Attorneys; hopefully, this isn't the first time you're hearing about the Judicial Council of California's Invitation to Comment on a proposed new Subpoena Duces Tecum, item number SPR11-26 (warning: link opens 12-page pdf). Why is this important to you? Because it addresses the special needs of requesting production of ESI.
The deadline for comment is 5:00 p.m., June 20th, 2011.
I'll be at LegalTech the next two days. I won't be posting but will be tweeting items of interest. I'll write my usual summary when I return, plus, I'll catch up on the backlog of interesting items I've been compiling for you.
I thought it might be a good idea to share my presentation & conference schedule for the next couple of months…this will also explain why I haven’t had as much time to post; I have deadlines!
May 17-18th: As mentioned prior, I’ll be attending LegalTech next week in downtown Los Angeles. At the moment, I’m planning to attend both days.
June 1st: I’m presenting a one-hour CLE for general credit at the Los Angeles County Bar Association Litigation Section Inn of Court, titled, “How to Lose an eDiscovery Case in 30 Days“. The synopsis:
“The steps you take in the first 30 days leading up to the initial ‘Meet & Confer’ can make or break your case. This program will discuss what to do before, during and after to keep you on track.”
June 24th: I’ll be making two one-hour CLE presentations in the computer lab (.5-hour general & .5-hour ethics credit, limited to 25 people per lab) at the California Bar’s Solo and Small Firm Summit at the Anaheim Marriott, titled, “Earth, Wind, Fire, Flood & ESI: Disaster-Planning for the Law Office“. The synopsis:
“A ‘disaster’ encompasses a lot more than you might think. The ‘physical’ office is covered; what about the ‘virtual’ office? If you suffer a catastrophic failure on Monday, can you be back in business Tuesday morning? Are there ethical issues? It’s 2 am. Do you know where your data is?”
Hey, that’s what I get for writing synopses at the last minute, late at night. How many times do you think a tech-weenie like myself has used the line, “It’s 2 am. Do you know where your data is?” (Answer: Too many times!!!).
I’m sure Hillary Clinton thanks me.
Risk. What is it, exactly? Here are a few good definitions:
"The possibility of suffering harm or loss; danger."
"Product of the impact of the severity (consequence) and impact of the likelihood (probability) of a hazardous event or phenomenon."
"The quantifiable likelihood of loss or less-than-expected returns."
"The amount of statistical gamble that someone (usually management) is willing to take against a loss. That loss can for example be either in profits, reputation, market share, or franchise."
Ok…so, knowing that all of this is on the line, why do I keep hearing words like, "Underestimated", "Miscalculated", "Unexpected" and "Unanticipated" every time something goes wrong?
I'm unimpressed.
The latest is the crack (or should I say, sun roof) that appeared in the fuselage of a Boeing 737. As either lawyers or techies, our miscalculations are bad enough, but when these people miscalculate (as in our previous study of Japan's nuclear mishap), other people die!
As a human being, I have to at least give Boeing credit for stepping up to the plate and publicly acknowledging their mistakes. As an attorney? Well…that's another matter, entirely.
A company I worked with many years ago hadn't implemented any disaster-planning. When their catastrophic event occurred (prior to my arrival), they were essentially out of business for close to three weeks before the systems could be rebuilt. In another incident, one of my direct reports was fooling around with an Exchange server and ended up accidentally deleting one of the accounts. Too bad it happened to belong to the CEO…
Yep, disregarding risk may result in a death…but in our disciplines, it's more likely to be one of us!
Who was the idiot who predicted that LegalTech WC would be history after last year? From what I know now, it's likely my sources got wind of half the story – that it wouldn't be at the Convention Center anymore – but perhaps never heard the other half; that it's moved back to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. See you there!
Movin' on up! I was elected Vice-Chairman of the California Bar's Law Practice Management and Technology Section Executive Committee last Friday. I assume the role in September.
So, my PDA was working fine this morning…then it wasn't. A total and complete software crash. I traced it down to an offending app, but it completely hosed (thank you, Canada) the O/S. And of course, I'm out of town! So, I located my carrier's nearby retail outlet and headed on over. They couldn't repair it, even with their "push" software. However, due to my predicament (out of town and desperate), they were able to swap me over to a new device. Awesome!
How did I reward them for their excellent customer service? By hounding the poor tech, first by insisting that he had to wipe my prior device clean and second, by insisting that he show me how he was going to do it, then let me watch. The store was full, they were busy and I caught a person or two rolling their eyes at my request, but I persevered.
Quite frankly, the tech understood when I explained that as an attorney, there was confidential client info on the device and our ethics rules compel us to protect it (that, or he thought I was just making it all up so he would delete porn, or something…hey, as long as I get it done, let him imagine whatever he wants!) But take note; I protected client information – as I'm obligated to do – and, I had a recent backup available on my laptop, so I lost virtually nothing. Good for me; good for my clients!
Sadly, this is the eDiscovery equivalent of voyeurism.
e-Voyeurism? Nahhhh…
This year, for the 1st time, I’m attending LegalTech New York. I was on the fence about it, then there was this thing about “legitimate” legal bloggers being offered complimentary attendance. Apparently, being selected by the ABA for their Blawg 100 makes me legitimate. Who knew?
Membership has its privileges…
You may have noticed that I’ve been toying with Typepad’s alternate posting options because I intend to do all of my posting live via my PDA. It’s not quite as robust (embedding images and links are doable, but very clunky) however, it allows me to elaborate on the spot – without the character limitation of Twitter (although my posts automatically propogate to Twitter as well).
Anyway, I’ll be attending full days Monday and Tuesday, so if you’re going, I look forward to seeing you there.
On a side-note, a last-minute schedule change has me arriving back in Los Angeles early tomorrow morning to attend the first day of the Executive Counsel Institute's "e-Discovery for the Corporate Market" Exchange in Century City. A lot of the 'usual suspects' will be there. I'll be sure to tweet the highlights.
I guess this must be award season or something. e-Discovery Insights received a 2010 Top Practice Management Blog Award from Paralegal.net.
Thank you!
