In the modern legal profession, technology and innovation are not just buzzwords but essential concepts and tools reshaping the way legal services are delivered. As these changes accelerate, the distinction between legal tech and legal innovation becomes more pertinent, offering a deeper understanding of how technology can enhance legal practice. A recent episode of the Technically Legal Podcast featured Colin Levy, author of “The Legal Tech Ecosystem,” offers valuable insights into this discussion.   Colin’s journey into legal tech began as a paralegal at a large law firm in New York, wh ..read more

If artificial intelligence eventually performs a task better than humans, is it negligence not to use AI for the task?   For instance, if driverless cars become safer than human drivers, is it negligence for humans not to use them?   An interesting question and one of many asked by author and professor Ryan Abbott in his book The Reasonable Robot.  Abbott has dual degrees in medicine and law and teaches at the UCLA Medical School. He is also a mediator and arbitrator and Co-Chair of the AI Subcommittee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA).   In a re ..read more

If your company handles consumer data and are wondering where to start with a data privacy compliance plan, the latest episode of the Technically Legal Podcast has some great, practical advice for just that.   Brandon Wiebe, GC and Head of Privacy at Transcend offers a good overview of various privacy regulations, tips on how to start thinking about a data plan and how software can help automate certain parts of the process.   Brandon explains that most data privacy laws, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and U.S. state laws like the California Co ..read more

Are you hedgehog or a fox? The question stems from an essay by Philosopher Isaiah Berlin called the “Hedgehog and the Fox” which is a reference to a Greek saying that “a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing”. In the latest episode of the Technically Legal Podcast, Professor Richard Jolly of Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management and Stokes & Jolly explains that many in the legal industry are likely hedgehogs. They are subject matter experts with deep expertise in one area, but in a rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt like a ..read more

We recently hosted a webinar “Recognize, Reduce, Review: Techniques to defensibly reduce your document review.” During the 30-minute presentation, Percipient’s Head of Forensics Vaish Palavalli and Document Review Project Manager Adam Szulczewski discussed eight techniques they use to reduce data collections to manageable sizes for efficient document reviews.   Check out the video of the presentation and summaries of the culling techniques below.    Don’t have time to watch the video? Download the transcript now       Potential Data Culling Ideas: 1. File Types ..read more

As we usually do at year’s end, we take a look at our most popular articles for the year and compile a “best of” list.   Here are our greatest hits of 2021:   Most Popular Articles from 2021   #1) What Version of Microsoft 365 Do We Need for eDiscovery?   A comparison of Microsoft Core eDiscovery and Advanced eDiscovery with an explanation of licenses needed to access Microsoft eDiscovery tools. READ ARTICLE   #2) Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSP): A Look at the Value and Benefits   Using ALSPs saves money not only because of lower rates, but efficiencies ..read more

According to the American Bar Association 2020 Techreport, 60% of its survey participants answered “yes” to the basic question of whether they had used web based or software as a service (SaaS) applications in their practice.     As the use of cloud computing by lawyers increases, what are the ethical implications for lawyers storing client files remotely? In short, lawyers must observe their long-standing ethical obligation to preserve client confidence and conduct due diligence into any service or vendor used to store client information. To those ends, in early 2016 a consortium of ..read more

The popularity and use of collaboration tools has greatly increased over the past few years. New sources of data create new places from which data must be collected and reviewed for eDiscovery purposes. This is especially true as the world moves more toward distributed workforces.   One of the more widely used collaboration tools is Microsoft Teams. Teams allows users to collaborate through chat functions, audio/video meetings, screen sharing, and file sharing. All of these features create different types of data stored within the Microsoft Office 365 environment. Understanding where Team ..read more

Many will tell you that it is an e-discovery best practice to classify document families consistently and that “parent-child relationships” (such as emails and attachments) should be preserved during document production in litigation.   But should you take a “best practice” at face value because an e-discovery blog suggests that it is so? Truth is, although we think it is a good idea, there is no hard and fast rule. But, there are a few legal arguments to support producing document families intact. Bottom line: it is probably best to agree with opposing counsel ahead of time about product ..read more

  Does an employer have a duty to preserve evidence relating to a lawsuit saved in an employee’s personal cloud storage account (Box.com, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)? It depends on the court in which the case is pending and what rights the employer has to the information.   Some courts require employers to preserve electronically stored information (ESI) in employees’ personal accounts if the employer has the “practical ability” to obtain the information. Other courts require employers to preserve ESI saved in employees’ personal accounts only when the employer has a “legal right” t ..read more