Books in Amy’s Personal Litigation Support Library (available from Amazon.com)
Books in Amy’s Personal Litigation Support Library (available from LexisNexis)
I have purchased every edition of Michael Arkfeld’s Electronic Discovery and Evidence.
Recommended Resources from Blog Articles
- Resource – Michael Arkfeld Michael Arkfeld is one of the very first litigators that I began to learn from when litigation technology was in its infancy. Michael was a frequent speaker at the conferences I attended. He always impressed me with his style and his knowledge. I purchased all of his books over the years and I recently purchased my third copy of his Electronic Discovery and Evidence treatise and Best Practices Guides. In anticipation of this article, I reached out to Michael recently to ask if he has any words of wisdom to share with all of you. He shared this – “One of the greatest challenges facing the legal profession today is the competency of legal professionals regarding eDiscovery. In my anecdotal estimation, over 99% of professionals today cannot identify the myriad of eDiscovery legal and technological issues in a case. My belief is that if you can identify the issue, the answer can always be found. I strongly encourage legal professionals to invest time and effort understanding this area since it is a strong job growth area and will assist in reducing the competency issues I mentioned.” Michael is an educator at heart. He has a blog at arkfled.blogs.com. He has a training program called the Arkfeld eDiscovery and Digital Evidence Program (AEDEP). You can subscribe to his Electronic Discovery and Evidence Alerts. He has informative website called eLaw Exchange. He has a conference called eDiscovery and Digital Evidence Conference and Symposium. When I launched this website, I received a personal e-mail from Michael that said “Your whole site looks wonderful!! Very well done!” I was so touched by that e-mail because I consider him to be one of my mentors. I would encourage each of you to take advantage of his teachings and books. If you have also learned from Michael Arkfeld, please share with us in the comments ...
- Resource – Blog by Ralph Losey One of the resources that many of us in the litigation support industry follow is Ralph Losey. He is very knowledgeable about our world of litigation support and how we fit into the process of a litigation matter with electronic discovery. Ralph provides education about electronic discovery to attorneys and law students. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Florida and he has authored several books on e-discovery in addition to being a practicing lawyer. In early 2011, Ralph launched an online Electronic Discovery Law training program called E-Discovery Team Training. Ralph’s blog called E-Discovery Team Blog is very entertaining and educational. Personally, I like Ralph’s style. I like how he interjects his sense of humor into his writing and I like that he speaks from his heart. In reading some of his articles, it is easy to recognize that Ralph is passionate about teaching others. He honestly wants to be a part of improving the process. In preparation for this article, I asked Ralph for some words of wisdom. He said “My whole approach is based on using a multi-disciplinary team, where lawyers and tech work together. That is why I call my blog and training program – e-discoveryteam. I have also devoted my first website to this approach at FloridaLawFirm.com. Electronic discovery is too big a challenge for either side to go it alone. Too bad most techs have to work without good legal guidance, but I’m working on changing that, and in the meantime you can learn a lot by my online training program.” I would encourage you to subscribe to Ralph’s blog. I have included one of Ralph’s many videos below entitled What is E-Discovery?
- Resource – The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) One of the resources that I would recommend to an individual interested in litigation support is a website related to The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). Almost 10 years after I began working in the litigation support field, the concept of The EDRM Model was launched in response to a major concern from many in our industry regarding the lack of standards and guidelines in the handling of electronic discovery. Independent consultants, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann, formed a group to design the model in 2005. The EDRM articulates, in an easy to understand fashion, the life cycle of the litigation support process as we support the legal team with a matter involving electronic discovery. It involves all parties including the client, in-house counsel, outside counsel, litigation support teams, service providers, the court system and government agencies. The EDRM Stages are referenced in the above diagram and are described in more detail on the EDRM site through individual guides for each stage. In addition, the last guide goes over the EDRM Project Management Framework as shown below. I suggest that you spend the time to read through all of the material in the guides. It is an excellent way to learn about the process as well as learn some of the terminology we use. Another resource within the EDRM site that you could refer back to in the future is the Glossary which contains definitions of electronic discovery terms. John Tredennick wrote an interesting article entitled “What is Wrong with the EDRM Model?” discussing what he felt was missing from the EDRM diagram. I thought you might find it a good read as well.
- Resource – LitSupport Yahoo Group One of the most popular staples of the litigation support community is a Yahoo Group called The Litigation Support List. Back in the old days, among our fellow colleagues, we used to simply call it “the listserve”. This is back when listserves were trendy and before Yahoo Groups existed. Lucky for me, the listserve was created within the first two years of my litigation support career. There are over 9,000 members across the world. I have been a member for over 10 years and I still receive all of the individual e-mails in my Inbox on a daily basis. I’ve included a screenshot of the message history over the years to give you an idea of the monthly activity. I remember one evening years ago. I was working late at the office as usual. Around 8:00 PM, someone from a southern state posted a Summation question and sounded desperate. I responded right away with my suggestions. That person was so grateful. I have had my own share of questions over the years and the group has been there for me. For someone who is new to the industry, it can be a gold mine of information shared among peers. It is fully searchable so if you have a question, you can see if someone already asked it in the past. Even if you only monitor the information flow and never chime in, you can learn. But the true value of the group is when you get stuck or when you really have no idea how to address an issue you have. The really cool thing is that there are seasoned litigation support professionals including some with specific niches, like trial presentation or restoring backup tapes or Lotus Notes, that will be happy to respond within hours of your question. Another use of the group is ...
