Report from the 2012 Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat

Earlier this week I attended the 2nd Annual Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat (CVeDR) in Monterey, California. CVeDR, founded by Chris La Cour, brings together well known Litigation and eDiscovery experts and industry thought leaders for 3 days of speeches, panel discussions and debate on the important topics facing the industry.

This year's retreat included attendance by:

• Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck from the Southern District of NY
• District Judge Nora B. Fischer from the Western District of PA
• Chris Dale, well known industry expert
• George Socha, Owner with George Socha Consulting
• Craig Ball, Owner, Craig D. Ball, P.C

Chris recruited me to moderate the eDiscovery in the Cloud panel sessions and therefore I had the pleasure of spending the a few days with industry experts and thought leaders discussing important topics facing the industry in regards to cloud computing.

Following is an initial overview of the sessions;

Session # 1: How to Prepare for eDiscovery in the Cloud

This session explored the issues with managing corporate data in the cloud and how to prepare for eDiscovery before problems occur.  The panelist were:

• Jeffrey W. McKenna, CIPP, Attorney for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
• John J. Isaza, Partner at Rimon
• Erik Laykin, Managing Director at Duf & Phelps
• Deborah Baron, VP eDiscovery and Compliance at Autonomy - an HP Company

This panel had a good mix of lawyers/litigators, consultants and tool vendors.  The major takes were that there is no right answer to what an organization "should" put into the cloud.  It's a matter of cost versus the legal risks. In regards to eDiscovery in the cloud, this panel recommended and discussed understanding the issues and being prepared,

Session # 2: Integrating Cloud based eDiscovery Solutions with legacy On-Premise Solutions

This session explored the ways to move data from on-premise eDiscovery solutions to cloud based solutions and back while maintaining chain of custody and still reaping the benefits of the cloud. The panelists were:

• Donald C. McLaughlin, Jr., President and CEO at Falcon Discovery
• Pallab Chakraborty, Director of eDiscovery at Oracle
• Tom Palladino, President at NightOwl Discovery
• Robert D. Brownstone, Tech & eDiscovery Counsel for Fenwick & West LLP
• Dean Kuhlmann, VP of Business Development at Lateral Data - A Xerox Company

This panel had an interesting mix of players from big companies and consultants.  They came to the conclusion that in many cases on-premise eDiscovery solutions are good for bigger organizations where as cloud based eDiscovery solutions may be a better and less expensive solution for smaller organizations.

Session # 3: Mitigating and Managing the Risk Associated with Moving Data to the Cloud

This session explored how to comprehensively set requirements before moving data to the cloud in order to mitigate these risks.  The panelists were:

• Joseph Catalano, SVP & Chief Litigation Counsel at Union Bank
• Wayne Matus, Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
• Amor A. Esteban, Attorney at Shook, Hardy & Bacon
• Alon Israely, Manager, Strategic Partnerships at BIA - TotalDiscovery.com
• Albert Barsocchini, Senior Director Strategic Consulting at NightOwl

This panel came up with several very good check lists of what to do before you move your data to the cloud.

Session # 4: Managing Cloud Service Providers

This session explored what points are open for negotiation and provide a checklist of the right questions to ask of any cloud-based provider.  The panelist were;

• Keith Schrodt, J.D., Senior Legal Consultant at AccessData Group
• Justin Meyers, eDiscovery Program Manager at Rambus
• Therese Miller, Counsel at Shook, Hardy & Bacon
• Jenny Hamilton, Senior Counsel at Deere & Company
• Martin T. Tully, Litigation Partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Several members of this panel contended that they had actually gotten large Cloud Service Providers to negotiate the terms and conditions of their SLAs.

Session # 5: Optimizing the Use of the Cloud for eDiscovery

This session explored what types of activities are best accomplished via the cloud and which
belong on-premise.  The panelists were:

• Brad Mixner, Founder and President at Global EDD Group
• Richard Cheng, Director of Digital Forensics & eDiscovery at Kivu Consulting, LLC
• Gordon J. Calhoun, Partner with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP

This session began as somewhat of a summary of the previous session.  However, it then entered into an interesting debate about several new topics such as the value of a common data base versus utilizing XML or load files to move data between best-in-class eDiscovery tools.  It also discussed the merits and practicality of being able to move your eDiscovery platform to the data in the cloud as opposed to collecting the data and moving it to the eDiscovery platform.

All told, the 2nd Annual Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat (CVeDR) in Monterey, California was a great success.  There were some informative speeches, good panel discussions and debate, dinners with industry friends and the opportunity to make some new friends.  And, did I mention that the CVeDR was held in Monterey, CA right on the ocean!!