Sophisticated Litigation Support Blog

Robert Half: Legal hiring looking brighter in Q2

David Kaufer — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:45:08 -0800

The employment outlook for legal professionals is looking brighter for the second quarter, according to a report Wednesday by the Robert Half Legal Hiring Index.

More than one-quarter of lawyers interviewed recently said they plan to increase staff levels in the second quarter of 2010, while none anticipated declines.

The survey was conducted by an independent research firm and based on telephone interviews with 100 lawyers at law firms with 20 or more employees, and 100 corporate lawyers at companies with 1,000 or more employees. All of the respondents have hiring authority within their organizations.

To the question, "Does your law firm/company plan to increase or decrease the number of full-time legal personnel on your staff during the second quarter of 2010?" 26 percent said they planned to increase, 0 percent to decrease, 67 percent expected no change and 7 percent didn't know.

Forty-one percent of respondents said that it is challenging to find skilled legal professionals in the United States, despite high unemployment rates.

The survey by Menlo Park-based Robert Half also found an overall sense of optimism: 80 percent of lawyers interviewed were at least somewhat confident in their organizations' prospects for growth in the second quarter.

From the Silicon Valley Business Journal

TERIS to participate in The Sedona Conference® as member of eDiscovery RFP + Vendor Panel

David Kaufer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:11:39 -0800

Phoenix, AZ – March 9, 2010 – TERIS announced today that it has joined The Sedona Conference®, the leading research and educational institute dedicated to the advancement of law and policy in the areas of antitrust law, complex litigation and intellectual property rights. TERIS has joined the organization as a member of its acclaimed eDiscovery RFP + Vendor Panel.

The Sedona Conference® formed the RFP+ Vendor Panel in the belief that a well-informed marketplace, speaking in the same language, ultimately leads to reduced costs for all parties, higher quality, and greater predictability.

“TERIS is excited to join the Vendor Panel,” said Stefan Wikstrom, founder and CEO of TERIS. “The Sedona Conference® exists to allow legal industry leaders who are at the cutting edge of issues in the areas of antitrust law, complex litigation, and intellectual property rights, to come and engage in true dialogue in an effort to move the law forward in a reasoned and just way. We very much look forward to joining this network and contributing our experience and expertise to this prestigious group of industry leaders.”

# # #

ABOUT THE SEDONA CONFERENCE
The Sedona Conference® exists to allow leading jurists, lawyers, experts, academics and others, at the cutting edge of issues in the area of antitrust law, complex litigation, and intellectual property rights, to come together - in conferences and mini-think tanks (Working Groups) - and engage in true dialogue, not debate, all in an effort to move the law forward in a reasoned and just way.

The organization’s hallmark is its unique use of the dialogue process to reach levels of understanding and insight not otherwise achievable. The Sedona Conference® Working Group Series is designed to focus the dialogue on forward-looking principles, best practices and guidelines in specific areas of the law that may have a dearth of guidance or are otherwise at a "tipping point." The goal is that the Working Groups, the open Working Group Membership Program, and peer review process, will produce output that is balanced, authoritative, and of immediate benefit to the Bench, Bar and general public.

ABOUT TERIS

Founded in 1996, TERIS (previously known as ALC Legal Technologies, Duplex Legal Discovery Solutions, and Digital Discovery Solutions), provides legal support and sophisticated eDiscovery solutions to law firms and corporate legal teams across the U.S. and internationally. TERIS’ staff of nearly 300 professionals was named one of the top 20 eDiscovery service providers by industry researcher Socha-Gelbmann in 2008. The company operates a free job board for the legal profession at www.discoverlegaljobs.com and has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, Phoenix, and Austin. To learn more about TERIS, visit www.TERIS.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/DiscoverTeris.

Copyright Protection on Social Networking Sites

David Kaufer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:54:33 -0800

By Ryan W. O'Donnell And Aneesh Mehta
The Legal Intelligencer
March 04, 2010

A recent survey by Ruder Finn indicated that almost 38 percent of mobile phone users go online to post photographs or videos on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. These photographs or videos can actually be "original works" under copyright laws.

Many social networking site users are likely to be unaware of the potential copyright issues associated with posting such original works. Once the work is on the internet, it must be assumed that it will be available to all parties, both intended and unintended. What legal remedies are available if somebody copies a photograph or video and uses it for his or her own purposes without the owner's consent?

Under the copyright laws, different remedies are available based on the status of a work. For example, the remedy may depend on whether the work is registered, unregistered, published, or unpublished. Generally, under the copyright laws an author has rights as soon as an original work of authorship is fixed on a tangible medium of expression. Therefore, rights can exist as soon as photos of your child's birthday party or your vacation are taken. However, the work must first be registered with the Copyright Office in order to enforce those rights.

Read the full article here

Experienced eDiscovery Professional Eric Hughes joins TERIS Silicon Valley as Director of Business Development

David Kaufer — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:12:21 -0800

Palo Alto, CA – March 1, 2010 – TERIS Silicon Valley announced today that veteran litigation support professional Eric Hughes joined its office as Director of Business Development. Hughes has more than 18 years of litigation support industry experience and will put that to use immediately by working with leading Silicon Valley corporations to help them better understand new technologies and how to apply those solutions to lower costs and improve results.

Hughes has extensive business development experience in the litigation support industry, most recently serving as Sales Director for BlackStone Discovery in Palo Alto. There he was responsible for engaging with and supporting both Am Law 200 and Fortune 500 firms in the discussion, development and deployment of integrated technology solutions.

Previously Hughes was Managing Principal-Silicon Valley for Whitmont Legal Technologies, where he created, opened and led the company’s Silicon Valley office, which was later acquired by iVize. He also worked at IKON Legal Document Services, where he managed numerous large projects for Am Law 200 law firms.

“Eric has a proven track record of developing strong client relationships at every stop of his professional career, said Kevin Brooks, TERIS Executive Vice President, Northern California. “His understanding of the ever-changing world of eDiscovery is an asset to TERIS and our clients alike. We are thrilled to have him on board and are confident that he will help us provide unrivaled service to our growing client base.”

Eric opened the first Bay Area Whitmont location in the city of Palo Alto in 2000. Prior to Whitmont, Eric spent nine years with IKON, and received numerous awards for his outstanding sales accomplishments including the "Top Sales Person of the Year" in the USA and Europe. He earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology and a minor in Business Communications from the University of Southern California. Eric currently resides in the Bay area.

ABOUT TERIS

Founded in 1996, TERIS is the leading full-service litigation support service provider in the United States. TERIS provides Electronic Discovery, Computer Data Forensics, Consulting and Project Management, Managed Review and related services to corporate legal teams and law firms across the U.S. and internationally. TERIS’ staff of more than 300 was named one of the top 20 eDiscovery service providers by industry researcher Socha-Gelbmann in 2008. The company operates a free job board for the legal profession at www.discoverlegaljobs.com and has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas and Chicago. To learn more about TERIS, visit www.TERIS.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/DiscoverTERIS.

Media Contact: David Kaufer, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, 206-521-8717 or DKaufer (at) TERIS.com

TERIS promotes Kevin Brooks to Executive Vice President, Northern California

David Kaufer — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:17:09 -0800

Palo Alto, CA – February 26, 2010 – TERIS announced today that Kevin Brooks has been promoted to Executive Vice President for its Northern California operations. Brooks was previously managing partner for TERIS Silicon Valley.

“Kevin’s track record at TERIS has quite simply been stellar,” said Stefan Wikstrom, TERIS Founder and CEO. “He has proven to be a highly effective team builder and is absolutely committed to providing outstanding client management and service on a consistent basis. It has been impressive to witness how much the Silicon Valley facility has grown under his leadership and we look forward to seeing similar results as his responsibilities expand to our San Francisco office as well.”

With this move, Brooks is now responsible for TERIS’ Bay Area operations, overseeing the company’s San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. Brooks manages the facilities’ day-to-day functions, including recruiting, hiring and training top talent in sales and production and ensuring client satisfaction. Under his leadership, TERIS Silicon Valley grew to become the highest revenue producer in the company’s history and has consistently been one of its top producing and profitable facilities.

Prior to joining TERIS, Brooks was an account Manager at Corporate Express, where he was recognized as the top representative bringing in the most new business in the Northern California region. He received a bachelor's degree in Organizational Communication with a minor in Business Administration from California State University, Chico.

Kevin is a member of the board of directors for Peninsula Boxing, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to serving underprivileged or at-risk youth as well as adult community members. It provides an after-school amateur boxing program for youth as well as a noncontact recreational boxing fitness program for adults.

ABOUT TERIS
Founded in 1996, TERIS is the leading full-service litigation support service provider in the United States. TERIS provides Electronic Discovery, Computer Data Forensics, Consulting and Project Management, Managed Review and related services to corporate legal teams and law firms across the U.S. and internationally. TERIS’ staff of more than 300 was named one of the top 20 eDiscovery service providers by industry researcher Socha-Gelbmann in 2008. The company operates a free job board for the legal profession at www.discoverlegaljobs.com and has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas and Chicago. To learn more about TERIS, visit www.TERIS.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/DiscoverTERIS.

Media Contact: David Kaufer, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, 206-521-8717 or DKaufer (at) TERIS.com

Recruiting & staffing specialist David Cowen of The Cowen Group debuts litigation support blog, Opportunity Knocks

David Kaufer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:28:51 -0800

Recruiting & staffing specialist David Cowen of The Cowen Group has debuted his litigation support blog, Opportunity Knocks.

David uses Opportunity Knocks to provide insights from his position atop the human capital industry.

Blog topics include:

David is an internationally known headhunter who specializes in staffing and recruiting, with more than 20 years (and a B.S. in finance from Miami University of Ohio) under his belt. Since 1996, his company The Cowen Group has been a leading force in their industry and currently caters to more than 1/4 of the firms on the AmLaw 200 list.

Lawyers see bankruptcy, litigation boom coming

David Kaufer — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:20:02 -0800

Nearly one in three lawyers see bankruptcy/foreclosure as the area that will experience the most growth in the next three months, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Menlo Park-based Robert Half Legal said that another 22 percent believe litigation would exhibit the strongest growth within this time frame.

To the question: "In your opinion, which one of the following areas of law will experience the most growth in the next three months?" 32 percent said bankruptcy/foreclosure, 22 percent said litigation, 10 percent said labor and employment, 6 percent said intellectual property, 5 percent said ethics and corporate governance, 3 percent said environmental law, 2 percent said general business/commercial law, 1 percent said health care, and the rest chose other or no answer.The survey included responses from 300 attorneys from among the largest law firms and corporations in the United States and Canada, Robert Half Legal reported, and all respondents have at least three years of experience in the legal field.

"Economic conditions continue to fuel demand for specialists in bankruptcy and litigation," said Charles Volkert, executive director of Robert Half Legal. "These specialties are broad in scope, since they are not restricted to specific industries or client types. Their wide reach, combined with the complex financial issues that individuals and businesses face, may result in ongoing demand in this area."

Volkert added that the need for legal professionals is especially strong within small-to-midsize firms. "The uptick in litigation for insurance defense, personal injury, labor and employment, medical malpractice, and foreclosure is driving the need for experienced professionals in these areas," he said.

From the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal

Monday Funny: Is eDiscovery a foreign language?

David Kaufer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:29:07 -0800

Thanks for our friend Gabe Acevedo for pointing out this good cartoon from the folks over at CaseCentral.

Counsel at public companies have a new task: Figure out how climate change is likely to affect their businesses

David Kaufer — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:29:04 -0800

From Law.com

Amanda Royal

02-11-2010
Counsel at public companies have a new task: Figure out how climate change is likely to affect their businesses.

That's the message from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which published new disclosure guidance (.pdf) Monday.

Jane Kroesche, head of the West Coast environmental transactions practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, said meeting the new requirements will not just be a matter of "plugging language" into the business discussion or legal proceedings section, where companies usually make environmental disclosures.

The most difficult reporting will be in the management discussion and analysis section, in which trends and impacts on capital investments are revealed.

"It is a very broad-reaching guidance," Kroesche said. "It's important for companies to understand that it's not just about disclosing the impact from emissions regulations. It goes way beyond that."

A coalition of about 150 environmental and investment groups, including CalPERS and Environmental Defense Fund, had encouraged the SEC to issue guidelines on climate change. The commission approved the guidelines in January by a 3-2 vote, split along party lines. It published the guidelines on Monday and they are effective immediately. The SEC hasn't issued new rules; rather, the guidelines are intended to help companies comply with existing rules.

"This is the commission's nod to those investor groups, saying, 'We understand what you are saying, we understand that you are concerned, and we are going to tell the world of public companies: You are going to have to pay attention to these issues in your disclosures,'" said Andrew Thorpe, a corporate lawyer at Morrison & Foerster who once worked at the SEC's rulemaking office.

The SEC laid out four areas where climate change could trigger disclosure requirements: legislation and regulations (such as cap and trade or a carbon tax), international accords (such as the Kyoto Protocol), indirect consequences of regulation and business trends (lower or higher demand because of public perception of carbon intensive products), and physical impacts of climate change (a factory at sea level or in a water-strapped region).

People anticipated the move, but not so soon into the new administration, said Robert O'Connor, head of the clean tech practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

"This was an issue that was dead in the water under the prior administration," O'Connor said.

He said the challenge for corporations under these new guidelines will be twofold. Companies must have the infrastructure in place to know whether there is something to disclose. And, they must find out if they are responsible for carbon emissions along their whole supply chain, or just some of it.

"It is very early. For many companies, it will not rise to the level of materiality, but I do think that all companies need to ask the question, 'Do I have the procedures and systems in place to know one way or the other?'" O'Connor said.

The biggest risks to companies, O'Connor said, would come if a global climate treaty or a tax on carbon emissions passes.

Seasoned eDiscovery Professional Claudine Schardijn joins TERIS San Francisco as Senior Technology Consultant

David Kaufer — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:26:19 -0800

San Francisco – February 10, 2010 – TERIS San Francisco announced today that veteran litigation support professional Claudine Schardijn joined its office as Senior Technology Consultant. Schardijn has more than 13 years of litigation technology experience and will put that to use immediately by consulting with high-level clients to help them better understand new technologies and how to apply those solutions to lower costs and improve results.

Schardijn has extensive business development experience in the litigation support industry, most recently serving as Director of Client Services for BlackStone Discovery in Palo Alto. There she managed and supported both AmLaw 200 and Fortune 500 clients in the discussion, development, and deployment of integrated technology solutions. Previously she served as Senior Project Manager for eLitigation Solutions, Partner at Izvize and Senior Project Manager for Aptara. Her experience includes acting as lead Project Manager for a high-level Bay Area Fortune 100 company, where she worked on the largest merger in the corporation’s history.

“Claudine has very deep industry experience, and she is a critical addition to the TERIS San Francisco team,” said Kevin Brooks, TERIS Bay Area Executive Managing Partner. “She has developed a strong reputation as a results-oriented professional who always keeps the clients’ goals in mind – regardless of the challenge at hand. She is a proven team leader, and that experience will be helpful as we continue to build our San Francisco office and serve a growing number of clients who require unique eDiscovery solutions.”

Schardijn has extensive experience with: Concordance, Summation, Trial Director, Inmagic DBTextworks, Sanction, Casemap, IPRO e-capture, Mobius/Extractiva, QuickBooks, Clearwell, Kcura/Relativity, iConect, Cataphora, and ONEO. She is a member of the Silicon Valley chapter of Women in eDiscovery and graduated from California State University – Sacramento with a B.S. in Criminal Justice and Administration.

ABOUT TERIS
Founded in 1996, TERIS is the leading full-service litigation support service provider in the United States. TERIS provides Electronic Discovery, Computer Data Forensics, Consulting and Project Management, Managed Review and related services to corporate legal teams and law firms across the U.S. and internationally. TERIS’ staff of more than 300 was named one of the top 20 eDiscovery service providers by industry researcher Socha-Gelbmann in 2008. The company operates a free job board for the legal profession at www.discoverlegaljobs.com and has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas and Chicago. To learn more about TERIS, visit www.TERIS.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/DiscoverTERIS.

Media Contact: David Kaufer, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, 206-521-8717 or DKaufer (at) TERIS.com

TERIS and kCura partner to deliver eDiscovery software Relativity to law firms and corporations

David Kaufer — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:25:06 -0800

Seattle, WA– February 10, 2010 – TERIS announced that it has partnered with kCura as a Relativity Consulting Partner. As one of the leading eDiscovery service providers over the past nine years, TERIS has implemented kCura’s world-class review platform, Relativity, to deliver a full range of capabilities for document review and analysis. Relativity provides image and native file review, powerful searching, diverse coding options, flexible workflow capabilities, integrated productions, Unicode and foreign language support, and concept searching: all delivered in a highly scalable, enterprise-grade solution.

Combined with TERIS’ existing portfolio of eDiscovery solutions, clients now have access to the broadest array of “best of breed” solutions – from culling to review. Corporations can use TERIS’ Relativity solution to reduce the risks and control the costs associated with litigation, while law firms will benefit from Relativity’s strengths as an industry-leading document review platform.

“TERIS continues to expand our review offerings to deliver industry-leading technology solutions to our client base. We provide a unique workflow that utilizes leading tools such as Relativity to empower our clients to work the way they want and need to work,” said Peter Sternkopf, TERIS Chief Technology Officer. “TERIS’ Relativity review system allows our clients to focus on the documents they are reviewing; rather than the technology required to review them. This allows them to accelerate the document review process and subsequently reduce costs – without sacrificing the quality of review. “

"We are excited to welcome TERIS as a Relativity Partner,” said Andrew Sieja, president and CEO of kCura. “We look forward to working with them to help them deliver exceptional solutions to their clients.”

With the addition of Relativity, TERIS has greatly improved its comprehensive suite of hosting solutions for its clients that minimize cost and maximize efficiency through enhanced functionality. TERIS also features a deep technical Project Management team that has more than 60 technical certifications across the company. By expanding its offerings and adding talented professional staff, TERIS is accelerating its leadership position in the litigation support industry and continues to deliver unrivaled value to its clients.

ABOUT TERIS

Founded in 1996, TERIS is the leading full-service litigation support service provider in the United States. TERIS provides Electronic Discovery, Computer Data Forensics, Consulting and Project Management, Managed Review and related services to corporate legal teams and law firms across the U.S. and internationally. TERIS’ staff of over 300 was named one of the top 20 eDiscovery service providers by industry researcher Socha-Gelbmann in 2008. The company operates a free job board for the legal profession at DiscoverLegalJobs.com and has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas and Chicago. To learn more about TERIS, visit TERIS.com or follow the company on Twitter at Twitter.com/DiscoverTERIS.

ABOUT KCURA
kCura are the developers of the e-discovery software Relativity. Relativity is a web-based application servicing the analysis, review and production stages of the EDRM. kCura helps corporations and law firms with e-discovery challenges by installing Relativity on premises, as well as providing hosted on-demand solutions through a global network of partners in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. For more information, visit www.kcura.com.

Media Contacts: David Kaufer, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, TERIS, 206-521-8717 or DKaufer(at)TERIS.com

Adi Elliott, kCura, (312) 676-5075 or aelliott@kcura.com

Is it unethical for lawyers to hire ghost writers to fill the content on their blogs?

David Kaufer — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:38:30 -0800

From ABA Journal

Is it unethical for lawyers to hire ghost writers to fill the content on their blogs?

That question has been generating some debate among bloggers who do their own writing, Legal Blog Watch reports.

The debate took off after the blog Social Media Tyro condemned the practice, pointing to a paralegal who advertises her ghostwriting services for estate planning blogs at LegalGhostBlogger.com.

The website includes testimonials from satisfied lawyers like this one: “I would never have the time to do this consistently myself,” he says. “I have received great feedback from readers, some of whom ‘find me’ only because of her posts.”

Legal Blog Watch says the ethics questions include: Is it ethical for a lawyer to hire a ghost writer for his or her blog? Does the answer change if the lawyer discloses the posts are ghost written? And is it OK to out lawyers who use ghost bloggers?

Is your outside counsel costing you time, money and case results?

David Kaufer — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:07:15 -0800

By Kevin Brooks, Managing Partner, TERIS, Northern California

You may believe that litigation support management is better left to your outside counsel. And in some situations, this may be true. However, in many cases your law firm could be costing you time and money, as well as affecting case outcome. Law firms are experts in the law, but very few have the resources and data expertise to manage your litigation lifecycle properly.

This is why a growing number of corporations are bypassing their outside counsel and contacting TERIS directly to handle sensitive services such as eDiscovery, document review and digital forensics. As new case law brings the importance of eDiscovery into the spotlight, more and more companies are discovering that it is crucial to ensure compliance and avoid sanctions by working directly with a knowledgeable data expert.

When a litigation support provider works directly with the corporation, the provider can serve as an effective conduit for both the corporation and the law firm. The provider may even work with a number of different outside counsels, serving as the primary contact for the corporation.

Additionally, many law firms, as well as some vendors, still use one single platform to handle data. A knowledgeable and technologically adept litigation support provider realizes that the one-size-fits-all approach is inadequate and, instead, offers multiple solutions to fit different case and data needs.

Ten important reasons why you should hire a litigation support vendor directly:

1. Cost and Expense Forecast – Consult directly with data experts to more accurately identify costs for each project and keep expenses down. Vendors can also help cut future costs by proactively consulting on your data.

2. Timeliness – Manage requests and deadlines quickly and more accurately through direct contact with your service provider, eliminating delays that can sometimes occur when going through outside counsel.

3. Budget Management – Identify points of savings by being able to initiate volume discounts. The service provider can extend volume discounts as they build long-term relationships directly with corporations. You can also avoid the markup from some law firms which could increase your costs for services from 25 percent to as much as 100 percent.

4. Streamlined Litigation Management - Reduce the number of vendors your corporation works with. This is especially relevant if your company works with several outside counsels and all have their own separate lit support vendors.

5. Consultation – Give your litigation support provider a consulting role and front row view into the game plan instead of a 100 percent reactive position. By working with a provider who understands data, you can avoid sanctions for under or overproducing, which could reach tens of millions of dollars.

6. Preparation – Address issues at the earliest point in litigation and improve efficiency by involving the litigation support provider in planning from the start.

7. Expertise – Allow your outside counsel to concentrate on their core competency of legal strategy, while you work directly with data experts.

8. Resources – Access the most cutting-edge technology for handling data. Small and medium-sized law firms may not have an in-house IT department to manage large numbers of electronic documents.

9. Efficiency – Work hand in hand with the service provider, eliminating the middleman.

10. Security – Gain better control over sensitive data and information.

Tips for selecting the right provider for your company:

Look for a true end-to-end provider with a litigation preparedness plan that can take your cases from collections to processing, hosting and trial services.
Qualify the provider through experience; your law firm may spearhead that process.
Request references from companies that are similar to yours in size and industry.
Identify the service provider’s true capabilities vs. partnerships. Do they actually own, operate and control the processes themselves or do they collaborate with other providers?
Ask if they are software agnostic. Many providers are locked into one or two technologies, so verify that the service bureau has more than one solution and can meet all your needs.
Ensure their solutions are thoroughly tested and proven.
Verify that the provider has a true physical location and not a virtual office. Request a tour of the facility, as well as a copy of the workflow and security protocols.

It’s clear why your corporation and legal department should have direct interaction with litigation support providers to consolidate efforts and streamline costs. Experts such as TERIS bring a highly-specialized legal and data skill-set for case management, as well as the foresight and consulting experience for client management, so you can be confident your project is always handled with the highest level of professional care.

Kevin Brooks is a managing partner at TERIS, the largest full-service litigation support provider on the West Coast, offering sophisticated consultation-based solutions, state-of-the-art technologies and highly experienced project management. In the past five years, Brooks has achieved 250 percent revenue growth while managing 150 employees in multiple offices in Northern California. For more information, please visit www.TERIS.com.

CT Summation Announces Release of Discovery Cracker 5.5

David Kaufer — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:41:46 -0800

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- CT Summation, part of CT, a Wolters Kluwer business, and the premier provider of litigation workflow and eDiscovery solutions, today announced the forthcoming release of CT Summation Discovery Cracker. Release 5.5 will capitalize on the current version which won the LTN 2009 Gold Award for EDD Services Processing. The enhancements to be delivered in Discovery Cracker 5.5 will provide corporations, law firms, and eDiscovery vendors with processing speed performance improvements while maintaining the best accuracy in the industry. The new version will be delivered with significantly improved data reporting tools, enhanced standard reports, and numerous new reports designed to meet our customers' eDiscovery needs.

Discovery Cracker is a complete solution making it possible for legal and data professionals to create unlimited PDF's or TIFF's, OCR image files, process international text characters, and much more. The solution provides unrestricted user access, enabling clients to leverage the collective power of their team without worrying about resources. In addition, Discovery Cracker is backed by a support team that has over 60 years of combined knowledge in some of the most complex, high output processing environments.

"Discovery Cracker has given our team a strategic edge resulting in increased efficiencies and more streamlined eDiscovery processes," said Alexander Call, J.D., Juris Imaging & Graphics. "The CT Summation team is patient, knowledgeable, and always ready to go above and beyond their duties to meet our eDiscovery needs."

Some of the key enhancements to Discovery Cracker include:

Performance improvements on average of over 100 percent, the fastest Discovery Cracker version to date
More accurate search and production of all responsive data – including embedded image files
Extraction of metadata from over 500 file types in 300+ languages at significantly greater speeds
Improved reporting package with enhanced standard reports, and numerous new reports designed to meet our customers' eDiscovery needs

"CT Summation is committed to providing the speed and quality that is demanded by a market focused on reducing the risk and cost of eDiscovery," states Tom Rump, general manager, CT Summation. "Discovery Cracker is the lead product in our eDiscovery product suite and will continue to be an important element in our solution set, now and into the future."

About CT Summation

CT Summation is the premier provider of litigation support and eDiscovery solutions that help legal professionals succeed from discovery to case review and analysis through production. From desktop and server applications to hosted solutions, CT Summation combines a set of award-winning technology solutions (iBlaze, WebBlaze, Enterprise, CaseVault, Discovery Cracker and CaseVantage) with market-leading expertise that provide the decisive advantage for law firms and legal departments, large or small. For more information, please visit www.ctsummation.com.

CT, a Wolters Kluwer business, provides the tools to help legal and financial professionals manage risk on many levels. From managing corporate compliance to legal department performance; trademark protection to matter management; electronic data discovery to preparing cases for litigation, CT has the right solution to meet a host of needs. CT is based in New York City. For more information, please visit www.ctlegalsolutions.com.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer is a leading global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory sectors. Wolters Kluwer had 2008 annual revenues of euro 3.4 billion, employs approximately 20,000 people worldwide and maintains operations in over 35 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Visit www.wolterskluwer.com for information about our market positions, customers, brands and organization.

SOURCE CT Summation

RELATED LINKS
http://www.ctsummation.com

TERIS hosts successful eDiscovery CLE lunch - 30 legal professionals attend

David Kaufer — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:30:26 -0800

TERIS hosted its inaugural CLE program today in Seattle and 30 legal professionals from the Puget Sound legal community enjoyed free box lunches while learning how to reduce eDiscovery costs and avoid mitigation risks.

Presenting was Micah Kasdan, Vice President, ESI Business Development for TERIS (shown in the photo below) and Kelli Clark, Esq., Director of Professional and Litigation Services for TERIS Seattle.

The two packed an amazing amount of information into their one hour presentation and feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive.

TERIS is planning on hosting additional CLE events in our other markets throughout 2010. Stay tuned for additional details and to learn when a TERIS lunch CLE will be in your city.

Judge Shira Scheindlin (S.D.N.Y.) "Revisits Zubulake" in Pension Committee of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan, et al., v. Banc of America Securities, LLC, et al.

David Kaufer — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:59:33 -0800

January 14, 2010

David Herron, Jeffrey Fowler, Eric Chan

In an 87-page opinion released this week, Pension Committee of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan, et al., v. Banc of America Securities, LLC, et al. (“Pension Committee”), Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York granted sanctions against 13 plaintiffs for their failure to properly preserve, collect and produce electronic documents.[1] Judge Scheindlin subtitled the opinion “Zubulake Revisited: Six Years Later.” She observed that, six years after the Court’s series of ground-breaking Zubulake opinions and decades after courts first addressed the discovery of electronic evidence, litigants are still conducting electronic discovery in an “ignorant and indifferent fashion.”[2] The Court then reviewed the steps a party is required to take to properly preserve evidence, and provided a legal framework for determining the severity of sanctions that may be issued against parties who fail to take those steps.

This Client Alert highlights the elements of Pension Committee that are likely to have the greatest impact on current e-Discovery practice and identifies a number of Practice Tips resulting from this decision.

Read the full article here

Paralegal Voice Podcast: Choosing a Litigation Support Vendor

David Kaufer — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:56:24 -0800

is a proud sponsor of:

Choosing a Litigation Support Vendor

Practice Management and Ethics Issues, Plus Choosing a Litigation Support Vendor

On this edition of The Paralegal Voice, co-hosts Lynne DeVenny and Vicki Voisin welcome Attorney Beverly Michaelis, Practice Management Advisor for the Oregon State Bar’s Professional Liability Fund, to discuss practice management, technology and current ethics issues for paralegals. Later in the program, Vicki will chat with Shawn Siek, Vice President of ESI Business Development at Teris, about what to look for in a service provider and hiring a litigation support vendor.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Teris, Westlaw Deposition Services, Clio, and the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA).

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Plaintiffs Sanctioned for Failure to Produce Electronic Files in Hedge Fund Suit

David Kaufer — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:52:01 -0800

From Law.com

Mark Hamblett
New York Law Journal
January 19, 2010

A federal judge has sanctioned 13 plaintiffs suing two collapsed hedge funds for negligence and gross negligence for their failure to preserve electronic files in discovery.

Saying "most plaintiffs conducted discovery in an ignorant and indifferent fashion," Southern District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin will assess monetary sanctions against all 13 plaintiffs and give an adverse jury instruction for six of the worst offenders in The Pension Committee of the University of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of America Securities LLC, 05 Civ. 9016.

"While litigants are not required to execute document productions with absolute precision, at a minimum they must act diligently and search thoroughly at the time they reasonably anticipate litigation," Schiendlin said in her 87-page opinion. "All of the plaintiffs in this motion failed to do so and have been sanctioned accordingly."

The lawsuit was brought by investors who sought to recover losses of $550 million following the liquidation of two hedge funds based in the British Virgin Islands. Banc of America and other defendants have already settled the case, which involves a total of 96 plaintiffs.

The chief defendant remaining is Citgo Fund Services, which was hired by the two hedge funds to perform certain administrative services.

It was Citgo that brought the sanctions motion, and it is Citgo that will be compensated, with a yet-to-be-determined amount, in the form of costs and attorney's fees, including fees and expenses associated with filing sanctions motions, reviewing declarations and deposing declarants.

Citgo, its parent company and two directors will also benefit in the adverse jury instruction with respect to six plaintiffs. Scheindlin said she will tell the jury that relevant evidence was destroyed after the duty to preserve arose and that the plaintiffs were grossly negligent. It would then be up to the jury to decide whether the evidence was relevant.

The six plaintiffs who will get the adverse instruction, including the Morton Meyerson Family Foundation and the Defined Benefit Plan for Hunnicutt & Co., she said, conducted "severely deficient" searches in response to document requests in 2003 and 2004.

The judge criticized the six plaintiffs for:

• failure "to institute a timely written litigation hold" -- a communication to employees to stop the routine and legitimate destruction of data in anticipation of commercial litigation or a civil enforcement action;

• failure "to collect or preserve anyelectronic documents prior to 2007;

• continued deletion of electronic documents after the duty to preserve arose;

• failure to request documents from key players;

• delegation of search efforts without supervision from management: and

• destruction of backup data potentially containing responsive documents of key players and/or submitted misleading or inaccurate declarations.

Scheindlin has written extensively on electronic discovery, especially in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, 02 Civ. 1243, where she placed particular emphasis on the litigation hold in issuing a string of opinions on such matters as sanctions for destroying e-mails, sharing the costs of e-discovery and new standards for cost-shifting.

Scheindlin subtitled her opinion "Zubulake Revisited: Six Years Later."

In her opinion, Scheindlin lamented the time wasted in considering sanctions motions in complex cases involving electronic discovery, estimating that she and her two law clerks "spent close to 300 hours resolving this motion."

Scott M. Berman of Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman is the lead lawyer for the pension funds, charitable foundations and other aggrieved investors who are pressing the case against Citgo.

"We respect the court's decision but believe that clients and counsel did what was required by existing law, custom and practice," Berman said. "In prior decisions the court has denied Citgo's motions to dismiss and for summary judgment. Other defendants have settled with plaintiffs and we look forward to trying the merit of the case against Citgo."

Lewis N. Brown of Gilbride, Heller & Brown is the lead lawyer for Citgo.

Eliot Lauer of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle is Citgo's New York counsel.

"The court's opinion reinforces what it stated in the Zubulake case, that it is no longer an excuse to say 'Well, until I get a subpoena or a document request, I was destroying stuff in the ordinary course of business,'" Lauer said. "Counsel and the parties have an absolute obligation to take affirmative steps to ensure the litigation hold and the preservation of data is, in fact, maintained. You can't just pay lip service. It's cynical and insincere to hide behind ordinary document destruction programs."

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Win one of our cool TERIS Water Bottles!

David Kaufer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:20:20 -0800

Are you on Twitter? Here is your opportunity to win your own cool TERIS water bottle! We're giving away 2 per week - just send a tweet explaining how you will use it or what you most look forward to in 2010.

We're looking for creativity people! Be sure to include #DiscoverTERIS hashtag. To win, you must be a DiscoverTERIS follower. Good luck!

This contest closes February 28th, 2010

Microsoft Corporation Deploys Clearwell to Assist With E-Discovery

David Kaufer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:39:24 -0800

Big news in the eDiscovery world (and Puget Sound area) with word that Microsoft selected Clearwell - which happens to be one of our featured solutions.

TERIS can work with corporations to either purchase the appliance and service (if they want to bring it in-house) or offer the service on an as-needed project bases.

The reality is there are not many corporations that can justify the cost of bringing the tool in-house anyway, because only a small percentage of companies deal with the same volume of litigation as Microsoft.

Regardless whether companies elect to purchase it or use it on a project basis, Clearwell is becoming even more pervasive and popular in the corporate world.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - January 12, 2010) - Clearwell Systems, Inc., a leader in intelligent e-discovery, today announced Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), a Fortune 500 company, has deployed the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform as a component of its in-house e-discovery strategy. Microsoft's legal and IT teams use Clearwell to increase the efficiency of the e-discovery process for litigation, regulatory inquiries and internal investigations.

"E-discovery costs are a significant portion of litigation costs," said Rich Wallis, deputy general counsel of litigation at Microsoft. "With the implementation of Clearwell's pre-processing, processing and analysis solution, we are further streamlining our e-discovery processes, starting with early case assessment, intelligent and appropriate minimization and search."

The Clearwell E-Discovery Platform is fully operational in less than 25 minutes and provides users with immediate visibility into case facts, significantly accelerating early case assessment. Clearwell's Transparent Search, metadata filters, and people analytics enable users to quickly and defensibly eliminate irrelevant documents and false positives, lowering processing costs and reducing review workload. The product's discussion threading and relevance ranking capabilities display documents in context, further increasing review throughput. Responsive documents can be produced or seamlessly uploaded into litigation support databases via EDRM-compliant XML and other major load file formats. In addition, the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform automatically tracks all actions on case documents throughout the e-discovery workflow, ensuring a defensible e-discovery process.

"The e-discovery expense will continue to increase as the amount of electronically stored information grows," said Kamal Shah, vice president of product management and marketing at Clearwell Systems. "To cope with this, many companies like Microsoft are choosing Clearwell to perform early case assessments in-house and gain control over e-discovery costs."

About Clearwell Systems

Clearwell Systems is transforming the way enterprises and law firms perform electronic discovery (e-discovery) in response to litigation, regulatory inquiries, and internal investigations. The Clearwell E-Discovery Platform automates the processing, analysis, review, and production phases of e-discovery via a single, integrated product. Leading organizations such as Constellation Energy, Cisco, DLA Piper, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, and the Department of Homeland Security / Office of Inspector General are using Clearwell to accelerate early case assessments, intelligently cull-down data, increase reviewer productivity, and ensure the defensibility of their e-discovery process. Consistently ranked as a leader in independent industry surveys and reports, Clearwell Systems is an active participant in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project and The Sedona Conference. For more information, visit www.clearwellsystems.com, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/clearwell, or subscribe to the E-Discovery 2.0 blog at http://www.clearwellsystems.com/e-discovery-blog/.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.