I don’t think the Normans, who invaded England in the 11th Century, would be too pleased to know that their efforts to establish French and Latin as the dominant languages in the region—essentially snuffing out Old English—would be the cantilever that enabled English to grow its now-massive vocabulary. Today, it’s veritably one of the largest languages in the world.
Two hundred ninety-six years passed before English returned as the official language of England. During that time, it borrowed tens of thousands of words from both French and Latin, many of which we still use today. One of these words was “festival” from the Latin “festum” through the Old French “festivalis.”
This spring, a mere 662 years later, I deboarded a plane to attend Relativity Fest London in the same country where English first adopted that core word. Now, its truncated form serves as a banner for Relativity’s annual user conferences, which aim to deliver on the original meaning of the word: “an occasion fit for a feast.”
If you’ve never been to Fest in London, prioritize it next year. It’s truly a unique experience. This year, 850 people co-created a day known for its deep commitment to industry education with a built-in bonus: the people themselves. The community. The essential ingredient that makes a day worthy of feasting.
Relativity constituents extend into all aspects of business. Legal executives at top companies to information governance and security leaders, developers, paralegals, members of the judiciary, students, CEOs, CTOs, heads of sales and marketing divisions, and members of the press all attend Fest. Across government institutions, companies, and law firms, Fest attendees represent immeasurable know-how at a conference that many have attended for years.
A group I haven’t yet named are the special organizations who partner with Relativity to help constituents access our platform and get the most out of it. Honestly, it’s largely because of this group that Fest embodies the etymological impetus of the “festival.”
Legal services providers accomplish something our team can’t do on our own, especially in a region as diversified as EMEA: they deliver local expertise to legal teams around the globe. They live in South Africa, in Ireland, in France, in Germany. They speak the official languages. And they are masters at Relativity.
Relativity Fest Chicago is now right around the corner, and the impressive session list catalog is live. While we wait for the show to begin, let me introduce you to some of our partners at Fest London and share what they had to say about the conference, the Relativity community, and our industry.
Quick Insights from Top Sessions at Relativity Fest London
No Fest is complete without sessions. They are the backbone to every conference, and what attendees seek out for the latest information they can bring back to their respective organizations.
Partners spoke about the technology, including Review Center.
Session: Conduct a Modern-Day Review with Review Center
"We started using Review Center almost a year ago. We have used it extensively in our forensic accounting consultancy for standard first-level, second-level, QC, and privilege reviews, and recently started using active learning. For one project where we used active learning, we had already completed the disclosure and were on our way to trial, but a custodian appeared out of the woodwork and said, 'Hey, here’s my email account, have at it, it’s got everything in it from the last 15 years.' That yielded 230,000 documents, which caused a bit of panic.
Thankfully, we managed to get that down to just over 106,000 with search terms and analytics. Our trial was in six weeks, and we needed to get the review done as soon as possible. As I said, our lawyers were in a bit of a panic, and so we kicked this into active learning—splitting it into two because there were Russian and English documents. They ended up only reviewing 4,000 documents, so frankly they were quite happy. That was just two to three days of review. They were completed much quicker than we expected, considering there were only two reviewers."
FRP – Holly Baker – Sr. Manager, e-Discovery and Forensics – England
Partner reps also spoke about AI and the law.
Session: Artificial Intelligence: Law and Legislation Around the World
"I’m focused on whether legislation is addressing the technology, or whether the legislation is addressing the use. And if you follow those two paths, you’ll notice that some legislation just touches one or the other. I hope that, no matter what country it’s from, we get guidance in both areas. It’s usually connected to political motives—if one country has a strong technology company, for example, or one country feels bad they don’t have a strong technology company. They are always protecting their citizens."
EY – Meribeth Banaschik – Partner, Forensics – Germany
Speakers provided thought leadership about new models in the industry, including Legal Data Intelligence.
Session: A New Innovation Paradigm: Unveiling the Legal Data Intelligence Model
"In the context of AI, every conversation I’ve been in always comes back to what are the skill sets we need in the future? And it’s never just AI the technology. What I think about most is the need for data literacy. Understanding data. Reading data. Turning data into information. Using data as information. Then on the flip side of that: critical thinking. Now that you have this information, are you able to evaluate it? Synthesize it? Analyze it as information in order to take some action? So, while I think the tools are evolving, the core or meta skill set we need in our organizations is really around data literacy."
ProSearch – Julia Hasenzahl – Founder & CEO – U.S.
Stellar Women has been a long-time program at Relativity, featuring stand-out women in the industry who are also passionate about helping other women and raise awareness for women’s issues. This year, they hosted a lunch-and-learn in London.
Session: Stellar Women Lunch-and-Learn: How to Unapologetically Advocate for Yourself
"Top five tips to advocate for yourself:
Be open minded. Learn from bad managers as well as the good ones. Give them feedback. Everyone needs to develop.
Determination. If you want something, go get it. Exhaust your avenues and get creative.
Confidence. Practice skills that scare you, like public speaking, but help you grow.
Be honest. Talk about things that you made mistakes on and how you learned from them. If you practice vulnerability, your team is more likely to do the same.
Coaching. Get a coach. Spend time self-reflecting."
J.S. Held – Chantelle Jalland – Managing Director, Digital Investigations & Discovery – England
Relativity Partners on the In-Person Experience of Fest London
In addition to their insights and lessons from the content, partners had a lot to say about the value of being in person for an event like Relativity Fest London.
Malik Kheribeche is a 2024 AI Visionary; we caught up with him the day before the conference while Relativity’s events team set up the space.
"I’m here to talk about AI because, very often, we’re asked to talk about the impact of AI and how this disruptive technology is changing the way we operate. Especially in the technology space, for investigators, compliance lawyers, and litigators. But very few ask me about its integration, though I think that’s very key. Workflows, and how you integrate the AI as part of this workflow, is probably more important than how powerful these models are. A prime example is Relativity aiR, which is built on top of the Relativity platform that we know well. That’s what gave me comfort with my team and my clients so that we can think about the workflow and the best way of applying this new technology."
Deloitte – Malik Kheribeche – Director, Financial Advisory – Switzerland
We also talked with partners during the conference who were sponsoring the event.
"We’ve been Relativity Fest sponsors for at least four years. Today, I’m presenting on a panel with the incomparable Naina Lawrence from Pinsent Masons. We’ll be talking about Lineal Memory Bank which allows you to reuse past matter data and past matter decisions to speed up the review on new matters that come through the door."
Lineal – Damon Goduto – Partner – US
"We’ve recently expanded our RelativityOne offering to India. This is in response to a growing demand for digital investigations expertise that we’re seeing from our clients. Not only has this provided a strong base for us to deliver e-discovery in India, but it also enables us to deliver advanced analytics and AI both into the subcontinent and across Asia."
Control Risks – Allanna Rigby – Partner, Head of Discovery and Data Insights – Australia
"I got to meet lots of people and catch up on the technology. The day’s been really engaging. Especially catching up with colleagues and seeing what everyone’s saying. It’s also been invaluable to get a sense of who’s using what and why."
TCDI – Ekemini Umoren – Project Manager – England
"A highlight has been mingling with everyone here. There are people that I know everywhere. In London, Relativity Fest is always such a nice day to meet up with people and find out what’s new."
TCDI – Russ Geraghty – Sr. Director, Legal Services – England
At least one of our partners, Cimplifi, had just announced their expansion into the UK and Relativity Fest London was the perfect opportunity to be on site with other professionals in the industry.
"We’re really excited about this expansion. It demonstrates partnership growth and continual innovation of the Cimplifi ecosystem. Three years ago, we launched our contract analytics and lifecycle management practice and it has matured to support some of the largest financial services organizations in the US. We plan to bring that to the UK. With our strategic partnership with Relativity, this is the perfect time to bring confidence to UK clients that we have advisory services and a mature practice group ready to support them in any complex needs in this market."
Cimplifi – Trish Anderson – Managing Director, UK/EMEA – England
At our events, we often bring together partner representatives for special sessions to discuss current tech and market trends. During a roundtable, we heard from Epiq.
"RelativityOne has become a Swiss army knife for corporations. As they face constrained budgets, corporations are looking to do more with the resources they already use to help with new and increasing data challenges. Relativity Fest London provided an excellent opportunity to explore this further and discuss new use cases."
Epiq – Johnathan White – Solutions Architect, Legal Solutions – England
Representatives from BlueVoyant attended sessions during the day and shared some of the reasons they came to Relativity Fest in London.
"I loved hearing about AI for review. That’s something that’s going to be really useful for us. I’m looking forward to when that launches and getting my hands on it and being able to use it. Seeing how we can put it into play on some of our larger-scale cases."
BlueVoyant – Thomas Moore – Director, Digital Forensics and Incident Response – England
"Fest is all about people. To learn more about what people do, and the ability for you to go, 'Actually, we know what you do. You’re quite bespoke. Quite niche. Come and talk to this particular person.' That’s the benefit of being here that is invaluable."
Gary Peace – Proactive Digital Forensics and Incident Response Lead – England
Join Us in Chicago September 25-27
While Fest London was a great success this year, Relativity Fest Chicago is our flagship conference for the year and promises to be an even brighter stage for learning, celebrating, and connecting with the legal community.
Register for your in-person or online ticket, justify your trip for your stakeholders, and browse and build your agenda on the Relativity Fest website. We can’t wait to see you there!
