From left, attorney and forensic technologist Craig Ball, U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck, U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola.Photograph by Margarita Corporan
For February's 12 on 12, we asked attendees about their favorite moments at LegalTech New York and ReInvent Law NYC. Here are a dozen responses:
1. The Great Debate:
a) My favorite moment from LTNY was the screening of filmmaker Cullen Hoback’s documentary “Terms and Conditions May Apply” at the Law Technology News Innovation Awards. The film was an enjoyable but disturbing exploration of the erosion of personal privacy in the digital age. One of the particularly interesting examples in the film of the consequences of not reading terms and conditions in online agreements was the story of a company in the U.K. that, as a joke, included a provision in its terms and conditions that said that by placing an order, the consumer was granting the company the right to claim the consumer’s immortal soul. In one day, 7,000 people placed orders and agreed to those terms and conditions. I also enjoyed hearing Hoback’s comments during the Day 3 keynote, "Security & Privacy." — Gail Gottehrer, partner, Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, New York and Hartford, CT.
b) The classic moment for me was the Day 3 keynote and the look on filmmaker Cullen Hoback's face upon learning that Hunton & Williams partner Lisa Sotto (a last minute substitute for Trevor Hughes, who was grounded by the snow storm) had written thousands of the very contracts he was examining in his film, and that she consideredEdward Snowden to be a villain. Probably a much different dynamic than you'd have had with Hughes—and high entertainment value. —Name withheld by request.
c) This was my favorite LegalTech yet (and I've been attending for almost 20 years). The highlight for me personally came during the Day 3 Keynote when I found myself in the moderate position on the panel—between two strong personalities (the aforementioned Sotto and Hoback) with opposing points of view. All in all, everything about the show resonated and I came home motivated, focused and hungry to learn more about so many technologies.— Donna Payne, CEO, PayneGroup, Inc., Seattle.
d) My most memorable moment of Legal Tech 2014 can be described as both riveting and appalling at the same time. Given the increased emphasis this year on privacy and security, the documentary about "loss of innocence and loss of privacy" by Cullen Hoback was a home-run—a disturbing wake-up call for all Internet users. It exposes how Internet companies are constantly manipulating users to blindly "accept" terms and conditions of use that in turn not only exposes their personal information for gain, it allows companies and the government to turn the Internet into a "surveillance state." It is a "must see" movie that no one will like but everyone will remember.— Kevin Brady, partner, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Wilmington, Del. (Winner: 2013 LTN Innovation Award—Champion of Technology.)
2. Networking! The best part of LegalTech—always—is catching up with old friends and making new ones! —Attorney George Socha, Socha Consulting, St. Paul.
3. Start Your Engines: During Joshua Kubicki's talk at ReInventLaw NYC, he brought every founder of a legal tech startup to the stage. It was a powerful moment. There was such a diversity of companies represented therein. Josh wore a shirt that said, "legal means business." It does indeed. It also means startups and the startup activity in our industry is among the most important developments taking place in legal. There are 414 companies on Angel List and $458 million dollars in recent investment. — Daniel Martin Katz, co-director, ReInvent Law Laboratory at Michigan State University School of Law, East Lansing, Mich.
4. Fashion Show: Jason R. Baron wrapping up a great panel discussion on information governance by putting on his new Information Governance Initiative T-shirt. IG is here to stay. — Judy Selby, partner at Baker & Hostetler, New York.
5. From the Bench:
a) It doesn't get any better than "The Judges Panel" keynote on Wednesday, featuring federal Judge Shira Scheindlin and Magistrate Judges John Facciola, James Francis and Andrew Peck. The discussions were far-ranging and reflected the diversity of opinion and even disagreement among judges on key discovery issues. The judges dealt with nitty gritty—data on mobile devices and how to get it, whether or not to use a particular motion or not and what it should say—with humor and plenty of personality.— David Whelan, manager, legal information, The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto.
b) Listening to the panel of judges disagree about the proposed federal e-discovery rules, especially Judge James Francis’ succinct comments regarding proposed Rule 37(e): “it would curtail the ability of innocent parties to obtain relief when they are prejudiced by the destruction of information potentially relevant to litigation.”—attorney, educator Michael Arkfeld, Phoenix.
6. Scare Us: At the opening day keynote, I loved Thomson Reuters' Chief Innovation Officer Jason Thomas' exploration of the underworld of the Internet— something I've never seen before and hope to never see again. As a paranoid Internet civil libertarian, I was challenged by contemplating the freedoms people take advantage of online when they have total anonymity.— Larry Port, CEO, Rocket Matter, Boca Raton.
7. Gourmet Adventures: Our Electronic Discovery Institute dinner with 100 of our dearest friends and Lidia Bastianich at her Manhattan restaurant, Becco. A favorite moment was Jennifer Hamilton (senior and global e-discovery counsel at John Deere) reminding me that “Bring Your Own Device” is really “Share Your Own Device” because BYOD tends to ask an employee to provide personal resources to their employer. — Patrick Oot, general counsel, EDI; senior special counsel, the Security & Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C.
8. Magic: While no actual magicians performed at LegalTech, my favorite moment was when AccessData vice president Lee Reiber came close to pulling rabbits out of a digital hat at a super session in which he demonstrated the firm's mobile forensics software that makes "wiped" files on mobile devices, including data stored on and hidden in apps, reappear. Impressive, and a bit frightening. With a used Android phone he bought on eBay for $150, Reiber deftly proved that a shocking amount of information may remain discoverable on a device thought to be purged of data. Pretty much on the spot, Reiber retrieved the Droid owner's texts, contact information, e-mail, photos, and—gasp—even Snapchat images. The lessons? Wiped or deleted data may not be gone. (Everyone sort of knows this, but do we really believe it?) Your firm's retention policies may need revising. And e-discovery, more and more, includes stuff stored in smart devices and mobile apps. — Jesse Londin, lawyer, freelance writer, (author of LTN's App Bar column), New York.
9. Winter Paradise: After slogging a whole block and a half to breakfast, my colleague and I were utterly drenched and filthy from the snow and sludge. We walked into the fancy hotel restaurant looking like two drowned water rats, and our client who was in town for the show said, "It's great to see you!" — Sandra Serkes, president and CEO, Valora Technologies Inc., Bedford, Mass.
10. Prescient: My favorite moment was at the podium with AIG's Cliff Dutton and Jason R. Baron in our panel, "Have We Reached a John Henry Moment in Evidentiary Search?" panel. I was laying out my vision of a future use of predictive coding to detect and prevent lawsuits before they happen, something I had not shared with my panelists during preparation, when I realized this was not so "far out" after all. Not only did my fellow panelists instantly get it, but so did the audience. Baron quickly said that was a part of his vision of information governance, and maybe it is, but I prefer to think of it as the ultimate in litigation preparedness, namely litigation avoidance.— Ralph Losey, partner, national e-discovery counsel, Jackson Lewis, Orlando.
11. Get Well Wishes: For LegalTech, my most memorable moment was having the privilege to stand in a “We miss you” photo for DLA Piper partner Browning Marean (who was under-the-weather and could not attend LTNY) with many other LegalTech veterans. At ReInvent Law, Lisa Damon, listening to partner and national chair of the labor and employment department at Seyfarth Shaw. I was very impressed and invigorated by her presentation and her ability to light up the crowd. Her point was to not be afraid to go out there, ignite your passion for innovation. I spoke to her briefly and learned that she is in Minneapolis every other month or so to work with one of Seyfarth’s clients. I was so excited about what she had to say that I asked her to speak at our Women in E-Discovery chapter meeting. — Amy Juers, CEO, Edge Legal Marketing, Minneapolis.
12. Big Big Data: In contrast to the last few years, bringing up Big Data to the LTNY crowd (vendors, firms, consultants, etc.) did not invoke blank stares or disinterested yawns. Folks were willing and able to talk Big Data shop—mostly about ongoing analytics initiatives (primarily around legal spending and pricing) and e-discovery vendor-driven data mining and enterprise search efforts. Of the 10 or so Big Data technology/service vendors we spotted, many of them are also adding information governance to the conversation.— Jobst Elster, head of content, InsideLegal.com, Atlanta.
Compiled by Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and a member of the California bar. Twitter: @LTNMonicaBay @lawtechnews
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