One month into the new year, and there’s already a lot going on in the world of legal technology.

Cool Conference

This month, I had the pleasure of attending the University of Florida eDiscovery Conference in Gainesville, at the UF Levin College of Law. The conference, now in its tenth year, was held in person and there was also an option for virtual attendees. In addition to the 250 people in attendance, there were over 2,500 online attendees. The conference is designed for lawyers, paralegals, and eDiscovery professionals at all levels of practice, with content covering everything from eDiscovery basics to current challenges.

As expected, there was a lot of conversation around technology in the legal space, as well as use cases, and how technology can be highly effective. But ethical concerns, and the impact this technology will have on legal tech, were discussed too. I especially enjoyed the presentations around AI, deepfakes, and the metaverse, so look for more on these hot topics in my future blogs.

Embracing Analytics

In my first blog of the year, I mentioned how legal teams need to adapt to technology or they will get left behind. Whether it’s fear of learning something new or the risk-adverse nature of the legal industry, analytics is here to stay and a crucial component in bringing down the cost of eDiscovery. In fact, in a recent matter that Avalon worked on, we saved our client’s review team almost 4,000 hours of review time by applying analytics to the matter. With attorney review rates at large law firms averaging $500.00 per hour, that’s an astounding savings of $2,000,000.00 – on just one project. Given the amount of savings analytics can provide, it just doesn’t make sense for legal teams to avoid the technology that can easily be applied to every case. Analytics also gives smaller firms the opportunity to compete with larger firms, as they may not have the staffing resources to manage a large review.

ChatGPT Rocks

I’ve been having a little fun with ChatGPT and asked it to write a hip-hop song about eDiscovery. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Listen up y'all, I got a tale to spin
About a process that's crucial, you can't give in
eDiscovery, that's the name
Gathering evidence in a legal game

eDiscovery, it's all about the facts
Digging deep to find what's in the stack
No stone unturned, no truth concealed
Justice is what this process has revealed

Electronic data, it's the key
To uncover secrets and set people free
Emails, documents, and more
All critical pieces in a legal war

eDiscovery, it's all about the facts
Digging deep to find what's in the stacks
No stone unturned, no truth concealed
Justice is what this process has revealed

With technology advancing every day
eDiscovery makes it easier to play
The game of truth, no more delays
Just fast results in so many ways

eDiscovery, it's all about the facts
Digging deep to find what's in the stacks
No stone unturned, no truth concealed
Justice is what this process has revealed

So, if you're caught up in a legal fight
And evidence is hard to find just right
Remember eDiscovery, it's your ace
Bringing truth and justice to this place