The third session of ALM's Social Media: Risks and Rewards conference focused on social media's impact on e-discovery, and was presented by Michael Lackey, Jr. a partner at Mayer Brown LLP.

Lackey started with an overview of his presentation, saying it would discuss how social is coming up in litigation and the roadblocks to be aware of. He commented that there are a couple of high profile cases that are defining the limits of what you can get and how you can get it. For organizations that have social media content that becomes relevant in litigation, there are obligations for preserving this information. Often, it is being hosted by someone else, so that creates challenges.

As many of us involved with social media would agree, Lackey said that there's no doubt that social media is not a fad - it's here to stay. He mentioned some of the more traditional platforms for social media, but also included lawyer rating agencies and other kinds of technology, such as FourSquare, for consideration in litigation.

He said that consumers have a lot of trust out there and like the interactivity, especially in terms of connecting with corporations. Lackey added that digital word of mouth marketing would top $3 billion by 2013.