The educational track for Litigation and Practice Support professionals at this years ILTA conference was outstanding! I have included some highlights from my favorite sessions below. In addition to reading highlights from my favorite sessions, be sure to listen and look at the free materials – I’ve included links at the bottom of this blog!
On Sunday we kicked off conference with the Litigation and Practice Support Community of Interest: Wow! Approximately 50 LPS professionals showed up for this event. It was great to see this much interest. We did a round table discussing topics such as TAR, Review tools, Vendor Management, Integrating project management skills, what people are doing in-house versus outsourcing and quality control processes. Participation levels were very high and provided some very interesting insights.
On Monday following an excellent keynote presentation the Litigation and Practice Support Peer Group kicked off the track with a session titled - Lawyers and E-Discovery: Driving Behavior Change – LPSPG1: Michelle Mahoney expertly moderated this panel of experts. Panelists included Caroline Sweeney of Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Florinda Baldridge of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP and Paige Hunt Wojcik of Perkins Coie. The panel discussed various ways of driving change including the basics of Executive Buy-in, Storytelling & Communication, Developing Capability and Reinforcing Mechanisms. My favorite take away on this session? For me it was sending the client a survey at about 6 weeks into the case and ask them how you are doing. I thihk this is an excellent way to ensure you are on the right track with the client early on.
Next up…Practice Support: A Risky Business – LPSPG2: Ruth Hauswirth moderated this session and the panel provided great insights on managing risk for in-house and outsourced work. They also discussed a variety of ideas for checklists, policies and best practices you can use to mtigate risk. The panel included Mollie C. Nichols - Goodwin Procter LLP, David Yerich - UnitedHealth Group and Wendy Curtis - Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. Favorite take away on this session? The discussion around data privacy and quality control as primary candidates for managing risk. Presentation also included a list of litigation support practices at the end compliments of Epic Systems.
The 3rd Litigation & Practice Support session of the day was - Litigation Support: What in the World? – LPSPG3: Excellent panel discussion on what is going on in the e-discovery workl. Steve Clark of Lathrop Gage started with an overview of happenings in the US. Vince Neicho gave an excellent update on what is going on in the UK followed by Beth Patterson with an update from Australia and Asia and then Christine Tabbert from Canada tuned us in to what was happening there. Each panelist included recent judicial decisions that impact electronic discovery which was very interesting. The rules and case law discussed are included in the presentation for download.
On Tuesday following another exceptional Keynote session, I attended The Future of Practice Support – LPSPG4: This was an extremely engaging session that was moderated by Joanne Lane (the Litigation and Practice Support Peer Group Vice President) and Stephen Dooley from the steering committee. Joanne and Stephen are entertaining as a duo and kept this interesting with their bantering back and forth. The town hall format is exceptional because it gives the audience an opportunity to provide their insight. As a result we were pleasantly surprised to hear the vast number of views regarding the future of practice support.
On Tuesday afternoon I attended the session Fixed Fees for E-Discovery – LPSPG5: Brett Burney was an excellent moderator and kept this session moving. The panelists provided real case studies where fixed fees were used and discussed what went well and what didn’t. A very engaging session with a great deal of audience participation. Favorite takeaway on this session? Fixed fees are still somewhat new in our industry and the definition of what constitutes fixed fees varies dramatically.
Finally, at the end of the day on Tuesday I attended The ESI Debate is On! – LPSPG6: This panel of outstanding experts in the e-discovery field provided various viewpoints on a wide variety of topics including case law, technology assisted review and certification. Browning Marean with his exceptional moderating skills brought humor to the discussion and kept it rolling. Panelists included Chris Dale, Patrick Oot and George Socha. We were truly honored to have all of these industry leaders on one panel and gained insight on some current hot trends and topics including TAR, insourcing vs. outsourcing and certification. Our friends at Kroll Ontrack sponsored a receptions with drinks and appetizers immediatley following this session. It was a great opportunity to network with litigation and practice support professionals.
On Wednesday following another fabulous keynnote I attended Client-Oriented Document Review – ORG5: Another exceptional session with experts in the profession! Panelists included Joy Holley, Byan Cave LLP, Paige Hunt, Perkins Coie LL), Vince Neicho, Allen & Overy LLP and Bill Speros, Esq., Speros and Associates LLC. They started out by identifying this session as “This is a UAFZ (undefined acronym free zone)” which was refreshing. They discussed client expectations, costs, managed reviews and technology assisted review as well as trends and risk management in document reviews. Very well done!
Wednesday afternoon was the Law Department e-discovery roundtable. The session was moderated by Julie Richer of American Electric Power and Patrick Oot with the SEC. This is always a key session for me to attend to better understand client expectations and concerns. Again, an excellent session!
On Thursday morning I attend the E-Discovery Project Management: Hands-On Workflow Creation HAND7A: What can I say, absolutely fabulous. This hands on session walked attendees through some of the theories behind e-discovery workflow and then we jumped right into a hands on session building work flows in SharePoint. I have to say this was one of my favorite sessions and I hope litigation support can come up with this type of session in the future. Special thanks to Dora Martinez at Sheppard Mullin who coordianted this session and of course the panelists; Candi Smith, Winston & Strawn LLP, Nicholas Cole, Foley & Lardner LLP and finally Guy Wiggins of Kelly Drye and Warren who literally walked us through step by step. Handouts from this session were extremely well done and useful!
Finally on Thursday afternoon I attended Discovery Management Strategies: What’s your next move? – ORG9: Great way to wrap up the conference with a highly interactive session. Panelists included Cheryl Proctor, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, Stephen Dooley, Sullivan and Cromwell LLP and Eric Lieber, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.. The discussion focused on techniques for collaboration between clients and law firms, developing a discovery management strategy for your organizations and metrics. Favorite take away from this session is the list of benefits at the end that you can achieve by developing a discovery management strategy.
Congratulations Paige Hunt Wojcik, Perkins Coie, Vince Neicho, Allen & Overy LLP and Sal Mancuso, Proskauer Rose LLP for making the short list of nominees for litigation and practice support champion. The final dinner on Thursday night is where the awards are presented. Congratulations to Paige Hunt Wojcik, Perkins Coie for winning the Litigation and Practice Support Champion award.
Below are links to the audio recordings, presentations and handouts from this years conference! If you weren’t able to attend in 2012, maybe all of this excellent educational content will help you make the case for next year, ILTA 2013 in Las Vegas!
Listen and Learn!
Audio recordings of many of the sessions at conference are available for no cost to ILTA members. To access the audio recordings, click here (you will be prompted to login with your member credentials).
Look and Learn!
Many of the session handouts and presentations are available from the downloads page of the conference website at http://2012conference.iltanet.org/MainMenu/Downloads.aspx. Content is arranged by track.