Category Archives: vDiscovery Insights

v-Discovery Insights: CYLA 10 Minute Mentor

CYLA 10MinuteMentorBetter later than never.  At last September's State Bar of California Annual Meeting in San Diego, I and about fourteen other experts recorded videos for the California Young Lawyers Association's kick-off of their "10 Minute Mentor" program.

That was the easy part.  Many of you may not know this, but the Bar is very strict about complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so the videos couldn't be posted until subtitles were added.

Well…the time has come.  Check out my presentation, "Today's Technologies and Maintaining Client Confidences 101":

 

 

v-Discovery Insights: Robert Brownstone of Fenwick & West LLP Discusses his Top 3 Concerns in Data Security

Robert Brownstone has been my friend and colleague for many years.  In fact, he was Chairman of @CalBarLPMT two years prior to me.  We recently appeared on a panel together called, "Under Fire: Defending and Challenging a Motion against Technology-Assisted Review – A mock Meet and Confer (26f) hearing".  He played the role of the Plaintiff's attorney and I the Defendant's.  Robert was a late addition to my panel and I was delighted to present with him again!

 

v-Discovery Insights: #Facebook – An Arm of the #CIA

Well, this is my wrap-up post for 2011.  I'm about halfway through writing my assessment of CalBar's Proposed Formal Opinion Interim No. 10-0003 (Virtual Law Office) and should have it up by early next week.

And no, I'm not finished with my sections of the Calbar book, yet…

I see all of the year-end predictions and top-ten lists out there, but I'm closing out 2011 with this video from The Onion News Network.  I'm laughing, but not too much…

 

Happy New Year!

v-Discovery Insights: Everything ‘Pops’ with Pringles – Just ask the FBI…

Pop: (verb – transitive): slang.  To Arrest, e.g. "Johnny got popped selling heroin."

Courtesy of MSNBC.com, this video illustrates beautifully (if you can call it that in this context) how easily one may hack into your router – and the amount of trouble you may get into as a result.  This is what cyber-crime really looks like.  Do you want to bank on a competent law-enforcement technician believing your explanation, then doing the legwork necessary to establish that you're not a child-pornographer?

Remember when I said I was going to start posting videos on this blog?  Yeah, me either…it was that long ago that I said it, but obviously haven't done it.  Well, I'm going to do it, but in the meantime, I've been sitting on "v-Discovery Insights", which I was diligently saving for the occasion.  I've decided it would be good to use with all of my posted videos – whether they're mine or not – so that you can select them as a category.  So, there you go.  From now on, all videos posted here will have that tag.

Now comes the hard part – deciding whether I want to go back through 325 posts and tag the prior ones!

Bumper to Bumper, Part II: Steve Jobs is Wrong

Any guesses as to which guy is Steve Jobs and which guy is the customer?  Hint: Steve Jobs always wears black.

If you read Part I of this series, in closing, I asked whether the "bumper" solution was a good decision from a management standpoint.  My opinion?  Yes, but only if you look at it from a purely financial perspective.  From a customer service/relations standpoint, it's a disaster.

Let's review the progression of events, from initial customer complaints to Apple's eventual response:

  1. Denial – "There is no problem."
  2. Blame the Customer – "You're holding it wrong!"
  3. It's all in your Head – "Our s/w is erroneously telling you that you have a problem."
  4. Blame your Competitors – "Everyone else has the same problem."
  5. Denial II – "There is no problem, but we'll give you a free bumper."

What's the 1st thing that comes to mind?  This isn't indigenous to Apple.  I've heard this song before.  Where do think the joke, "That isn't a bug, it's a feature." comes from?  I just think that with Apple's dedicated user culture, they have a better chance than most to pull it off; but that doesn't make it right.

I've spoken to career Apple customers who are so incensed by what they term the arrogant attitude of the company (usually referring to Jobs, specifically) that they've finally had enough.  Apple can afford to lose them, but that's not really the point, is it?

So where's the eDiscovery tie-in?  Where do I start?  You might be in a corporate IT department.  You might be inside counsel.  You might be outside counsel.  You might be me – a consultant, positioned somewhere in-between all of them.  What are you going to do when management adopts the attitude:

  1. Denial – "We don't need to implement this."
  2. Blame the 'Customer' – "The client doesn't want it."
  3. It's all in your Head – "We don't need to comply with the rules."
  4. Blame your competitors – "Nobody else is implementing it."
  5. Denial II – "We'll take our chances.  If litigation arises, we'll look at it then."

The difference between Apple and you?  They have a public relations issue and face class-action lawsuits.  You – and/or your management are likely to face serious sanctions.  But don't worry; that's only if something goes wrong