8 February 2019 (Brussels, Belgium) – Our most popular video from LegalTech each year is our mash-up video: we take one subject and ask (almost) everybody we interview the same question. Last year it was “name your least favorite e-discovery buzzword”. This year we aimed a bit higher. The video link is below.
I sent two video crews to LegalTech this year and we shot 62 videos which we are editing now. The core are in-depth interviews while some were 1 minute “quick shots”: “who are you, and why should I buy your product?” These we Tweeted throughout the 3 days to promote vendors. Other videos were for our long-form documentary pieces to be published later this year.
During the course of those interviews we had the opportunity to ask presenters, vendors and attendees what they thought were the biggest changes and the future of the e-discovery industry, plus the “new new” things they saw, and what they hoped they can contribute (and have contributed) to further the industry, etc. And what better place than LegalTech: other than The Masters Conference, it is the best assembly of those with the most concentrated expertise and experience in the e-discovery/information governance industry.
We could not fit everybody in (the video runs 15 minutes as it is and breaks Youtube’s “suggested length guidelines to maximize viewership” but, please, stick with it) so we tried to provide a variety of comments:
- Mary Mack and Kaylee Walsted/ACEDS set the table as it were by summarising the depth of the legal technology innovators in the industry, and where they see these innovators going
- Robert Childress/The Masters Conference reminds us of the importance of his conference as an incubator for many of the leading vendors in the industry today, with some comments on the amazing level of money flowing into the e-discovery market
- Craig Ball/Lawyer and Computer Forensics Examiner explains his efforts to help explain technology to lawyers, and dramatic changes to the field of forensics
- Judge Andrew Peck (now Senior Counsel, DLA Piper) emphasises “Federal Rule #1” which is to make the litigation process speedy and inexpensive, and the analytical tools we have to make it so
- Robert Hilson/Logikcull notes the “derisking” of e-discovery which is leading more and more to the process moving back in-house
- Paul Mankoo/Inventus talks about the consolidation of the industry but more importantly the new “race to the top” which is to find the highest level talent and expertise
- Nick Robinson/Microsoft notes the new shift to keeping your information and content in the systems where it is utilised, and performing your analytics there and not exporting it
- Linda Wayner/Cadence Counsel notes the new demand for top quality, diverse talent and the desire by companies to further invest in and develop that talent
- Harold Brooks/HaystackID notes the new technology that allows you move to the far left of the EDRM and tackle issues before you have even collected one morsel of data
- Brett Burney/Burney Consultants talks about the growing need for technology outside the “usual suspect” of document review … in the areas of case analysis
- Julie Lewis/Digital Mountain notes the growing use of IoT devices and the effect that will have on litigation
- Nick Wood/Ravel Law goes out 10-20 years and talks about what he sees as being the big, new technology … voice assistance. With which I agree. This was an enormous topic last year at Cannes Lions and will be an even bigger topic in two weeks at the Mobile World Congress.
- Doug Austin/Cloud Nine highlights the growing burden faced by companies in the areas of compliance and internal investigations, and he also echos the words of Harold Brooks (noted above) about the new technology now available to move to the far left of the EDRM
- Tricia Johnson/QDiscovery ponders all of this consolidation in the market and the ensuing “bigness” and wonders the effect it will have on service
- Shannon Bales/FTI Consulting predicts firms will want to have better control over their identity at trials, and will be taking a better look at their trial technology and presentation skills – avoiding a terrible “Youtube moment”
- Ian Campbell/iCONECT rounds us out with a nice finish. He notes that the level of expectation in document review platforms is that it needs to look and feel like the social media we use everyday, the ease of use it provides. The e-discovery market is very much influenced by what is happening outside it.
Oh. And I make a cameo appearance at the very end of the video. From Rome, Italy no less. I hope you enjoy this: