Ricoh eDiscovery

Ricoh's Intelligent eDiscovery Blog

Technology in Practice 2015 Conference Resonates with Lawyers

Dec 1, 2015 2:06:19 PM | Marketing

AdvocateDaily.com interviews Commonwealth Legal's Vice President, Jennifer Johnson, about some key themes and differences noted during Technology in Practice 2015:

An increasing number of lawyers are seeing the real value in ediscovery and how technology can help firms operate more efficiently, says Commonwealth Legal Vice President Jennifer Johnson.

“There is a major change happening in law firms, and this was made evident at the Technology in Practice conference this year,” she tells AdvocateDaily.com.

“In the past, many lawyers only got on board with technology when they had to, but now there is more acknowledgement amongst them of the context in which they are working. The medium has changed — it used to be paper and there has been resistance to changing since electronic evidence came along."

This year’s conference, held Nov. 4 - 6 in Toronto and hosted by Commonwealth Legal, a division of Ricoh Canada, attracted over 50 lawyers, more than double the number that attended last year.

“All of the national law firms were present and we had representation from across the industry,” Johnson says. “The firms sent one or more lawyers, often associates, who the partners want to develop expertise around ediscovery."

Johnson believes it’s a sign that the market is maturing and that Technology in Practice is gaining credibility across the legal industry.

Read the rest of the article on AdvocateDaily.com.

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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, Events and Sponsorships, eDiscovery Solutions

Technology and the Future of Law Firms

Oct 8, 2015 1:05:44 PM | Marketing

A Theme Emerges at Technology in Practice 2015.

AdvocateDaily.com interviews Commonwealth Legal's Vice President, Jennifer Johnson, on one of the key themes at Technology in Practice 2015:

While the legal field has historically been an industry rooted in tradition, the future of law firms is about innovation and adopting technology to best serve clients, says Commonwealth Legal vice-president Jennifer Johnson.

To help lawyers get ahead of the curve in understanding how to use the latest ediscovery and litigation technology in the practice of law, Commonwealth Legal – a division of Ricoh Canada – presents the 8th annual Technology in Practice, a two-day conference to be held in Toronto Nov. 4 - 6.

Read the rest of the article on AdvocateDaily.com.


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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, Events and Sponsorships, eDiscovery Solutions

How Canadian Businesses Are Learning to Love E-discovery

Sep 11, 2015 7:59:00 AM | Marketing

Jennifer Johnson featured on the Relativity Blog:

During a time when business buzzwords such as “synergy” and “growth hacking” are inspiring companies across all industries to improve processes and collaborate across business units, e-discovery simply can’t be ignored. Traditionally treated as an ad hoc process requiring loads of time and attention for a short sprint, the fire drill approach to litigation is quickly falling by the wayside as companies seek to mitigate stress, time, cost, and risk by taking a more deliberate approach.

As a Relativity Best in Service Partner in Canada, we’re seeing this shift become the norm. There are a number of factors driving the trend: Canadians aren’t as litigious; litigation stakes aren’t as high; and our legal community is smaller. The combination of factors has a tendency to drive corporate clients’ demand for a more pragmatic approach. The ultimate goal is to keep costs down and take a more strategic approach. Key side effects include streamlining of processes and developing a more collaborative approach.

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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, eDiscovery Solutions

The emergence of ediscovery as a business process

Jul 21, 2015 3:57:00 PM | Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer Johnson featured in AdvocateDaily.com:

The legal industry is experiencing a significant cultural shift as corporations are becoming increasingly motivated to implement ediscovery as a business process and take a proactive approach to managing costs associated with discovery. This includes implementing information and evidence management technologies such as Symantec’s Clearwell or kCura’s Relativity behind their own firewall, establishing standard processes and procedures around the organization and collection of data, and providing more explicit direction on how and when data is shared with their outside counsel.

Historically, if a corporation was involved in a litigation, they often used “fire drill tactics," meaning a compelling event would cause them to stop the regular course of business, grab all of the data they could and send it to their outside counsel to discover and manage. Law firms would then review everything using a document-by-document, linear approach, which could get quite costly depending on the size of the case.

“Canadian corporations are looking for ways to better manage their legal spend by taking control of the ediscovery process and changing the way they interact with outside counsel,” says Commonwealth Legal vice-president, Jennifer Johnson.

Read the rest of the article on AdvocateDaily.com.

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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, eDiscovery Solutions

Five Easy Steps to Get Started Using Analytics

Mar 12, 2015 4:30:00 PM | Jennifer Johnson

Analytics tools have been around for a long time. You've probably even used these tools whether you know it or not...

  • Have you grouped similar documents together (near duplication)? Then you have used analytics.

  • Have you reviewed emails by thread rather than chronologically? Then you have used analytics.

The critical barrier to expanding the adoption of analytics is changing the way we work.

The reality is that when we use these tools in a more comprehensive way, we transform our workflows. We are no longer simply opening a database, sorting chronologically by family and clicking through document by document. Now, we must pause to assess the case and look at it in a more holistic manner. It is undeniable that analytics helps us to recognize key concepts and patterns that a human being could never have the time or mental capacity to assess. From this perspective, analytics mimics, and likely exceeds, the combined insights of a whole team of experts.

But, who has time to change the way they work on an important case? 

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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, eDiscovery Solutions

Is the traditional law firm model "gone the way of the dodo"?

Mar 4, 2015 3:14:50 PM | Jennifer Johnson

Earlier this month, Lexpert Business of Law put out the article, Transformative Practice: will the traditional law firm model dominate much longer in Canada?, which comments on the current and changing state of the Canadian law firm market. It's a worth-while read, but what really resonated with me was this quote:

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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, Self-Service eDiscovery

Early Case Assessment Tools & The Empowerment of Law Clerks

Apr 2, 2012 3:26:00 PM | Marketing

Early Case Assessment tools are empowering legal teams by speeding up the review process. This article looks at each one and their benefit.

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Topics: Jennifer Johnson, Intelligent Review