As I noted last Friday, it’s a busy week this week with regard to Legalweek(year) (which started yesterday)!  As I’ve done for years during Legalweek (and Legaltech, as it used to be known), I will identify some of the sessions each day that relate to eDiscovery, cybersecurity and/or data privacy, so here are the sessions of note for today, Wednesday, February 3rd.

Just a reminder that, for Legalweek, you can still register for LIVE Only Access events for FREE.  If you want on-demand content and CLE credit, it’s only $299 for the entire week!  Here’s the link to register – there’s still time to catch lots of great educational content!  Once you do, you should receive an email with login details – at least I did, but it took a little while, so hurry!

Sessions

Here’s a list of sessions of note you may want to check out (all times ET):

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM:

Humans Against the Machines: A Research Discussion

Research comparing the quality of human review to predictive coding (also called technology-assisted review) has clouded the market’s understanding of the importance lawyers play in document review. This view that humans are inferior to machines, largely fueled by outdated research, has increased the risk of inadvertent disclosures of sensitive and confidential information when responding to document requests.

For example, certain requesting parties have arbitrarily asserted that the predictive coding party should not be allowed to conduct a responsiveness review of the production during the privilege review process. In other words, if attorneys using predictive coding encounter obviously non-responsive documents in the course of a privilege review—such as employee’s medical records or pictures of the employee’s children—the requesting party’s position is that the human attorneys should not be allowed to exercise their own independent judgment to mark such documents as non-responsive.

This session will:

• Analyze the results of prior research on predictive coding, scrutinize prior research, and update prevailing approaches.
• Quantify the risks associated with relying exclusively on predictive coding, without final human judgment calls.
• Examine the results of experiments that use real world data to assess the quality of review when combining predictive coding with human judgment calls.

Speakers:

• Rishi Chhatwal, Assistant Vice President, Senior Legal Counsel, AT&T Services
• Robert Keeling, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
• Peter Gronvall, Senior Managing Director, Ankura
• Nathaniel Huber-Fliflet, Senior Managing Director, Ankura

Hosted by Ankura

Yes, Programs Matter: Dashboards, Data, and Discovery Management – Discovery as a Business Process

In this panel highlighting discovery as a business process, hear from tenured industry experts and learn how purchasing programs have transformed the way they buy. In a digital world, the legal transformation journey relies more heavily than ever on dashboards and real-time information feeds to inform business decisions. Learn how better displays and metrics can assist in the decision-making process and drive successful business outcomes.

Speakers:

• Charisma Starr, Manager of Legal Technology and eDiscovery Operations, Exelon
• Jennifer Hamilton, Deputy General Counsel, Global Discovery & Privacy, HaystackID
• Adam Rubinger, Chief Client Experience Officer, HaystackID
• Thomas Mullane, E-Discovery Process Manager, United Technologies and Raytheon Technologies
• Mark Burns, Sr. eDiscovery Manager, Litigation Support, Boston Scientific

Hosted by HaystackID and NightOwl Global

Anatomy of a Legal Hold: From Corporations and Governments to the Law Firm & Service Providers

Whether it’s for litigation, investigations, or crisis management, the legal hold is one of the most important parts of a proper information governance program, and legal hold errors can lead to serious consequences for your organization. Join us as prominent attorneys from the corporate sector and government—including the former Director of Information Governance at the White House—join technical experts to discuss the legal hold process from corporations and governments to law firms and service providers. We’ll cover legal considerations, including recent case law on data preservation obligations, technical considerations, and workflow issues, with insight on how you can protect your organization.

Speakers:

• Kenya Dixon, General Counsel and COO, Empire Technologies Risk Management Group
• David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity
• Rosemary Kuperberg, Assistant General Counsel & Data Protection Officer, Ellucian
• Barry O’Melia, Senior Group Product Manager, Relativity
• Philip Weldon, Manager, E-Discovery and Practice Technology, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Hosted by Relativity

12:45 PM – 1:45 PM:

The New Wave of Cyber Attack Techniques are Here. Is your Firm Prepared?

Do I need to worry about a cyber attack? What are the risks?

Everyone needs to be concerned with cyber attacks, these days. It’s a myth that only large organizations need to be concerned about hackers trying to get their information.

What’s at risk? Your reputation, financial stability and valuable clients if your data is exposed.

Join us to hear from Craig Sixta, CISSP, from Element Technologies and David Hansen, CISSP and Elizabeth Benegas from NetDocuments as they discuss the reality, dangers and risks of hackers and cyber attacks to small and medium law firms.

You’ll learn:

• The danger of cyber attacks
• New waves of attack techniques
• Live demonstration how cyber attacks happen
• Ways to fight against cyber attacks
• And more

Speakers:

• David Hansen, Vice President of Compliance, NetDocuments
• Elizabeth Benegas, General Counsel, NetDocuments
• Craig Sixta, CISSP, Vice President of Security and Compliance, Element Technologies

Hosted by NetDocuments

How to Strike the Right Balance Between In-house Software and Outside Specialists

With all the talk of “end-to-end” ediscovery solutions, it’s easy to fall into the assumption that ediscovery is all or nothing; either you have the staff and the sophistication to bring all ediscovery in-house, or you send everything to outside counsel. However, ediscovery is not a single problem to solve; it’s a series of smaller technical and process challenges that require a balance of technology and specialists.

Join us as we show you a model that will help you balance cost and risk by adapting your ediscovery strategy based on matter size and complexity. We’ll also advise you on how to get started with incremental changes that will significantly reduce outside counsel fees without requiring a massive organizational overhaul.

Moderator: Leah Langston, Product Marketing Manager, Zapproved

Speakers:

• Constance Mockaitis, eDiscovery Operations – AbbVie
• Linda L Johnson, Lead eDiscovery & Information Protection Manager – GSK

Hosted by Zapproved

Pandemic and eDiscovery: How COVID-19 is Pushing Corporate Legal Teams to Innovate

In-house legal teams working on eDiscovery have long focused on “processing to production” workflows. But in the wake of COVID-19—and a dramatic shift in where and how businesses are working and communicating—these same legal teams find themselves increasingly responsible for the monitoring and collection of data from new sources (M365, Teams, etc.).

During this session, we will focus on two case studies featuring in-house legal teams that have expanded their definition of eDiscovery to adjust to these new realities and learn how they have addressed both the technical and legal challenges of this change.

Speakers:

• Emily Tice, VP – Customer Experience, Nuix
• Ari Kaplan, Principal, Ari Kaplan Advisors
• Allison Stanton, Director & Associate General Counsel, eDiscovery and Information Governance, Facebook
• Tracy Ann Eggen, Manager, eDiscovery & Information Governance, CommonSpirit Health
• Toby Stinson, Manager, Law Data & Applications, Chevron

Hosted by Nuix

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM:

Emerging Technology Session – In House Legal Leaders Discuss: Innovative Techniques for Using Technology to Reduce Legal Spend in 2021

As companies look to prevent more losses due to the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus, it’s imperative that in-house legal professionals think of new innovative techniques to minimize legal spend with legal technology. Three areas where in-house legal departments offer opportunities to streamline activities and reduce costs are: (1) Legal operations, (2) Data privacy, and (3) Pre-litigation processes.

Learn from three in-house legal leaders on how they optimized these areas and reduced legal spend by… Focusing on areas like legal operations, streamlining data privacy compliance, and e-discovery activities Leveraged technology to automate legal activities and tasks Utilized policies and procedures to drive real change in their legal department.

Speakers:

• Mike Hamilton, Director of Marketing, Exterro
• Linda Luperchio, Director of Information Governance, eDiscovery and Legal Operations, The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc.
• Connie Brenton, Vice President, Law, Technology and Operations, NetApp

Hosted by Exterro

Emerging Technology Session – Beyond Keyword Search: the #MeToo Bot and Other Practical Implications of AI in Early Data Assessment

Within the next few years, we will find ourselves on the cusp of a revolution in the practice of law led by the adoption of artificial intelligence. Much like email changed the way we do business every day, AI will become ubiquitous – an indispensable assistant to practically every lawyer. Those that do will ultimately find themselves freed up to do the two things there always seems to be too little time for thinking and advising.

Together we’ll explore the practical implications and applications of AI and how the #MeToo algorithm detects harassment, how concept search helps speed up eDiscovery work and a host of other practical implications of AI in Early Data Assessment. 

Speakers:

• Tess Blair, Partner, Morgan Lewis
• Jeffrey Wolff, Director, Legal Technology, ZyLAB eDiscovery

Hosted by Zylab

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM:

Your Best Defense: A Data Privacy and Data Protection Roadmap for Legal Teams

Organizations of all types face the threat of data breaches, and many must comply with an increasingly complex array of data privacy requirements. The United States may lack a comprehensive, federal data privacy and data protection law, but that doesn’t mean organizations are not subject to an alphabet soup of substantial domestic and international requirements, including—but certainly not limited to—those from BIPA, the CCPA, the CPRA, the DPA, the FTC, and the GDPR. Join us as a panel of experienced attorneys and data privacy/data protection experts provide a roadmap for addressing these issues.

We’ll examine recent developments, including California voters’ approval in November of the California Privacy Rights Act, recent case law, the latest actions by the Federal Trade Commission, and domestic and international obligations as we approach the third anniversary of the effective date of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Speakers:

• Meribeth Banaschik, Partner, EY Germany
• David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity
• Susan Cone Kilgore, Attorney Advisory – U.S. Department of the Army
• Debbie Reynolds, CEO and Chief Data Privacy Officer, Debbie Reynolds Consulting LLC
• Ines Rubio, Senior Director, Technology, FTI Consulting

Hosted by Relativity

TAR Solutions For A New Decade: A Data Science Approach

Ever-growing data collections demand faster, more accurate ways to identify responsive material for discovery review. The TAR debate is no longer a question of whether to use predictive coding, but rather which solution – TAR 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 – should be used. The panel will explore the landscape of TAR options, and reveal how data scientists are advancing sampling techniques and statistical methods to create the future of TAR.

Speakers:

• David Li, Manaer, Data Science, ProSearch
• Gina Taranto, Director of Applied Sciences and Accelerated Learning Solutions, ProSearch
• Jennifer Hope Bernstein, Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, JPMorgan Chase & Co
• Staci Kaliner, Managing Director, Redgrave LLP

Hosted by ProSearch

Expocom concluded its two days of events yesterday and, from what I understand, over 350 people attended the two day event!  It concluded with the Fifth Annual Drinks with Doug and Mary, which (as always) was a terrific opportunity to network with colleagues in the industry, even in a virtual environment and even if the cocktail hour started at 3pm my time.  Hey, it was 5 o’clock somewhere!  😉

So, what do you think?  Are you attending the EDRM Expo or Legalweek this week?  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 authors and speakers themselves, 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.