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Always Be Learning: Suggested Coursework for In-house Legal Teams

Dylan Salisbury

We know that the world of in-house legal operations and investigations moves fast, with new challenges arising constantly. So, in addition to managing the steady steering of your own ship, you must keep an eye on the horizon and how industry peers and thought leaders are preparing for the next big thing.

One of the best ways to find these colleagues and learn alongside them is Relativity Fest. This year, Relativity Fest went virtual—and while it was unfortunate not to gather in person, the digital format provides a unique opportunity to keep learning.

All Relativity Fest content remains available on-demand through October 31, so if you missed out, there’s no reason you can’t dive in right now to help your team level up. It could have a huge impact on your everyday operations and your potential for innovation.

Not sure where to start? Here’s an outline of what content will be most appealing to corporate teams, and how you can make the best use of it.

Sessions for In-house Teams to Explore

The Great Data Deluge: Helping Your Team Ride Out the Waves

The amount of data that organizations have to manage is, in a word, massive. What’s more, the rate at which that data is being created and stored is accelerating exponentially. Legal teams must figure out how to manage growing streams of data from a host of platforms that didn’t even exist five years ago. This poses serious implications, including: data retention obligations, privacy considerations, regulatory concerns, and security issues, to name a few.

But there’s good news: By learning how to maintain data more effectively, companies can realize great operational benefits such as increased productivity and significant cost savings.

Tips for Actionable Learning: This session is cross-functional by nature, so make sure you dive in with a good blend of experts from your team: technical, legal, and operational. Consider a virtual viewing party, where everyone spends the same block of time watching the recording, and then comes together to discuss their unique perspectives on what was presented based on how it might affect their area of work. You might identify some opportunities to collaborate more effectively when it comes to managing new and growing data volumes.

Streamline and Simplify Internal Investigations

Do the words "internal investigations" make you want to shut off your laptop and never open it again? You're not alone. Internal investigations can be a disjointed process, and it doesn't help that they come with so many manual steps. Luckily, your peers are here to help. Representatives from Broadcom, Western Digital, and Norton LifeLock join us to share their experience using RelativityOne for their investigation workflows.

Investigations can be tricky, but they are ripe for innovation and creative problem-solving. Watch this session for tips on how to get ahead of these projects and get to the truth faster.

Tips for Actionable Learning: These presenters are a group of experts from large corporations who handle these projects every day. Their insights are a valuable deep dive into this field, and their technical insights could be especially helpful for someone with a clean slate. As an opportunity for professional development opportunity as well as internal learning, consider having a newer member of your team watch this recording and present the key takeaways to their colleagues.

From AmLaw 100 to Fortune 500: Insights on Building a True Partnership with Your Outside Counsel

Knowing and understanding what motivates outside counsel can help foster better collaboration between their team and yours. In this fireside chat, an attorney who has experience with both worlds, as well as Relativity’s chief legal officer, lend their unique perspectives on what drives each side, differing and convergent pain points, as well as where there are the greatest opportunities to streamline inefficiencies in working with outside counsel.

You will walk away from this session with some actionable strategies on how to optimize the relationship with outside counsel.

Tips for Actionable Learning: Before listening in on this session, set aside time with your colleagues to reflect on your current relationships with outside counsel. Record the best qualities and areas for improvement. Ask for one or more volunteers to watch this session with these lists in hand, to see what insights the presenters have in light of the strengths and challenges your team has experienced. How can you use those insights to improve your best practices?

In-House Innovation and Transformation: Anticipating the Shifting Demands

It's no secret that the world of in-house legal teams is rapidly changing. Organizations are demanding more from their in-house teams. Increased responsibilities include managing more data, streamlining internal investigations, and more efficient operations. No pressure, right?

In this session, a group of general counsel and legal operations leaders share considerations for onboarding new tech, how to ensure usability is high, why it's important to streamline your legal holds, the cloud transition, and what it all means for you.

Tips for Actionable Learning: If you have a wish list of new tech or training opportunities, you have a chance to put together a real, actionable proposal based on what you learn from these presenters. Come prepared to apply their tips to the technology or continuing education you feel will help your team improve operations, anticipate the evolving needs of your organization, and make the most of your colleagues’ effort. Then, work these lessons into your proposal, and point back to these experts as a primary source when you pitch your request to your leadership team.

The Ins and Outs of Conducting Remote Investigations

This year especially, teams across segments have been forced to adapt legacy workflows and systems to the new realities of business. Internal investigations are no exception. In fact, due to remote work environments, investigations teams in particular are reeling.

If this has been your experience, you are not alone. Listen in to an engaging discussion on the impact COVID-19 is having on the people, processes, and technology involved in conducting investigations remotely.

Tips for Actionable Learning: The people leaders on your team can help make their employees feel heard by bringing insights from this session to a constructive, inclusive discussion about how 2020 has gone for your organization—and how you can learn from the challenges you’ve faced so far. Have those leaders watch this session, record the takeaways and focus areas that resonated with them most, and present this information to the rest of the team. Then, invite everyone to provide their own perspective on how you can better collaborate—without missing deadlines, data, or opportunities to innovate—in a remote setting.

Requests for Information: The Good, The Bad, and The Technology

We've seen a lot more requests for information pop up recently, with the new CCPA law in California (and similar regulation sure to come in other states). It's time to ensure your organization is prepared for any and all RFIs that might come your way.

During this session, presenters discuss the trials and tribulations of data subject access requests and third-party subpoenas. You’ll also get insight into how RelativityOne can help with these tasks.

Tips for Actionable Learning: RFIs are, in some ways, similar to familiar processes like e-discovery or investigations—but in other ways, they can be quite different. If RFIs are new to you, it’s important to gain some understanding of the nuances sooner than later. Have your team watch this session, compare how these projects are and are not like the work you’re already doing, and discuss how to prepare for them accordingly.

How to Get Started

This is just a highlight of one of many in-house focused sessions offered this year via Relativity Fest’s Blazing a Trail for Evolving In-house Teams track.

If you would like to view this session you can still get access for free.

If you registered for Relativity Fest before or during the conference, simply visit the event platform to access this content—and all of the 100+ sessions presented during the live event. If you missed out on registration, don’t worry: You can visit this page to fill out a post-event registration form. Our team will follow up to provide access as soon as possible.

Content will be available on-demand through October 31, so don’t miss your chance to jump in and share these takeaways with your teams as you kick off Q4 of 2020 and start looking ahead to 2021.

Keep Learning from Relativity Fest through October 31


Dylan Salisbury is a product marketing manager at Relativity, where he specializes in understanding and serving the corporate community.

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