Free Ethics CLE Tomorrow on Use of Advanced Technology in Litigation

I will be participating tomorrow in a free CLE-accredited webinar, The Legal Ethics of TAR: An Ethical Primer on the Use of Advanced Technology in Litigation Support, presented by Bloomberg BNA and the e-discovery company Catalyst.

The program is Thursday, Dec. 17, 2:30 to 4 p.m. Eastern time.

As regular readers of this blog know, 17 states now say lawyers have an ethical duty to be competent in technology. A State Bar of California ethics opinion recently extended that duty to include competence in e-discovery. On top of that, the federal courts implemented new proportionality rules Dec. 1 governing the duty to produce documents. All of this comes as lawyers everywhere grapple with thorny ethical issues concerning the use of cloud technology, storing privileged documents with outside vendors, and relying for key tasks on smart but non-human computer algorithms.

This webinar will address lawyers’ ethical duties when using new technology in e-discovery. Specifically, we will look at the ethics of technology-assisted review and the issues lawyers should consider when using this technology.

Speakers will be:

• Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald J. Hedges. Judge Hedges is the principal of Ronald J. Hedges, LLC. He has extensive experience in e-discovery and in the management of complex litigation and has served as a special master, arbitrator and mediator. He was a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey from 1986 to 2007. While a magistrate judge, he was the Compliance Judge for the Court Mediation Program, a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee, and both a member and reporter for the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee. From 2001-05 he was a member of the Advisory Group of Magistrate Judges.
• John Tredennick, CEO and Founder, Catalyst. John is a former trial lawyer and litigation partner with a large national law firm, and has written or edited five books and countless articles on litigation and technology issues. He was recently named one of the top six e-discovery trailblazers by The American Lawyer. He was also named one of the “Top 100 Global Technology Leaders” by London’s CityTech magazine. John served as chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and editor-in-chief of its flagship magazine.
• Thomas C. Gricks III, Managing Director, Professional Services, Catalyst. A prominent e-discovery lawyer and one of the nation’s leading authorities on the use of TAR in litigation, Tom joined Catalyst in June. He advises corporations and law firms on best practices for applying Catalyst’s TAR technology, Insight Predict, to reduce the time and cost of discovery. He has more than 25 years’ experience as a trial lawyer and in-house counsel, most recently with the law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, where he was a partner and chair of the e-Discovery Practice Group.

And, last but not least, me. I will be serving as both moderator and contributor.

Read more about it and register at Bloomberg BNA.