Over the past two months we published a four part series of free white papers on the “Disconnect between Legal and IT Teams” that educates and stimulates conversations between these groups. We covered an overview of what each side doesn’t know about each other, email retention concepts and pitfalls, sample email policies, and why manual archiving just doesn’t cut it.

We’ve received way above average response from legal staff (inside and outside counsel) who are getting educated on ESI. IT managers and technicians are passing our white papers up to “C” level managers so they can see the issues from both sides.

The debate rages on. Judge Facciola took the the legal profession to task on ESI at LegalTech in New York this year. He even advocated the “certification” of lawyers on ability to understand technology.

Keep up the good work. There are voices listening.

Here’s a link: http://www.mailmeter.com/WhitePapers

It was as if you were eavesdropping on our group at the EDRM last week where we were this very subject came up numerous times in numerous interviews with both IT staff and attorneys.

I sense it is beginning to change but it is in large part due to folks like you and EDRM & Sedona who shine a light on this subject.

Keep up the great work!

mp

Excellent post. I too have been in this space for a while now (5 years I guess – wow time flies ) and it’s amazing to me how this conversation is the same one we were having years ago. Things have definitely progressed and I see lawyers becoming much more savvy about technology. But the process is slow.

Beyond that, however, I’m also struck at how different the incentives for IT and legal can end up being. Both jobs are about mitigating risk but different kinds of risk. While lawyers are charged with the corporate legal/compliance risk, IT has a very nuanced job. Technically, they are supposed to do fun things like “enable business value” and “reduce TCO” when in reality most IT people are just trying to prevent their users and/or management from yelling at them. Seriously, I have a lot of empathy for IT staff because it’s a thankless job.

Case in point – legal may want to enforce a shorter retention period to reduce company risk and IT may be totally on board (storage savings), yet may end up getting the end around at the 11th hour from some senior exec who decides “that retention policy is fine for everyone else… but you’re not taking away MY PST files!”

Anyways, your post was very provocative!

More at http://blog.liveoffice.com/blog/bid/8985/The-Odd-Couple-2009-The-Lawyer-and-the-IT-Administrator

My position is that this historic gap between ‘IT’ and ‘Business’ must be closed, somehow. In fact, Gartner has been saying ithat for while now, and not just in legal. I am complete agreement with what you say in your post. The way it plays out is specific to the organization or kind of work being done. – Gartner research is dedicated to finding this out and writing about it on an industry by industry and role by role basis. I don’t feel as if we need to ask ourselves that question in this domain. I firmly believe when it comes to e-discovery, data retention, privacy and compliance that only deep understanding and academic training will suffice. The domains are too complex and the risks of getting it wrong are too high.

We clearnly need a whole new kind of job role, too, not IT security collecting evidence and throwing it over the wall and lawyers sifting through hugh piles of STUFF to find what they want and complaining that technology is not up to the job – it isn’t. But they also need to realize that Technology Alone Will Never Solve this problem. The perfect search and collection tool does not exist and it won’t. Technology must be brought to bear, but its not going to make the problem go away. If you’re holding out for that, you might as well stop and start addressing the problem now with the (sometimes very good but never perfect or complete) tools that exist now.

Your program seems to address the need for training, both deep academic training and a source of advice for current practitioners.

Its great to hear about another program like yours, because we only know of a very few that are addressing this issue head on. I will certainly add it to my list of places where our clients can turn to get this expertise and training. Keep us updated on your efforts.

I will note that, in a modest way, the program I direct (the Institute for Business, Law and Technology at Touro Law Center on Long Island) is facing this challenge head on. Law students in our Cyberlaw, Cybercrime, Privacy and other courses and our Business Technology Law Externship are taught not only what the law is, but as much as possible about how the technology works, and reminded frequently that while it’s easier and safer for a lawyer to say “no,” the clients need lawyers to say “yes, and here’s how” whenever possible, saving the “no” for the true illegalities. We also do a great deal of outreach to the technology business community with real-world information about the laws and rules they must address, dispelling myths and teaching best practices. The goal is to make everyone better risk managers for technology-enabled organizations, and to break down the barriers that this piece highlights.