On the Mark

Even with the best of intentions, live blogging only works when you’re able to put fingers to keys and let ’er rip!

Well, today was one of those great days when the traffic at the Seagate Services Booth was so heavy that it was an all hands on deck posture in order to accommodate all the attendees who came to our Booth (516) to learn about the combined offerings that set us apart.

With no less than 10 staffers, we answered the questions, gave the demos and easiest of all, explained the value propositions to SATISIFY THE BUZZ generated by our latest offerings today at ILTA ’08. 

With the press release of our new version 4.5 and our First Pass Processing announcement this morning, the fact that it is now available in both a managed service AND a very much requested appliance, we had our hands full.

Throw in all those looking to have their Bingo Cards punched, it proved to be a long and very rewarding day.

Of the few learning tracks I was able to attend  one I enjoyed a great deal with hosted by George Rudoy. The track brought industry notables Tom Barnett and Brian Stempel and the addition of Silas McCullough on considerations in managing your litigation support/practice support department as a business. We all know attorneys like the idea of your department making money for them. Anything to aid the bottom line, if you will. However, the issues are complicated and there are many of them. Having these gentlemen lead a very knowledgeable audience which included Scott Cohen, Stephan Dooley, a brigade of Kirkland and Ellis folks and so many more, it hit all the right notes for ILTA ‘08.  

Brian Stempel, Tom Barnett and Silas McCullough on their 3:30 pm panel Tuesday.

Other news today, Citibank settled their suit in California on the “sweeping” program which automatically swept  customers unintentional credit balances out of their accounts. An inside whistle blower was fired for reporting the program.  Not that it happens alot but I’ve overpaid my credit card on occasion and this program would have taken my overpayment balance, instead of leaving it to service future debt.

I’ll steer clear of politics but can’t help but note as a father of two little girls, the speech made by Hillary Clinton last night was truly inspiring!  Just amazing.

Heading back to ILTA ‘08 Wednesday for more of the “show that just won’t quit!”  

We hope to see you at the Seagate Services cocktail reception Wednesday evening. It’s going to be great!

On the Mark 

Monday night was ILTA ‘08 starting with the Vendor Grand Prix event / reception and it proved to be the usual “meet and greet” affair, only bigger. Many familiar faces crawling a noticeably bigger exhibition hall. For that matter, EVERYTHING seems bigger this year. Maybe because it’s being held in Texas? The food was great and certainly plentiful. There also seemed to be an over-abundance of blinking light badge pins of every shape, size and message. There was no shortage of those in pursuit of those blinking pins, too, I might add. I felt bad for those who had to don dopey costumes on the exhibitor floor.  

Kudos again to ILTA planners on a great start to a great show.!

Now lets take a moment to shine a non-blinking light on just some of the interesting sessions taking place today (Tuesday) and again, these are just my suggestions based on my interests and knowledge of those presenting (IMHO):

CIO Round-table at 11:00 am

Litigation Round-table at 11:00 am

Being Worthy to Maintain Client’s Data at 1:30 pm

Collaboration Tools and Technologies for Lawyers - 3:30 pm

Future Tense - The Law Office in Three to Five Years - 3:30 pm

Trial Preparation and War Room Setup Tips and Tricks - 3:30 pm

Managing Practice Management Department as a Business Unit - 3:30 pm

Here’s the problem when you have this much talent.  It’s very frustrating when you have so many must see tracks at the same time. Decisions, decisions. I will say, I don’t think any attendees can go wrong at 3:30, as it seems to be the one slot that is LOADED with must see content. See Jim Daley at 1:30 and Mary Pat Poteet’s Lit Round-table at 11:00 am.

Great to see Craig Ball, Conrad Jacoby, Larry Briggi, H&K’s Big Guns and Brian Stemple, too.

I’ll try to bring you some live blogging tomorrow, too.

Settle, settle, settle, settle….did I say settle?

Of true interest in the Legal world today was a small piece in the New York Times about the soon-to-be released study which finds it’s better to settle than go to trial. (click) This is not necessarily a new idea but now there’s some interesting metrics behind it. Seems the percentages of time that Plaintiffs go to trial when they should have settled is FAR greater than the percentages of time when the Defense should have settled. Jonathan Glater of the New York Times writes:

“The study, which is to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies,….does find that the mistakes were made more often in cases in which lawyers are typically paid a share of whatever is won at trial.”

This is a great read and worthy of it’s own blog piece. Time won’t allow for the whole enchilada but I I will try to circle back to it perhaps later in the week. Read the story. It is worth the read.

In Seagate Services / MetaLINCS news, today marks the press release for our First Pass Processing.With this offering, you can get this power as both an appliance for rapid deployment and as a Managed Service for those who need it. Stop by our booth (516) and let us tell you more about this BIG news!  It’s going to change the landscape even more than we already have. Click for the press release.

 While the Political and Hollywood Glitterati are packing their first class COACH bags en-route to Denver’s Democratic Convention, the Lit Support, E-Discovery and IT Technorati are being cattle proded into their Coach seats like a herd of herfords en-route to this years ILTA ‘08 Conference. This year’s event is being held at the Gaylord Texan down in Grapevine, Texas! 

This year’s conference looks to be the best yet and is offering the absolute ultimate line-up of heavy hitter speakers. Too many names to drop. I kid you not. OK, I can’t resist. Tom Barnett, Laura Kibbe, Jim Daley, Tom Morrissey, Joanne Lane and Mary Pat Poteet (really, just to name a few) I’ve never observed quite this much talent at any show before.

Kudos to Peggy Wechsler and her superlative Co-Chairs, Bill Mertes (Winston & Strawn) and Michelle Gossmeyer (Mayer Brown) for having done an amazing job! Talk about attention to detail, they’ve even created a special blog just for attendees to utilize for anything from commenting on the event to sharing rides from the airport!  The conference blog can be found here (click)

I’ll be blogging this one live, so check back here frequently. 

Now you’ve probably heard of Grapevine or at least heard through it. Grapevine was originally named after the Wild Mustang Grapes indigenous to the area. Well, it is also located right nearby to where Bonnie and Clyde sadly killed two officers on April Fools Day, 1934.  Old timers in the Lit Support field may remember Grapevine School Districs for their participation in the Asbestos Litigation many years ago.

Located in Tarrant County, Texas, it’s “the perfect mix of Cowboy and Culture” as their website claims.

Now before anyone even starts to think I’m poking fun, I’m not. Grapevine has been voted one of the best places to live, to raise a family and as having the best schools, consistently. It’s a thriving community with a rich and historic past and an equally bright future.

This week, Grapevine will be descended upon by our community’s Cognoscenti in search of information, networking and for a small few, a boondoggle away from the workplace. You’ll see them at the pool while we’re all in the conferences!

And now, some housekeeping:

The LTN Technology Awards 2008 voting is now accessible on the Law Technology News site. The MetaLINCS Enterprise E-Discovery Suite is up for consideration in the “Electronic Services Processing” and “Applied Discovery” categories.  You have to be a subscriber to the magazine in order to vote: click here 

I’ve been asked consistently ”what does it mean now that Seagate has acquired MetaLINCS?”

I believe you will have the opportunity to see how our offerings take shape and fit together. Seagate Services is teed-up to showcase our E-Discovery, Data Protection and Recovery Services Business Units. It’s an impressive battery, to say the least.

You’ll be getting news about our new release (4.5) and some other things I’m going to let you e-discover there. There will be some good swag and some very high-value give-aways there from Seagate Services EDBU.

Please come stop by our booth (#516) and say Hi.

That’s it. Let’s have some fun. Grab your Hawaiian shirts and your Bingo Cards and have a great show!

Greetings!

I’ve been out on paternity leave and return today pleased to announce the birth of our second child, Emily Joann Reichenbach on June 6th, 2008.

I wrote last Halloween about what it’s like to view life through my daughter Elizabeth’s eyes and how it was my version of “E“-Discovery for that day. So here I am again, seeing life from the perspective of a newborn and it’s that “E“-Discovery all over again. Please wish my family luck as we go forward raising two daughters. Wish me strength for the two weddings that will someday come.

So much has happened while I was out, I’ll just take a couple of seconds to touch on a few of my observations.

Attenex gets purchased by FTI. I’ve picked up some buzz in the industry about how the Service Providers are looking at this, especially consultants who view FTI as a competitor. General consensus is, many service providers are not thrilled to give money to a competitor. I know that as an organization, we continue to be happy to license these providers with our product, for a considerable cost savings and better analytics.

I’ve also read another blog who gave a detailed analysis of the deal, the cost, why the prices seemed low…blah, blah.. Through reading it and having read other recaps of acquisitions (EED, Stratify, Compulit, Ibis) in our industry I started to get the feeling that I was watching the movie “27 Dresses”.

Always the Bridesmaid, never the Bride. It’s pretty obvious when someone wants to be acquired so much, as they watch everyone else going to the altar.

On a somber note, I’d like to recognize the passing of Paul Bellacerra. Paul, a dear friend passed away yesterday afternoon following a valiant 4 year battle with cancer.  Paul leaves behind a wife Carolyn, and two children Edward and Emily and hundreds of friends and family he touched with his warmth and kindness.

In speaking with Dan Regard down in New Orleans, I was reminded of an old Earl Long quote that has a really timely feel to it, especially when thinking of the e-discovery community. 

Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink. -  Earl Long - Three Time Former Governor of Louisiana

While in New Orleans I also came across an advertisement by a competitor in the space touting their “E-Discovery Toolkit for Subprime Litigation”. What gave me a chuckle was their spin on this and the comfort in knowing that TWO of the biggest players in the Financial sector and TWO of biggest regulatory agencies have all selected MetaLINCS as their tool.

Make no mistake, we’re all over the sub-prime matters and the reason WE were selected is our industry leading data analytics.

Item last: The City of New Orleans is a beautiful jewel and one that still needs all the help we in the private sector can give to her. Go there. Hold your off-site meetings there. Give to those who are helping there. Do more.

One of the organizations I came across following my coffee and beignets was The Idea Village. What a great group this is.

The mission is to ignite innovation by providing strategy, talent and resources to entrepreneurial ventures in New Orleans. Founded by Tim Williamson and Allen Bell, they have set out to revitalize commerce and neighborhood corridors and have had a HUGE impact.

Please help them, help New Orleans.

On the Mark