I kicked off my travel for the year by attending LegalTech in Manhattan on January 29th 2018. LegalTech has been one of the largest legal technology events in the United States for several years now. LegalTech provides an in-depth look at what the technological world has in store for legal firms today. 170 vendors were onsite to highlight their expertise. In chatting with these vendors, I heard that eDiscovery, legal research and contracts management, cloud, cyber security, and legal marketing are trends that are redefining the legal industry.
Did you know that eDiscovery started due to the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure? These amendments make electronically stored information such as emails, instant messages, voicemails, e-calendars, graphics and data on handheld devices discoverable in litigation. According to The Radicati Group, Inc (a technology market research firm), eDiscovery was already a $2B dollar industry in 2017 with revenues expected to grow 24% to reach $3.8B by 2018. eDiscovery and analytics are at the center of how the business and practice of law using technology is changing.
New services for EDiscovery & Legal Research
Ricoh announced its Remlox™ Cloud service as the latest piece in their digital forensics services offerings. We spoke to Ricoh executives Eric Mandel (Domain Strategist & Information Governance) and David Greetham (VP eDiscovery, Sales & Operations) to get their expert feedback. According to Eric & David, changes to federal law are transforming how we collect forensic data and introduce and validate the evidence. They said that lawyers, not just the courts, are responsible for presenting evidence that is relative and discoverable specific to the requirements of the case. There is a need to get the data quickly and for it to be forensically sound.
With that in mind, Ricoh has developed a number of secure, user-friendly eDiscovery solutions including:
Remlox™ Cloud is a user-friendly, cloud-based software solution that enables proportionality through a forensic targeted collection. It automates the collection process by allowing users to efficiently gather only the most potentially relevant information needed for their case. Users can request a collection in the morning, using Ricoh’s same-day email deployment, and can be reviewing their data that same evening, utilizing one of Ricoh’s industry-leading document review solutions. And it’s all hosted in Ricoh’s Microsoft® Azure™ environment with enhanced security.
RICOH eDiscovery On Demand is a self-service, on-demand, cloud-based software solution with a customizable, easy-to-navigate user-interface. It puts the eDiscovery process at a user’s fingertips with no long-term commitment. Users can process, interact with, review and produce their Electronically Stored Information (ESI) from their eDiscovery projects 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Cloud, Security & Marketing
Back in 2016, Oracle CEO Mark V Hurd told reporters that by 2025, 80% of all IT budgets will be spent on cloud, and that almost all new applications will be on SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms. Vendors at #LegalTech2018 are already embracing the cloud today showcasing user friendly and secure cloud-based platforms for records management, legal operations and contracts management including the writing and management of the contracts. Relativity announced new features of transcript support and active learning workflow available in their SaaS eDiscovery platform showing that there is an uptick in the use of artificial intelligence. What are you doing to embrace the cloud?
Sessions were available for marketing teams and executives to learn more about promoting and marketing their firm with focus discussion on finding your niche, taking a diversified approach to search engine marketing strategies to improve search rankings and how to have a better understanding of your target market. It was recommended to keep your website simple and clean with high quality interesting content and to follow the data!
Organizing data, discovering the truth and the pursuit of just outcomes are core to the business of law. Technology is driving changes as to how quickly and efficiently this can be accomplished. What technology are you implementing today to help?
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