Litigation support teams bring together many professionals, including data scientists, database administrators, project managers, paralegals, and technologists.
How do you create educational programming for such an eclectic group?
We’ll be doing it at Relativity Fest in October, but before we gather in Chicago for one of the world’s largest legal technology conferences, we’ll be taking a new approach to litigation support education in Orlando, where you’ll find us later this month at the International Legal Technology Association’s annual ILTACON.
That new approach is Litigation Support Day, a series of SPARK (Short, Provocative, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Knowledgeable) talks by leaders in the industry, which takes place on the Wednesday of ILTACON, August 21, at Disney’s Dolphin Resort. These talks will focus on issues that will help determine the future of this industry and the profession.
Creating the Day
David Hasman, litigation support manager at Bricker & Eckler and ILTA’s 2018 Litigation Support Professional of the Year (as well part of the Bricker team that won back-to-back Relativity Innovation Awards); industry veteran Phillip Weldon, manager of e-discovery and practice Technology at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson; and I began comparing notes last year on how to approach this new concept.
Working with the ILTACON Committee, Dave, Phil, and I wanted to think outside the box. All three of us have a strong interest in e-discovery, but we wanted to add other topics to create a special day for an important legal community.
SPARK talks and TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Talks are nothing new—the nonprofit TED organization launched in 1984. What is new is an entire day of short talks devoted entirely to the litigation support community.
“The short and provocative talks are designed to include everything, but cut the fat,” said Weldon. “You’ll hear takeaways that will change your practice, and it’s going be the perfect storm of content.”
Using the SPARK format—with most talks being about 10 minutes long—has allowed to us to include more speakers. I’ll be moderating the talks throughout the day, and the format allows us to include 31 speakers in 23 different presentations.
“What truly makes this day exciting and unique is the amount of knowledge you can gain from 31 different diverse speakers, many of whom are first-time ILTACON attendees,” Hasman said. “This day promises to provide something for everyone, no matter if you work at a law firm, corporation, government entity, or service provider.”
Dramatis Personae
The Litigation Support Day includes speakers from the judiciary, law firms, corporations, software developers, service providers, and even a legal recruiter.
The 23 talks during the day are divided into four sessions: Litigation Support State of the Union; The Great Equalizer: Cloud Transformation; Tools and Technologies Impacting Legal Services, Litigation Support, and Legal Operations; Lunch with Ari Kaplan; and a keynote from New York State Supreme Court Justice Tanya R. Kennedy.
ILTA CEO Joy Heath Rush will welcome attendees, followed by a talk on the history of litigation support by ACEDS Executive Director Mary Mack. Industry veteran Rob Robinson, who serves both as CMO at HaystackID and managing partner at ComplexDiscovery, will share his research data on the e-discovery industry.
When we get to case law, it will be The Relativity Blog meets eDiscovery Daily as I sit down with CloudNine Vice President Doug Austin to discuss the most important cases of the year thus far.
Deloitte Advisory Managing Director Steven Berrent will discuss disruptive forces and innovation in the legal industry, and patent attorney Bryant Lee, co-founder and CEO of Cognition IP, will discuss legal start-ups.
We’ll cover cross-border discovery and data privacy as Kelly Friedman, national counsel of Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG)’s Discovery Services Group in Toronto, joins lawyer and legal technologist Dera Nevin to view these issues from a Canadian perspective, and Rosemary Kuperberg, assistant general counsel and data protection officer at Ellucian—and active member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)—examines data privacy issues.
As we kick off The Great Equalizer: Cloud Transformation, I’ll be joined by executives from Relativity—our new CEO Mike Gamson, Chief Security Officer Amanda Fennell, and Vice President of Strategy and Business Operations Marcin Wojtczak—as we discuss One Company’s Transformation to the Cloud.
Ricoh Vice President David Greetham will follow with hybrid on premises/cloud approaches, FTI Senior Managing Director—and Relativity alum—Wendy King will cover consulting and business considerations in the cloud, and Meagan Sauve, eDisclosure consultant at the UK’s Allen & Overy will provide the law firm perspective. We’ll conclude our cloud discussion with Eimer Stahl Data Privacy Officer (and recent Uncivil Procedure podcast guest) Debbie Reynolds on cross-border discovery from a cloud perspective.
Trial lawyer and computer forensics expert Craig Ball will kick off the Tools and Technologies session, followed by Phillips Nizer Partner Patrick Burke on blockchain, Control Risks Principal Antonia Karlan, X1 CEO Craig Carpenter on social media, and Cellebrite Vice President Frank Toscano on mobile technologies. White House Information Governance Director Kenya Dixon will close out the Tools and Technologies discussion.
The last session before Justice Kennedy’s keynote will focus on professional development and careers. Leading legal recruiter Jared Coseglia, founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners, will kick off the session, followed by D. Bryant Isbell, managing director at Baker McKenzie and Nikki MacCallum, strategic talent manager at Lighthouse.
The professional development session will conclude with Litigation Support Day’s second SPARK panel, where Dave Hasman and I will be joined by Troutman Sanders Director of Legal Technology (and fellow ILTA and Relativity Innovation Award winner) Chris Haley and Morgan Lewis & Bockius Partner Scott Milner.
Why Litigation Support Day Matters
If you can make it to Southern Hemisphere I at Disney’s Dolphin Resort on Wednesday, August 21, you’ll see an impressive gathering of some of the leading experts in legal technology discussing issues important to the litigation support community.
Not only will you experience an entire day of educational programming, you’ll be able to earn Relativity Continuing Education (RCE) and ACEDS Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) credits.
Education isn’t the only thing on the agenda. Lunch with Ari Kaplan will have dining provided by Relativity and ACEDS, and the day will conclude with a reception brought to you by ACEDS and its partners.
Whether it’s the transformation to the cloud, tools and technologies, or tips for advancing your career, Litigation Support Day promises to be a day of useful information—and a chance to spend some time with colleagues and friends.
See you in Orlando.
