The ACC’s Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of in-house counsel from around the world. This year nearly 3,000 corporate representatives converged on downtown Denver for the Annual Meeting, accompanied by a sunny 75 degree day on Sunday and heavy snowfall by Wednesday.
The Annual Meeting offered over 100 courses, many of which were sold out, to engage corporate counsel in discussions and work groups surrounding the years’ most relevant corporate legal topics. Falcon Discovery, a pioneer in delivering in-sourced discovery, compliance and technology management services for corporate legal departments, was a proud sponsor of the meeting.
At its booth, Falcon Discovery encouraged attendees who were “angry” about eDiscovery to take out their frustrations by using a slingshot to hurl “angry falcons” to take out the “pigs” (i.e., high eDiscovery costs). In addition, Falcon gave attendees information about its visionary managed services solution, InsideOut™, which includes staffing and technology solutions to manage discovery through a repeatable and legally defensible process across matters. InsideOut provides in-house counsel with consistency, control, transparency and maximum cost efficiency. Falcon’s clients include award-winning corporate legal departments, including those designated as Corporate Legal Department of the Year and the Top Ten Most Innovative Law Departments.
With so many good sessions, it was difficult to pick our favorites; but, for those that were unable to attend, here are some key takeaways from the ACC’s 2011 Annual Meeting:
• Hey, You! Get Off My Cloud! Ted Gizewski, a Senior Attorney at Microsoft, was just one of the panelists who urged in-house counsel to pay special attention to cloud computing and cloud storage contracts beyond the normal due diligence paid to general IT service contracts. Some of the key aspects a cloud review checklist should include are: 1) Security, 2) Confidentiality, 3) Data Accessibility, 4) Resilience and Business Continuity, and 5) Liability.
• PPP Do’s and Don’ts: NEW Best Practices. Panelists shared their thoughts on creating a landscape that effectively addresses what a corporation can already do internally and what a corporation should outsource. Justin McCarthy, Associate General Counsel at Pfizer, has found that by setting up a Preferred Provider Program (PPP), his corporation has been able to get the most of its providers including outside counsel and eDiscovery professionals.
• The Use and Abuse of Referees and Special Masters in Discovery. The Honorable William G. Bassler led a panel which discussed the trend of courts using private judges, referees or special masters to resolve discovery disputes. The panel addressed the pros and cons of using referees /special masters, how to work effectively with that person to resolve discovery disputes, and presented practical examples based on past experiences.
• Digital Footprints: A Primer on Tracking Technologies and the Rules and Best Practices Surrounding Profiling and Behavioral Advertising. By now, most of us are aware that almost everything we do online is being tracked. Attorneys from Sprint Nextel, Venable, the Federal Trade Corporation and Pfizer spoke about the inherent differences in privacy concerns between targeted offers based on relationships (low privacy concern) vs. online behavioral advertising (OBA), which tracks behavior across multiple sites (higher privacy concern).
• Lessons Learned Across the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Life Cycle. Amy Schuh, Chief of Staff, VP and Deputy General Counsel at HP, shared a case study that demonstrated incredible value in creating a well-defined scope, paying close attention to project and change management, as well as centralizing as much of the life cycle as possible. The panelists agreed that outsourcing work to specialists that frees up valuable internal resources can create an optimal legal process life cycle.
About Falcon Discovery:
Falcon is transforming the way corporate legal departments and law firms manage discovery and compliance in the digital age. Falcon’s lawyers, project managers and technologists have created a unique framework that aligns people, processes and technology to significantly optimize the discovery process across matters. InsideOut™, Falcon Discovery’s visionary legal and technology services model, delivers more accurate results, enhanced defensibility, and astonishing cost savings. Visit www.falcondiscovery.com for more information, including recent press coverage about Falcon.