Tech Circuit: Pyrotechnics Edition

Monica Bay

Law Technology News

02-19-2013

We're all still enjoying the afterglow of LegalTech New York 2013, but methinks the gang from Minnesota took that metaphor a little too literally. Responding to our " 12on12" question about highlights from the three-day show, Michele Lange, a director at Kroll Ontrack, describes her um, er, "incident" with pyrotechnics.

"Not my favorite moment, but my most memorable moment was when the Kroll Ontrack hospitality suite caught on fire because the catering crew accidentally dropped a flaming Sterno cup (you know, those things keeping the coffee pots and buffet trays warm). In over 10 years at LegalTech, I never thought a fire safety merit badge would come in handy!" said Lange, based in Eden Prairie. "Everyone quickly evacuated the room — including Ralph Losey and Albert Barsocchini who were witnesses to the drama — and we called the hotel security squad. After five tense minutes and several glass plates thrown on the floor to smother the flames (everyone knew to not throw water on the flames), all was calm and back to status quo. I guess the fire just went along with Kroll Ontrack's rock sTAR theme!" she said.

"Kroll was on fire at LegalTech — literally," recalled Barsocchini, discovery counsel at NightOwl Discovery, who said the errant Sterno can landed "about six feet from me. As the hotel staff tried to extinguish it, the flames kept spreading to everything it touched — the shoe of the hotel staff trying to stamp out the fire, the cloth that was used to smother the fire, plates put over the flames, etc.," he recalled. "Finally, cool heads prevailed and ice water was used to put it out just before the fire department came and [before] the fire could spread to the table linen. Lesson learned — the Sterno did exactly what it was designed to do — spread the flame to everything it contacts."

Losey, on the other hand, was downright nonchalant, telling LTN that he was on the far side of Kroll's room and barely saw the commotion. "No big deal, I'm used to e-discovery fire drills. I did not evacuate."

>> Musical Chairs: Patrick Burke has joined Reed Smith, as counsel in its e-discovery and records management group. Burke, who also is an adjunct professor at Cardoza Law School since 2011, previously worked as senior director and assistant general counsel at Guidance Software.

Meanwhile, those of us happy that pitchers and catchers are reporting this week will want to read Brian Glaser's story about Dave Prouty — who has served as chief labor counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Association since 2008, and has been promoted to general counsel. People seem to like that job: there have been only four in the union's history, notes Glaser.

>> It's Contagious! What's topic A lately? No, not predictive coding. Nor is it Big Data, or BYOD. For some reason, absolutely everybody seems to be complaining about email. Volumes of email. Tons of email. Acres of email. Email seemingly cloning faster than the sorcerer's apprentice's water buckets. Never fear, there is help. Check out Oz Benamram's " Managing Attention," in the current edition of Law Technology News magazine, and Catherine Sanders Reach's " Five Ways to Send a Better Email Message," on the Slaw blog.

A key point in both: "Make the subject line count." Personally, my email has quadrupled in the last six months. Out of desperation, I've started to use Outlook's search tool rather than scroll down hundreds of incoming. And I'm putting <end> on any message where the subject line tells the whole story, to alert the recipient that there's not need to open the message. And let's all agree to not send emails that just say "thanks!"

>>Mark Your Calendar: The Sedona Conference will present its fifth annual conference on " Cross-Border Discovery and Data Protection Laws," in Zurich, June 19-20. The event is co-chaired by Amor Esteban of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, and Christian Zeunert, head of e-discovery management at Swiss Reinsurance Co. Faculty includes United States District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin; Lara Ballard, of the U.S. Department of State; Jones Day's Steven Bennett; Jennifer Hamilton, of Deere & Company, among others.

Sedona is also holding its 15th annual conference on complex litigation, focusing on parallel fraud proceedings" — May 2-4 in Del Mar, Calif. Details here.

>> Stop Packing: Were you not terribly surprised that no one is going to outer space courtesy of Huron Consulting Group's contest at its LegalTech New York booth? The one where attendees were invited to try a six-digit code to open the "safe" — and if they succeeded, they got a trip on Virgin Galactic. Well, call me cynical but it probably doesn't take a degree in analytics to predict the odds on that one. I suspected some insurance company was nonetheless relieved that nobody guessed the correct numbers.

Curious, I popped a note to Huron, and public relations associate Jenna Nichols got back to me pronto (impressive, on a late afternoon Friday before a holiday weekend). "We had a lot of excitement around our Virgin Galactic trip prize but unfortunately no one won," she confirmed, noting that 269 attendees tried to guess the magic combination. And yup, I was right: "There are a number of companies that offer this insurance," she said. "The one we used was Grand Prize Promotions." The odds of winning: 1 in 1,000,000, she said. As a consolation price, "We also gave every 50th participant a gemstone globe."

>>Heads in Beds: Like most of you, I spend a lot of time on planes, trains, and in hotels. So I was absolutely mesmerized by Jacob Tomsky's wicked but instructive "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality (Random House), especially after my annual visit to the Hilton New York for LTNY. (I learned years ago to check into the hotel when conventions are in your hometown — it is a major stress reducer, especially in New York City, where trying to get a morning cab on the Upper East Side is a guaranteed Maalox moment.) The book, which is most definitely irreverent, is jam-packed with handy tips about how to get upgrades, what-not-to-do-ever, and a lot of information about how bad behavior backfires. Among the most pragmatic relevations that had never occurred to me: 1) ALWAYS tip the front desk staff, and 2) say yes to bellmen and bellwomen, even if you are only toting carry-on luggage.

>>Rappin' Up LegalTech: A few more of the magic moments at LTNY 2013:
• My favorite moments were simply walking down a hallway, or through the exhibit hall, and bumping into someone I know and want to see. It is like a little homecoming that I look forward to every year. Something that I noticed this year versus the recent past was the amount of people at the show and the roar of constant chatter in the exhibit hall. It was refreshing to feel the positive energy around legal technology! LegalTech New York often sets the stage for IT trends and hot topics in the coming year. — Amy Juers, CEO, Edge Legal Marketing, Minneapolis.

• Mary Galligan's presentation on the legal issues that follow a security breach was my favorite moment. This is a critical emerging issue for in-house legal departments and Galligan was able to use her FBI experience to make the presentation informative and interesting. — Alex Andrianopoulos, vice president of marketing, Guidance Software, Pasadena.

• The Charles Duhigg keynote, who showed us how Starbucks turned a disastrous YouTube video that went viral into " L.A.T.T.E." (listen, acknowledge, take action, thank, and explain) — a habit forming behavior modification program and secret to the company's success! — Deborah Baron, CMO, Nuix, San Francisco.

• Meeting many of our existing clients face to face was a highlight for us but meeting with industry leaders and bloggers was also a lot of fun. — Frank Rivera, CEO, Houdini Esq., Cary, N.C.

• The hallway buzz was all about proactive information governance and how legal and compliance professionals are looking to manage corporate risk and liability. After attending the LegalTech sessions, so many attendees were well informed about topics such as defensible deletion. It was great to be able to collaborate with them to take the conversation one step further and help educate them on new approaches and [options]. — Jim McGann, vice president, Index Engines, Holmdel, N.J.

• This was my 12th year at the show, I feel like I've seen it all, but every year is different and has its own flavor. Our rather large group was sprawled across three tables in the Hilton's lobby lounge — Staci Zaretsky of Above the Law joined us and was typing away about Symantec's eDi$covery Cash Cab stunt and setting up ATL's Caption Contest. Lawyer Don Philbin was talking about his new predictive analytics tool, Picture It Settled. The HighQ folks checked emails and made phone calls before they headed to appointments. LegalTech brings together an eclectic mix of people and it is never, never, never boring! — Christy Burke, president, Burke & Co., New York.

• This was our first time as exhibitors at LegalTech and our formal introduction to the U.S market. Only 10 minutes after the opening, a Canadian legal counsel walked by asking for dedicated contract management software, with fair priced license fees, plug and play, and hassle free. Exactly our proposition! But still amazed by the magnitude of the venue (and jet lag?) all we (our CEO and sales vice president, Europe) could say was: "Yeah, that's us. Here's a brochure." We didn't ask for a business card or contact details; didn't offer a demo or even a chat. We never heard from her again. We'd better send our sales team to New York next year!

Once we got our act together we had a great LTNY show — but if you are the legal counsel that approached us: We'd like to get the chance for a renewed acquaintance! — Nico Nout, director, sales and operations, Effacts, Amsterdam.

Monica Bay is editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and a member of the California Bar. Email: mbay@alm.com. Twitter: @lawtechnews @LTNMonicaBay.