E-Discovery luck: where preparation meets opportunity

I had the opportunity to listen to the Honorable Elizabeth D. Laporte, magistrate judge from the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. She had a lot to say about how counsel and their clients need to understand and learn about their electronically stored information prior to attending "meet and confers" and other pretrial discovery conferences.

The lessons to take away are not to treat the early meetings as "drive-by conferences" and prepare for them: do your homework. And when you know the extent of your ESI, be prepared to discuss it openly and with candour to your opponent and to the court. You also need to go beyond the extent of ESI and know how it was created and how it is maintained -- all in a way that can inform the parties and the court of its nature and accessiblity, or inaccessiblity. And most of all, remember that the "cover-up is worse than the crime."

The things to take away from Laporte's message: know what you don't know about your ESI prior to meeting with your opponent; discuss ESI in an open dialogue with your opponent; and, at all times, maintain your candour with opposing counsel and the court. In short, be a lawyer! When you meet regarding discovery obligations, best of luck to you; luck is found where "preparation meets opportunity." And always remember why you are there -- you are an advocate for your client and his or her data.

UPDATES AT LEGALTECH

I have been following Compulaw, a publisher of calendar and docket matter management software with built-in rules to calculate court dates and deadlines -- a software tool that beats counting the days, back and forth, on your own calendar. Now, in their Vision Web Portal version 3.3, Compulaw has a handy feature that answers the question: How did you get that date? And the answer is in an easy to view, graphical format.

Compulaw also has a Web part that integrates with Microsoft SharePoint 2007: Compulaw Collaborate. With more and more law firms implementing SharePoint, the Web part shares Compulaw data across the law firm that has installed both Vision and the Web portal.

One more new item with Compulaw's deadlines calculations for both Vision and Deadlines on Demand. The products are now endorsed by Egloff Insruance Agency, that services more than 30 Calif.-based malpractice insurance carriers. Why? Calendaring and date calculation are leading causes of malpractice claims. Compulaw's products aim to reduce errors in calendaring that hope to reduce the lawyers' liability and, ultimately, limit policy claims and the carrier's exposure to liability.