eDiscovery Daily Blog

Will Lawyers Ever Embrace Technology?: eDiscovery Best Practices, Part Four

Editor’s Note: Tom O’Connor is a nationally known consultant, speaker, and writer in the field of computerized litigation support systems.  He has also been a great addition to our webinar program, participating with me on several recent webinars.  Tom has also written several terrific informational overview series for CloudNine, including his most recent one, eDiscovery Project Management from Both Sides, which we covered as part of a webcast on October 31.  Now, Tom has written another terrific overview regarding the state of lawyer adoption of technology titled Will Lawyers Ever Embrace Technology? that we’re happy to share on the eDiscovery Daily blog.  Enjoy! – Doug

Tom’s overview is split into five parts, so we’ll cover each part separately.  Part one was published on November 16, part two was published last Monday and part three was published last Tuesday.  Here’s the fourth part.

What are Some Good Resources to Help Lawyers Improve their Technology Expertise?

Craig Ball once made a great point in responding to a post of mine about educating lawyers when he said “We not only need to persuade lawyers to take the plunge, we need to insure there’s a pool for them to jump into. By that I mean, there just isn’t a clear path to accessible resources for the lawyer who wants to get a handle on the technology. Do they go to a community night course on computers? Pursue online education? Wait for the next Georgetown Academy?  I don’t think I’ve even seen a really good reading list on the topic (and much as I’d like for it to be, consuming the offerings on my web site isn’t enough).

Browning Marean of DLA Piper replied that since there is no general technology educational resource for attorneys and it is unlikely that there ever will be, first because the field is constantly changing and no clear standards have yet to emerge and second because of the reluctance of traditional legal educational institutions to undertake any form of “vocational” training as we discussed above, he felt the only clear option is a constant monitoring of ED websites. Among his favorites were the K&L Gates case law site, Ralph Losey’s e-Discovery Team® site and the EDRM web site.  To that list I’d add eDiscovery Daily, the Association of Certified eDiscovery Specialists (ACEDS) blog and of course Craig Ball’s Ball in your court blog.

Beyond that, I’d also suggest the following books which are worth consulting as well:

A Process of Illumination: The Practical Guide To Electronic Discovery, Mary Mack (available on Amazon here)

The Discovery Revolution, George L. Paul and Bruce H. Nearon, ABA publication (available on Amazon here)

e-Discovery for Everyone, Ralph Losey (available on Amazon here)

Electronic Discovery and Evidence, Fourth Edition, Michael Arkfeld (available for purchase at Law Partner Publishing/LexisNexis here)

Managing E-Discovery and ESI: From Pre-Litigation to Trial 1st Edition, Michael D. Berman, Courtney Ingraffia Barton, Paul W. Grimm, ABA Press (available on Amazon here)

Project Management in Electronic Discovery: An Introduction to Core Principles of Legal Project Management and Leadership In eDiscovery, Michael Quartararo (available on Amazon here)

Electronic Discovery and Digital Evidence in a Nutshell, Shira Scheindlin & The Sedona Conference® (available on Amazon here)

Electronic Discovery for Small Cases: Managing Digital Evidence and ESI, Bruce Olson & Tom O’Connor, ABA publication (available on Amazon here)

We’ll publish the final part, Part 5 – What can we do to Help Lawyers become Technologically Proficient? – tomorrow.

So, what do you think?  Do you think that lawyers are where they need to be in becoming technologically proficient?  As always, please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

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