Steve, and others who asked not to be named. Not all rules made the cut and we’ve taken some editorial license and added commentary as appropriate.

Happy New Year! Have a great 2019!

Mike Quartararo

Mike Quartararo is the managing director of eDPM Advisory Services, a consulting firm providing e-discovery, project management and legal technology advisory and training services to the legal industry. He is also the author of the 2016 book Project Management in Electronic Discovery. Mike has many years of experience delivering e-discovery, project management, and legal technology solutions to law firms and Fortune 500 corporations across the globe and is widely considered an expert on project management, e-discovery and legal matter management. You can reach him via email at mquartararo@edpmadvisory.com. Follow him on twitter @edpmadvisory.

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