Offering tips to help legal professionals with e-discovery, Daniel Gold’s “E-Discovery Gold Nuggets” highlight the newest legal technology lessons and challenges. Originally a series of short video clips on LinkedIn, ACEDS is collaborating with our partner BDO to share these gems of wisdom on our blog. 

Gold, Managing Director of E-Discovery Managed Services for BDO, draws from experience to tackle a new topic in each video. On Fridays, ACEDS will examine episodes to share this e-discovery knowledge on our platform. Check out the original LinkedIn videos on Gold’s page.

In the first feature of the “E-Discovery Gold Nuggets” blog, we share two episodes: 

Ethics Around E-Discovery, Data Protection & Cybersecurity

“I want to chat about attorneys’ ethical responsibilities tied to understanding the technology behind e-discovery, data security, and what I like to call the convergency between the two. Rule 1.1 of the Rules of Professional Responsibility states that a lawyer must be competent to handle a client’s matters. Comment 8 of the rule states, ‘To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology. ‘ It goes on to (say) lawyers must be much more vigilant in understanding the risks associated with data security to properly protect its own data and client data. Rule 1.6(c) states lawyers must make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of client data.

So, here’s the question: how can a lawyer competently protect a client’s data without understanding the intricacies tied to who is making the data, data types being created, devices being used, and most importantly, how data security may be degraded from client to law firm to service provider?

Want to learn more? Don’t forget to check out my article in the American Bar Association. Until next time, I’m Daniel Gold and this was an E-discovery Gold Nugget.”

Watch episode #1 of “E-Discovery Gold Nuggets”

Ephemeral Messaging

“Today, I want to talk about ephemeral data. Ephemeral data is data that is available for a short period of time and then is deleted. There’s an uptick in ephemeral apps, such as Whatsapp, Telegram, Confide, Signal, and Wickr – which also presents a headache for lawyers, forensic investigators, and IT. How do you preserve data for e-discovery purposes if it is pulling a Houdini? As we know from the previous video, rule 1.1 requires us as lawyers to understand the impact ephemeral data has on information governance and e-discovery. 

So, here’s the question: does your organization have a policy around using ephemeral apps for business communication? If so, is there a zero-tolerance policy in place? If not, does it make sense to start putting one together? I’d love to connect with you to hear more about what you’re doing and how we’re already helping our clients. 

Also, take a look at cases such as Waymo v. Uber and Herzig v. Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Inc., which provide illuminating insight to how to handle ephemeral messaging at your company. 

Until next time, I’m Daniel Gold and this was another E-Discovery Nugget.”

Watch episode #2 of “E-Discovery Gold Nuggets”