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The Best of Legaltech 2016: Our Favorite Quotes from the Speakers

David Horrigan

One of the great things about Legaltech is the collection of knowledgeable—and often entertaining—speakers sharing their expertise with attendees. Entertaining? Legal technology? Really?

Yes, really. After covering three days of sessions and moderating a couple of panels, we found ourselves laughing on multiple occasions. Not only that, as we do at every Legaltech, we learned a few things.

We wanted to ensure you didn’t miss out on any of these enlightening quips, so we are offering a collection of quotes from the sessions we covered or moderated. We hope you learn a few things, and maybe even enjoy a good laugh. Here’s the best of Legaltech 2016:

james-arnold_100x100James Arnold, managing director at KPMG, on governing big data:

“The best way to protect data is not to have it in the first place.”

jason-baron_100x100Jason R. Baron, counsel at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, co-chair of the IGI, and former director of litigation for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, on the clarity of lawyers:

“Lawyers love ambiguity and subjective clauses; the point of law school is to produce people who work in ambiguities.”

And on fun, entertaining reading:

“I’m sure everyone wakes up thinking of the Federal Records Act.”

monica-bay_100x100Monica Bay, fellow at Stanford Law School’s CodeX and former editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, on not mixing alcohol and Facebook:

“Don’t do anything on social media if you’ve had more than three drinks.”

And on the need to bring legal services to the underserved:

 “About 90% of people in foreclosure don’t have a lawyer—and the banks always do.”

blair-barclay_100x100Barclay Blair, founder and executive director at the Information Governance Initiative (IGI), on the software-services symbiosis:

“It’s easy to drop $25 million on software; it’s much tougher to get into the mud and deal with this stuff.”

robert-brownstein_100x100Robert Brownstone, technology and e-discovery counsel and EIM group chair at Fenwick & West, on U.S. data privacy:

“EU law prohibits sending personal data to ‘uncivilized’ nations—such as the U.S.”

chris-dale_100x100Chris Dale, founder of the eDisclosure Information Project, on data retention:

“If everyone kept less crap in the first place, we’d have less of a problem.”

And on the Safe Harbor Framework:

“The Safe Harbor was never some sort of magic fairy dust that one could merely sprinkle on data to make everything okay.”

judge-james-francis_100x100U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis, Southern District of New York, on jurisdictional issues in e-discovery:

“We should remember that these jurisdictional issues existed when it was only paper. The cloud merely makes them bigger.”

Judge-Emeritus-Lorenzo-Garcia_100x100U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Emeritus Lorenzo Garcia, District of New Mexico, developing a corollary to Judge Peck’s “Take Your Geek to Court” Doctrine:

“Opposing parties should confer and dance ‘Geek to Geek.’”

judge-hornak_100x100U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak, Western District of Pennsylvania, on cooperation and e-discovery:

“Cooperation doesn’t mean you have to be a marshmallow—you can still zealously defend your clients.”

And he encouraged attorneys to keep things in perspective:

“Lawyers, remember, the world will end only once—and it’s unlikely to happen over your case.”

ari-kaplan_100x100.pngAri Kaplan, founder of Ari Kaplan Advisors, on the peril of children and social media:

“The new form of social media bullying is posting a photo on Facebook and tagging everyone but the victim.”

elizabeth-laporte_100x100U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte, Northern District of California, applying a Reagan Doctrine to e-discovery:

“With both e-discovery and technology-assisted review, isn’t it all about ‘trust, but verify’?”

john-loveland_100x100John Loveland, Managing Director at Consilio, on keeping too much data:

“In the University of Maryland data breach, 90% of the compromised data were on students who hadn’t been there in over 10 years.”

edward-mcandrew_100x100Edward McAndrew, partner at Ballard Spahr LLP and former cybercrime coordinator for the U.S. Department of Justice, on Apple Watches and other wearable tech:

“Wearable tech—or as we used to like to call them in the government, ‘wearable trackers’—are a big privacy issue.”

And Ed warned us it’s not just wearable tech:

“Remember, the Justice Department can get a lot of information from Special Agent Facebook and Special Agent Instagram.”

robert-owen_100x100.pngRobert Owen, partner at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and president of the Electronic Discovery Institute (EDI), on data retention:

“I’m a hawk on data deletion. It’s got to be done or we’ll be a nation full of servers.”

judge-peck_100x100U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck, Southern District of New York, on the future of technology-assisted review:

“Four years from now, I predict lawyers who are hesitant to use TAR will be using it—if only because there will be newer, better technology they should be using.”

And because Judge Peck was on a roll, we include:

“Some people fear judicial discretion … I do not.”

chris-pogue_100x100Chris Pogue, senior VP at Nuix, on the frequency of cyber attacks:

“Hackers are not like Santa Claus—they don’t come only once a year.”

judge-sargent_100x100U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent, Western District of Pennsylvania, on data privacy and e-discovery in criminal matters:

“Criminal matters have big data privacy issues. When the FBI comes knocking, it’s too late … and they don’t usually knock.”

shira-scheindlin_100x100U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, Southern District of New York, on the government and technology:

“The government is like a battleship. It’s very hard to turn—especially with technology.”

jude-selby_100x100Judy Selby, partner and co-chair of information governance at Baker Hostetler, on employee control of data:

“Discretion may be good for judges, but it’s not for employees with data.”

amie-taal_100x100Amie Taal, VP of security and investigations at Deutsche Bank, on differing views of data privacy:

“Europeans are very anal—in a good way—about data privacy. It’s sort of like the way Americans feel about guns.”


David Horrigan is Relativity’s discovery counsel and legal education director. An attorney, award-winning journalist, law school guest lecturer, and former e-discovery industry analyst, David has served as counsel at the Entertainment Software Association, reporter and assistant editor at The National Law Journal, and analyst and counsel at 451 Research. The author and co-author of law review articles as well as the annual Data Discovery Legal Year in Review, David is a frequent contributor to Legaltech News, and he was First Runner-Up for Best Legal Analysis in the LexBlog Excellence Awards. His articles have appeared also in The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, The New York Law Journal, Texas Lawyer, The Washington Examiner, and others, and he has been cited by media, including American Public Media’s Marketplace, TechRepublic, and The Wall Street Journal. David serves on the Global Advisory Board of ACEDS, the Planning Committee of the University of Florida E-Discovery Conference, and the Resource Board of the National Association of Women Judges. David is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, and he is an IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional/US.

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