Unless you choose to withdraw completely from your network, it’s difficult to miss the excitable, education-minded community in this field. e-Discovery may be a niche space, but it’s full of brilliant minds—and they’re not shy about sharing what lessons emerge from the chatter.
With plans rapidly coming together for Relativity Fest Chicago this year, and with Relativity Fest London just around the corner, we decided to take another look at what takeaways stood out from last year’s events. Give these videos a look to learn more.
#1: Cross-functional collaboration can make or break your e-discovery strategy.
It seems like everyone is innovating these days. That’s just as it should be, considering the way e-discovery is always changing. But innovation isn’t exclusive to those with developing talent or exceptional technical skills.
Workflows can be innovative, too, and so can relationships. At Relativity Fest London last year, a panel of in-house and outside legal experts and legal service providers discussed why the international e-discovery community is increasingly reliant on cross-functional collaboration to tackle new challenges.
Check out this clip to hear some perspective on the relationship between a law firm and its client, and how cost constrains it.
#2: The world may be getting smaller, but the rule book is getting bigger.
Cross-border data considerations are now commonplace, as are multi-lingual data sets and geographically spread teams. The implications are far-reaching, and all these touchpoints make the globe feel a lot smaller than it used to.
Still, that doesn’t mean every facet of this international business is getting simpler. With Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) close at hand, there’s reason to think that we’re about to see some “high-profile victims” of its restrictions and punishments. But let’s not lose hope: e-discovery skills and software may well be the key to safety under the new regulation, if applied early and often. More on that in the clip below from a Relativity Fest London session in 2017.
#3: e-Discovery teams are becoming more economically savvy every day.
Data volumes may be ever larger and more complex, but e-discovery teams won’t be beat by these new challenges. This portion of litigation is always the most expensive step, and legal teams are under pressure to minimize spend and maximize effectiveness wherever possible.
Fortunately, they have the insights and the technology to do just that. In the session “Creative Cost Control in e-Discovery Expenditures” at Relativity Fest last October, panelists discussed the many opportunities to impact bottoms lines—including greater data accessibility thanks to the cloud.
#4: Analytics usage is no longer a surprise.
The legal profession is sometimes a confusing one. There’s a silent majority of teams who often drag behind the cutting edge when it comes to adopting new technology, but there’s also a passionate group of experts who loudly take the stage to advocate for more forward-thinking practices. Such advocates help move the needle, and make the use of evolving technology less disruptive even to those who hesitate to take advantage for themselves.
Fortunately, some of these voices even come from the bench. Here’s an excerpt of Judge Andrew Peck talking about how, though there’s still a long way to go, many e-discovery teams are kicking off cases prepared to see analytics implemented on both sides of the matter.
So what’s to come this year? How will the needle move for the legal field in the coming months? We hope to hear your thoughts on that at Relativity Fest London this spring, and Relativity Fest Chicago in the fall. In the meantime, subscribe to The Relativity Blog to ensure you don’t miss a beat.
