Chilli IQ’s 8th Annual Information Governance & eDiscovery Summit is only a few weeks away, taking place in Sydney on the 17th and 18th of June at the Swissotel Hotel.
The Chilli IQ event has long been acknowledged as the leading event on the Australian eDiscovery scene, attracting delegates from all around Australia and further afield. The two day event has now reached its 8th year and I have been fortunate to have attended every year since I returned to this part of the world in 2008.
Data volumes continue to increase challenges
The rapid growth of electronic information is a concern for all involved in litigation. It has simply become too expensive and time consuming to carry out discovery, solely relying on traditional based practices. We can no longer ‘eye ball’ every single document. For practitioners this is adding new challenges, which require a greater understanding of the best practices and tools to manage electronic information.
The increasing volumes and sources of electronic information can potentially add substantial cost and burden to the discovery process – even on the smallest of matters. While the final discovery may only involve a few hundred documents, finding these documents is can be extremely complicated and costly.
But how do we get to those key documents?
We are all looking for new ways to respond to the challenges of managing these data volumes, and do so quickly, cost effectively and accurately.
To address these challenges it is important to continue to learn more about the latest practices and tools available.
Impressive topics and speakers
Looking through the conference programme, Chilli IQ have put together a well-balanced list of speakers covering the judiciary, law firms (legal and technical) and service providers to the legal industry.
The programme this year is headlined by two leading specialists in eDiscovery – Jason Baron, of Counsel, at Drinkler, Biddle & Reath LLP (and former Director of Litigation at U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) and Judge Andrew Peck, from the US District Court, Southern District of New York.
Jason Baron opens the conference with a session on Escape from The Island Of E-Discovery: How Smart Analytics Is Transforming Information Governance. Jason Baron’s session will look into how the latest predictive analytics tools and techniques are being applied in the information governance space.
Day 2 opens with Judge Peck presenting a session on Predictive Coding and Analytics. Having attended events where Judge Peck has presented previously it is always refreshing to see judicial encouragement for the legal profession to use the technology that is now available. I am sure Judge Peck will reinforce how the likes of Predictive Coding and Computer Assisted Review should at least be one of the options considered when tackling litigation.
The Summit once again has a strong judicial presence. In addition to Judge Peck, Chief Justice Bathurst and Justice David Hammerschlag of the Supreme Court of NSW will be providing judicial keynote sessions. Justice Bathurst will be discussing A Different Judicial Perspective on eDiscovery. Justice Hammerschlag will provide an insight into Practice Note Sc Eq 11 – Disclosure in The Equity Division.
John Emmerig, Partner at Jones Day will be presenting a session on Discovery in Mega-Litigation: A Practitioners Perspective. With many of the sessions being based around the issues of managing electronic information and the tools available, this session will provide a perspective with some of the key practical problems.
In addition to these speakers, further speakers include –
- Leonie Taylor, Electronic Evidence Consultant – e.law
- Jeff Jarrett, Software Products Manager – e.law
- Stephen Stewart, Chief Technology Officer – Nuix
- Mary Still, Partner – Clayton Utz
- Jonathan Prideaux, National Manager, Legal Technology Services – Clayton Utz
- Beth Patterson, Director, Applied Legal Technology – Allens
- Brian Borskjaer, Director, Legal Technology Solutions – Corrs Chambers Westgarth
- Ainslee Cox, Head of Applied Legal Technology – King & Wood Mallesons
- Mark de Bruyn, Director – NuLegal
- Elizabeth Miller, eCourts Manager – Law In Order
Chilli IQ has again set up a dedicated website for the event http://ediscoverysummit.com.au. The website provides all relevant details about the event, including registration information.
Leading industry supporters
A conference of this kind is again not possible without the support of its sponsors. The Summit is fortunate to have the involvement of market leaders like e.law, HP Autonomy, Nuix, Equinix, FTI Consulting, Kroll Ontrack, Law In Order and NuLegal. Many of the sponsors have been regular supporters of the Chilli IQ Information Governance and eDiscovery events for many years.
It is exciting times to see the escalation in the number of eDiscovery and legal technology firms supporting events like these, which continue to help raise awareness in this increasingly important area of the legal industry.
I know from running New Zealand’s leading legal technology and eDiscovery event (over the past couple of years), there is increasing interest is this fast changing industry.
I look forward to reporting back following the event.
