Dennis Kennedy

Petra Perschak's article on Law.com, "E-Discovery Tops List of In-House Worries" (free registration might be required to view the article at this link, but I'm not sure about that), comes at a propitious time - just as I'm ready to launch an effort to push for more bookings of my electronic discovery seminar between now and the end of the year.

The article shares the results of a recent survey that indicates that electronic discovery concerns are at the top of the list of issues in-house counsel worry about. Some wags might say that electronic discovery concerns are not at the top of the list of issues outside counsel worry about.

I have been struck over the course of this year how huge the disconnect is between what clients (and their corporate counsel) want in terms of electronic discovery, what judges (and court personnel) want in terms of electronic discovery, and what lawyers and law firms are actually doing in terms of electronic discovery.

I'm not sure when a "tipping point" will happen, but it is going to happen, and the lawyers who don't "get" electronic discovery are going to being as worried as their clients who list electronic discovery their #1 worry are today. This survey information is further evidence that, as Elvis Costello once sang, that "clowntime is over."

The money quote:

From Robert Owen, on the interplay between record retention policies and electronic discovery: "I don't believe it a coincidence that in-house counsel raised these concerns while simultaneously voicing their distress over rising litigation costs -- in my view, the two are inseparably linked."

Compare that with a quote in the article from a lawyer talking about the relative burden of electronic discovery requests:

"I think it's over-dramatized."

In fairness, the lawyer being quoted probably said quite a bit more than that single quote, but the quote ends the article and clearly sets out the sense of disconnection between lawyers and clients on these worry-inducing issues.

Our upcoming Thinking E-Discovery column on DiscoveryResources.org will touch in some detail on this sense of disconnection. Expect to see that in a week or so.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's half-day electronic discovery seminar - "Preparing for the New World of Electronic Discovery: Easing Your Transition from Paper to Electronic Discovery." Contact Dennis today for more information and to schedule a seminar for your firm or legal department.