Two topics in one!  The messaging/collaboration platform Slack has become increasingly popular as a collaboration platform for work teams – especially in times of the pandemic with so much more remote work taking place.  Here’s a webinar from Hanzo that will show how to get the most out of Slack as a legal team.  Also, on Wednesday, Slack filed a competition complaint before the European Commission against its main rival, Microsoft.

Hanzo Webinar

Next Wednesday, July 29th, Hanzo will conduct the webcast Slack for Legal Teams at 1:00pm ET (12:00pm CT, 10:00am PT).  This webinar will shine a light on how legal teams can reap the productivity benefits of Slack in their daily communications and operations. It will also explore how legal can be on the front lines to improve corporate use and governance of Slack, and share practical insights regarding meeting the preservation challenges of modern collaborative data.  Topics include:

• An overview of Slack and why it’s replacing email and changing the way work gets done
• Why legal teams should be embracing Slack to improve their communications and operations.
• Why is collaboration content the brave new world for ediscovery
• Best practices for information governance and preservation to improve corporate use of Slack
• The power of Slack’s Discovery API and purpose-built discovery solutions

Those topics will be discussed by a terrific panel, including Brad Harris, VP of Product at Hanzo, Mark Pike, Legal Director, Product Counsel, Slack; Ellen Blanchard, Director, Discovery and Information Governance, T-Mobile and Meghan Brosnahan, Information Governance & eDiscovery Leader.  The panelists will explore how legal teams can use Slack for their own operational efficiency, guide corporate use to mitigate risk and uncover best practices for managing discovery obligations with collaboration data.  Click here to register!

Slack Accuses Microsoft of Anti-Competitive Practices

Also, as reported by Legaltech News^® (Slack Accuses Microsoft of Anti-Competitive Practices, Files EU Complaint, written by Linda A. Thompson), Slack has accused its main rival Microsoft of illegal, anti-competitive behavior and asked the European Commission to intervene as a “neutral referee”.

The San Francisco-based company alleges that Microsoft abused its market dominance by bundling two of its products, making it impossible for millions of customers to use its popular “office productivity suite” – which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook – without also installing its “Microsoft Teams” collaboration software. Microsoft Teams is similar to Slack’s widely used channel-based messaging platform.

According to a statement by Slack, Microsoft is trying to use its dominance in one market to gain a foothold in another market – a practice the company described as illegal and anti-competitive.

“We’re confident that we win on the merits of our product, but we can’t ignore illegal behavior that deprives customers of access to the tools and solutions they want,” Jonathan Prince, vice-president of communications and policy at Slack, said in a statement published on the company’s website.

“Competition and antitrust laws are designed to ensure that dominant companies are not allowed to foreclose competition illegally. We’re asking the EU to be a neutral referee, examine the facts, and enforce the law,” he added.

The European Commission will review Slack’s complaint – which will not be made public under the Commission’s rules – and decide whether to open an investigation in the coming months. There is no legal deadline to investigate competition complaints. Their duration depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of the case and the extent to which the companies concerned co-operate with the Commission.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Slack’s complaint.  Regardless of how it turns out, Slack has certainly established their platform as one of the leading collaboration platforms for the workplace, which means the discoverability of data within Slack will continue to become increasingly important for legal and eDiscovery professionals.

So, what do you think?  Does your organization use Slack for messaging and collaboration?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.