Insight into where e-discovery, information governance cybersecurity, and digital transformation are heading – who is doing what now or in the future, what works and what doesn’t, and what people wish they could do but can’t – gleaned from recent publications

E-DISCOVERY

BDO’s 2019 predictions: The year of digital transformation – In today’s evolving digital landscape, corporate and legal technologies are changing at a rapid pace. What does this mean for e-discovery in 2019? BDO professionals share their top five e-discovery predictions for the year.

Acquisitions – Provider Elevate announced it had acquired provider Yerra Solutions. Provider EXTEND Resources announced it had acquired a controlling interest in Nighthawk Global Business Process Services, Inc. Provider HaystackID announced it had acquired provider eTERA Consulting.

The future of e-discovery: in the cloud – Infographic and short article from Relativity on the growing move of technology and storage to the cloud.

22 e-discovery predictions from Relativity – 22 predictions for 2019, grouped in 6 categories: early exposure to tech; innovation; moving to the cloud; navigating regulatory changes; changing data sources and workflows; and security.

Add font types to your e-discovery checklist? – Doug Austin draws our attention to a matter reported in Newser, where it came to light in a bankruptcy dispute that one critical document allegedly written in 1995 used a font not designed until 2004 and other critical document allegedly composed in 2004 was in a font that did not become widely available until 2007.

The ethics of recovery e-discovery managed services costs – Catalyst’s Daniel Gold contends that ABA Model Rule 1.5(a) allows law firms to ethically recover their costs in e-discovery managed services partnerships.

TAR rejection – In a Legaltech news article, Orrick attorneys suggest that using TAR for privilege review in criminal cases should be a non-starter.

TAR rebuttal – In a letter to the Legaltech news editor, Frank Maas and Maura Grossman take issue with the suggestion, above, that using TAR to cull privileged documents from the offices of Michael Cohen would be “improper and potentially unconstitutional”.

INFORMATION GOVERANANCE

5 trends for data governance strategies – From an Information Management article, five top trends for data governance strategies: data quality or veracity remains the priority; robotic process automation; data and systems integration; improved metadata management; and strict regulation, especially stateside.

CYBERSECURITY & DATA PRIVACY

French DPA publishes updated data protection impact assessment guidance – Sidley reported that the French data protection authority, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), published a draft list of processing operations which require a DPIA to be carried out prior to the processing of personal data.

Ohio adopts NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law – Sidley reported that Ohio adopted that National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Insurance Data Security Model Law, making it the second state to adopt the model law (after South Carolina) and the fourth (add in Connecticut and New York) to enact cybersecurity regulations for insurance companies.

HHS releases cybersecurity guidance for heathcare organizations – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a cybersecurity document for healthcare organizations, “Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices: Managing Threats and Protecting Patients”, that goes beyond individually identifiable health information to include organizations’ enterprise-level information security, reported Sidley.

Spanish data protection act takes force – The Organic Law 3/2018 on the Protection of Personal Data and Guarantee of Digital Rights, which implements the GDPR in Spain, entered into force in December, reported Sidley.

CNIL fines Google $57M for GDPR breach – CNIL has imposed a 50 million Euro financial penalty on Google for violating the GDPR’s transparency, information, and consent obligations – the first time the CNIL has applied the new sanction limits provided by the GDPR.

Max Schrems returns – NOYB, the privacy group of Max Schrems, who brought down Safe Harbor, announced it had filed formal complaints with the Austrian data protection agency aimed at 8 companies: Amazon Prime, Apple Music, DAZN, Filmmit, Netflix, SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube.

Tim Cook calls for federal privacy legislation – In a Time magazine editorial, Apple CEO Tim Cook called on Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation to protect and empower consumers and built on 4 principles: the right to have personal data minimized; the right to knowledge; the right to access; and the right to data security.

Russia opens cases against Facebook and Twitter – Russia’s communication watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has opened administrative proceedings against Facebook and Twitter for failing to comply with local data laws that require all services used to store Russians’ personal data to be located in Russia, reported Reuters.

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Acquisitions – SAGlobal is acquiring LexisNexis’s LexisOne cloud-based practice management application.

Provider-law firm partnerships – Software provider Neota Logic announced it is to partner with the law firm Actuate Law to deliver a range of AI-driven legal and compliance solutions to their clients.

What in-house counsel want from legal technology – According a recent Corporate Counsel article, in-house counsel want legal technology to help them do more with less, improving efficiencies wherever possible.

More about what in-house counsel want – And from a recent survey of general counsel at medium to large companies, GCs look to adopt tech tools, reduce external legal spend, and outsource legal work more efficiently.

Legal tech start-up map – Think the London Tube map, but for legal technology: the Legal Geek Startup Map.

Missed CLOC EMEA in London? – Artificial Lawyer published a short recap of the conference, focusing on two themes from the conference, first metrics and data, and second getting your contract stack in order.

European lawyers’ tech resistance waning – According to a recent survey by the International Association of Young Lawyers and the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europe, 47% of polled European lawyers consider resistance to innovation to be the number one threat facing the legal industry. That sounds high, but it is a 24% drop from two years ago, reports Legaltech news.