eDiscovery – United States International Trade Commission Adopts Final Rules

http://ow.ly/lmbJK


A post appearing on the usitc.gov website outlining new rules for eDiscovery that are to go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.  A Federal Register Notice describing the rules was  published on May 15th, and a link to that notice is provided in the posting on the U.S. International Trade Commission website.  The post in the link above states, in part, "The Commission’s new e-discovery rules help ensure that parties more tightly focus their e-discovery requests and responses, which is intended to:

• cut costs for parties in section 337 investigations;
• lessen discovery-related burdens for parties;
• reduce the number of discovery-related disputes;
• result in fewer discovery motions before the Administrative Law Judges; and
• enhance the timely resolution of section 337 investigations."

E-discovery: Turning the discovery rules upside down

http://ow.ly/lhlYX

An article by William F. Hamilton appearing on the insidecounsel.com website.

The article provides discussion around 5 topics, which are said to be unofficial rules to the future of best practices for discovery:

1. ESI is the solution, not the problem. 
2. ESI is compelling evidence. 
3. Seek the important information. 
4. Start every case with an e-discovery budget. 
5. Sample everything. 

Tips to Avoid Social Media and New Technology Blunders – Electronic Discovery

http://ow.ly/l86Ky

An article by Peter Coons appearing on the electronicdiscovery.info website.

The article provides pointers on how to avoid mistakes while using social media networks.  The article states, " 

1. Don’t pull a Kirby! (Blog Note from Litigation Support Technology and News: The article describes a story about an individual named Kirby, which will put this point into context) – Don’t assume that only those intended to hear the message heard it.
2. What you do or say on social media sites will be used against you! – Self explanatory.
3. Lock it down! – Ensure that only you or those you trust can see your social media musings.
4. Preserve or deactivate, don’t delete! – Each site is different so make sure you are preserving evidence properly.
5. Reach out for help! – eDiscovery and Forensic experts do this for a living. If you are not sure how to properly preserve, collect, review, or produce ESI then make a call or send an email. This goes for judges, litigants, attorneys, etc."

6 Things In-House Counsel Must Know About E-Discovery

http://ow.ly/l3bjU

An article by Catherine Dunn appearing on the law.com website on the corporate counsel webpage.

The article provides tips from Gabriela Baron, former General Counsel to eDiscover provider Amici, LLC, and discusses the following topics:

1. WHY ANALYTICS MATTER
2. WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S ON THE MARKET
3. WHY MACHINES WON’T HURT YOU
4. WHAT TO ASK YOUR E-DISCOVERY PROVIDER ABOUT SECURITY
5. WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF THE PAST TWO YEARS
6. WHAT TECHNOLOGY CLIENTS ARE CLAMORING FOR

Budgeting for Enterprise Search - Time for the Guessing to End

http://ow.ly/l0K9C

An article by Martin White appearing on the cmswire.com website.

This article discusses the challenges involved in budgeting for I.T. expenditures.  The article states, "Every enterprise system purchase or upgrade has to be justified in some way, even if (in the case of SharePoint in particular) the business case should be filed under F for Fiction. A significant proportion of the total IT capital spend will be on keeping existing applications alive. Most of these will be compliance-support applications, such as finance, personnel, treasury and asset management as without these the chances are that the accounts will not get audit approval. IT managers will have a pretty good idea of how much these applications cost because they have been involved in managing them for much of their career."

The article goes on to state, "There is then a set of more specialized applications which are not directly related to compliance requirements but which can make an impact on operational performance. Among these would be enterprise resource planning (ERP), product life cycle management (PLM) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications. These applications have been around for some time now and there is quite a substantial amount of published information available on the costs of purchasing and implementing ERP, PLM and CRM software. Organizations that subscribe to analyst services from Gartner, IDC and Forrester (as three examples) will also be able to obtain guidance from them on typical budgets." Links to ERP, PLM and CRM information is provided in the article.

HP and Autonomy: How to lose $8.8 Billion

Article by Robert Armstrong and Stuart Kirk

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7a52adb4-b70d-11e2-a249-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2SniveAA5





Hewlett-Packard appears to be in a difficult position whatever the court rules on its disastrous purchase of the software group. Losing $8.8 Billion is not easy to do but HP has managed to do just that. Since acquiring Autonomy in 2011 for $11.6 Billion they had to write off 80% of the purchase price a year later. HP’s boss at the time of the deal, departed almost immediately afterwards and Raymond Lane, the board’s chairman at the time, and two other directors followed him last month.

HP, however, attributed more than $5 Billion of the writedown to “accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations”.  It alleges that low-margin hardware sales were disguised as high-margin software sales and that products were sold into the distribution channel when there was no buyer.

HP shareholders filed a lawsuit, expected to be strenuously contested, against the company’s board and its advisers – Barclays Capital and Perella Weinberg – in a US District Court last week. It alleges that HP ignored warnings of accounting improprieties and weak growth at Autonomy, then ran an abbreviated due-diligence process, and is claiming to have discovered the improprieties only after the fact to cover for its grotesque overpayment.

So the core question is whether Autonomy’s growth was, in quantity or quality, not what it seemed to be, and whether HP had any reasons to suspect as much. During Autonomy’s latter years as an independent company, a small group of analysts – notably Paul Morland of Peel Hunt and Daud Khan of JPMorgan Cazenove – argued that growth looked overstated. Autonomy responded in detail. That debate takes on new resonance now.

DevOps: Gaining Speed and Reducing Risk in a New World of Disruptive Technology

http://ow.ly/kRnVm

An article by Lonne Jaffe, posted on the CA Technologies Community Blog.  The article discusses problematic issues related to the implementation of new business software.  The article states, " A recent study found half of business leaders want strategic technology services or software products to be developed and delivered within six months. But talk to the technology leaders surveyed in the same study and only one-third of them said the work could possibly be done in that time frame.

Some attribute these challenges to immature development processes that get in the way of communication and collaboration, hindering progress at a time when heightened competitive pressures, the rise of the digital native and so many disruptive technologies—mobility, consumerization, cloud, Big Data—are demanding more from technology.

Enter DevOps, which focuses on the crucial, often broken communication and collaboration between software developers and technology operations. The concept of DevOps has been around for years, although adoption of some of the more advanced principles is still in its infancy. A recent poll of technology leaders we conducted found that nearly half still don’t even know what DevOps is."

P.S. A link to the referenced survey and poll are both provided in the article.

Volume of Data, Costs and TAR Acceptance Lead Choices as Greatest eDiscovery Challenges

http://ow.ly/kOZAR

An article by Chuck Pindell, posted on the Daegis Blog, discussing the results of a recent survey undertaken by Daegis.

The article points out, "Unsurprisingly, the explosion of data volume was cited as a current or future concern by a majority of those polled. Twenty-seven percent indicated that it is becoming unmanageable and 20 percent noted it was on the radar for future challenges. While there is a high awareness level for problems associated with big data and eDiscovery, only 6 percent cited it as a major challenge. The coming year will see that number tick upward to a much higher percentage as more legal organizations face this concern."

Good Practice Guide to eDiscovery in Ireland

http://ow.ly/kBjoJ

A post by Chris Dale posted on his blog the e-Disclosure Information Project.

This blog post provides information, with a link to the recently released Good Practice Guide to Electronic Discovery in Ireland.  The post states, "This is an interesting jurisdiction with all to play for. Mr Justice Frank Clarke, with whom I have the occasional pleasure of doing panels and interviews, does not understate it in the opening line of his forward which reads “It can, I think, be said that Ireland has been late in addressing eDiscovery.”"

P.S. On another note....the owners of the Litigation Support Technology and News Blog wish all our American readers a very happy Law Day.