Relativity Fest 2016 drew to a close yesterday, and it was packed with memorable moments. To highlight them, we continue the tradition we started with Legaltech New York and ILTACON and bring you some of our favorite quotes.
With more than 1,800 attendees attending hundreds of educational sessions, it’s difficult to include every great quote from the annual conference.
However, here are a few of the notable ones.
Meribeth Banaschik
US attorney/UK soliticitor, Noerr LLP Duesseldorf (and native Texan), on international privacy sentiments:
“Europeans’ feelings about data privacy rights are similar to Americans’ feelings about gun rights.”
To which a fellow panelist responded …
Patrick Burke
Senior counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (and native New Yorker)
“… in Texas.”
Monica Bay
Fellow, Stanford Law Codex, to lawyers:
“Technology is inevitable—I don’t care how much you don’t like it.”
and at the Women’s e-Discovery Luncheon:
“Going to law school was the best decision I’ve ever made—besides not marrying my fiancé.”
Barclay Blair
Executive director and founder, Information Governance Initiative (IGI), on today’s economic landscape:
“Data is the new oil.”
Bennett Borden
Chief data scientist and chair of Information Governance Group, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, on privacy:
“There’s no such thing as privacy—that war has been lost.”
Bryon Bratcher
Director of practice support, Reed Smith LLP, winner of a 2016 Relativity Innovation Award, on the platform:
“Relativity is like a Swiss Army knife—you can use it to do many different things.”
Chris Dale
Founder, eDisclosure Information Project, discussing Brexit:
“There’s a Frank Underwood quotation that applies to Brexit: ‘It’s one thing to go down with the ship; it is quite another to insist the Titanic is a submarine and that everything will be fine.’”
Exasperated Relativity Fest Obstacle Course Race (OCR) Challenge Participant
When asked to name what the two stages of Relativity Processing were:
“Um … before and after.”
Judge Nora Barry Fischer
U.S. District Judge, (W.D. Pa.), when I asked her what she would do if a litigant such as the one in Arrowhead v. Seven Arts blamed his deficient e-discovery production on the “girls” in his office:
“This girl would have a dialogue with that attorney—and then some.”
Karyn Harty
Partner, McCann FitzGerald, on her work on Ireland’s landmark Quinn technology-assisted review (TAR) case:
“I had to put my neck on the block to get TAR approved, but that's how you make new law.”
Ed McAndrew
Partner at Ballard Spahr LLP and former U.S. Department of Justice Cybercrime Coordinator, discussing internet safety:
“From a cybersecurity and public health perspective, it’s important to stay away from adult entertainment sites—your computer may get diseases.”
and on controversies on the scope of government data demands:
“The U.S. government would say it’s a targeted collection—it just happens to be targeting all the data.”
Judge Andrew Peck
U.S. District Judge (S.D.N.Y.), on the Ask the Judges program for the Annual Judicial Panel:
“I think it’s a great idea; we should discuss topics people want to hear—instead of what we think they should hear.”
Daniel Pink
Guest keynote speaker and best-selling author, on life choices:
“Going to law school was a decision that increased my income—because I met my wife there.”
Judge Xavier Rodriguez
U.S. District Judge (W.D. Tex.) on funding and resources for the courts:
“We won World War II in four years, but it takes us 13 years to get a courthouse built.”
Ed Spencer and Daniel Wyatt
Associate, Taylor Wessing, and associate, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), on the effect of TAR on their litigation in the U.K.’s landmark Pyrrho case:
“Before implementing TAR, we were fighting over keywords, and writing six-page letters; now we’re here speaking together.”
Andrew Sieja
Founder and CEO, kCura, on the company’s new vision statement:
“The vision is just a statement—it’s about how we execute the vision.”
Judy Selby
Technology advisory services leader, BDO USA LLP, discussing compliance:
“Compliance does not equal ethical, and analytics does not mean objective.”
Judge David Waxse
U.S. Magistrate Judge (D. Kans.), on constitutionally sound government search:
“The basic principle of the Exclusionary Rule is: if you don’t follow the Constitution in obtaining evidence, you don’t get to use it ... The government needs particularity in what it searches—you can’t simply start looking at everything.”