The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/230349
ask the vendor What technology has created the most buzz in 2013, and how could it potentially affect the legal community? PREDICTIVE TECHNOLOGIES name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Danielle Bethea company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UHY Advisors website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . uhyadvisorsediscovery.com In 2013, the ever-growing cost of discovery is still a prevalent topic within the legal community. Attorneys struggle to find ways to identify relevant data as quickly as possible, yet minimize the inconvenience and cost to their clients. Predictive analytics and coding technologies have become a popular trend in e-discovery over the past five years. They provide a cost-effective option for minimizing manual review, filtering out non-relevant data and organizing the document corpus quickly. While there is still some reluctance, the legal community is starting to adopt predictive coding in more cases, particularly when the volume of data is significant. It's a fact: Minimize the number of hours spent looking at documents, and the project budget will decrease considerably. That said, with the vast amounts of information being accumulated and stored by companies, storage space dropping in price and the need to access information more quickly in the context of litigation, we are likely to see the predictive technology and methods used continue to evolve. I suspect applying predictive analytical technologies to a variety of case types — second request cases, DOJ/SEC investigations and EEOC cases — will continue to be a trend in 2014. 20 Peer to Peer AUTOMATED TECHNOLOGY AUDITS FOR ASSOCIATES name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sue Pasfield company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Capensys, LTD. website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . capensys.com The Suffolk/Flaherty tech audit for associates is a game changer for law firms. Senior management in firms now realize what IT trainers, managers and CIOs have known for a long time: they have to improve their attorneys' technology skills to remain competitive, relevant and profitable. We are seeing many firms undertake up-skilling projects to prepare associates for the audit, taking advantage of the moment to provide attorneys with targeted training to improve their skills on critical applications. Even the American Bar Association's own rules now state that attorneys are required to have proficiency in technology, which provides yet another incentive to build a technology component into attorney professional development training. This is, of course, pragmatic for the firm as attorneys increasingly are required to do their own work and rely less on support staff, making the need for application proficiency even more critical. It's a great time to take advantage of the moment and look at up-skilling your attorneys and staff.