Virtual reality

Despite the attribution in the preceding post, we don’t mention Virtual Data Rooms that often in this blog and it is a known fact that litigation lawyers never talk to their corporate colleagues involved in the sometimes glitzy world of Mergers and Aquisitions.

Nevertheless it seems that VDRs are popping up everywhere these days and their use goes beyond the traditional due diligence exercise – from a kind of collaborative “adviser workspace”, through to a post-deal, online “transaction bible” – as the recent article The Virtual Data Room Evolution by our colleague Francisco Lorca has noted.

And those who do have an interest in such things, could do worse than to follow Francisco’s new Virtual Data Room blog.

I click, therefore I am

I’m indebted to Franciso Lorca (of EthosData, Millnet’s Virtual Data Room partner) for bringing to my attention a piece in yesterday’s FT [It pays to think before you click, FT.com, 21st July, 2010]*

The article refers to the emails in which Goldman employees variously described the mortgage based security at the centre of the affair as “God, what a shitty deal, God what a piece of crap.”

Nicole Bullock and Telis Demos, the writers of the article comment, “In hindsight, these sometimes snarky and sarcastic missives from the height of the credit bubble looked embarrassing at best and potentially incriminating at worst.”

It is an interesting moral dilemma whether employees should be discouraged from commenting adversely in email (or in thought or anywhere else) on their firm’s dubious and allegedly unethical practices or whether the firm itself should be discouraged from carrying out such allegedly unethical practices in the first place…

Readers will have no doubt have reached their own conclusions on the Goldman affair and the rise in Goldman’s share price on news of the out of court settlement, indicates that the markets certainly have!

The FT article is an interesting read and a cautionary tale nevertheless.

*Free registration with FT.com is required to read this article

Peking to Paris Rally

On 10th September 2010, Simon Mackenzie Smith and Rupert Marks  will climb into a 1929 Ford Model A and drive over 14,000 kms from Peking to Paris, retracing the steps of the motor car pioneers who raced each over the same route in 1907. The 2010 Peking to Paris Rally is expected to take 5 weeks and will involve driving through the wilds of Mongolia as well as the ‘stans’ and Iran.

Millnet is pleased to sponsor Simon & Rupert in their ripping yarn. Loads of derring do will be done along the way and, if they make it through the ‘stans and all the way to Paris, we will be there to welcome them!

It’s all in a good cause (two good causes)  – all proceeds will go to Debra and the Pioneer Sailing Trust- and you can support their valliant efforts via Just Giving or contact the guys directly via their web site www.pekingparismodela.com

Official Peking Paris website – www.pekingparis.com

Millnet steps up

Millnet has announced a number of new appointments within its Legal Services team, adding to its already impressive Smart e-Discovery offering.

The new appointments include Stephen Davis as Director of Legal Support Services, Emma Bolsover as Director of Technical Services and Emma Kettleton as Manager, Technical Operations. 

Stephen Davis joins Millnet from Anacomp where  he was Sales Director of its UK Business Process Management business and latterly Managing Director of its Litigation Support Software subsidiary, CaseLogistix.  Prior to that Stephen held senior sales roles in blue chip technology companies in both the UK and New York. Stephen takes on responsibility for client development and new business.

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Not another £10k e-discovery offer!

In a shock announcement today, leading litigation support provider Millnet has announced that it is NOT going to make another offer of £10k worth of free e-discovery services but instead has introduced what it describes as “a lasting cure for e-discovery paralysis”.

Earlier this year, Millnet surprised the market by offering up to £10k worth of free e-discovery services. The offer, which was open to the first 10 law firms who applied, was oversubscribed and was withdrawn well before the deadline for applications expired.

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Dahl with chips

Since publishing our appreciation of Master Whitaker’s judgment in Goodale v Ministry of Justice earlier this week [Stevie is my dahling, 16 March, 2010] we have been deluged with a complaint from our reader that the article gave rise to an expectation that Ms Dahl would be featured photographically. We can only apologise for any offence caused and (as you can see) are belatedly trying to redress the balance.

It should be further noted that her new cookery series, “The Delicious Miss Dahl” starts on BBC2 on 23rd March (and in HD too!)

Jackson in the hot tub

The long awaited report by Lord Justice Jackson was published this morning. It is almost 600 pages long with a number of appendices, etc.

The New Law Journal webcast (“the most subscribed legal webcast in history”) is under way as I write, with chairman Dominic Regan offering an interesting foretaste of the “hot tub” concept -the new collective noun for any group of expert witnesses appearing together?

Our thoughts will follow when the report has been digested!

In the meantime here is a link to the Review of Civil Litigation Costs: Final Report

Gone phishin’

It must be that time of year again. Last week, I started receiving a series of emails from HM Revenue and Customs, no less, informing me of Underreported Income.

This email – I received ELEVEN of them in the first day alone,  addressed to differently named people in the company – informs me of the most urgent need to review my tax statement online by logging into the HMRC website. Even the most superficial examination of the link supplied suggests that it would lead the curious clicker to a web site somewhere in Eastern Europe, or the Far East perhaps.

What is wrong with these people? Is there a whole generation of Chinese Schoolboys who think, “I know what I’ll do today, I’ll bombard the entire population of the UK with scam emails, lovingly composed in Pigeon English, just because I can”? After all, they must reason, by now the English who are clearly the most gullible nation on earth, must have had their fill of Urgent Security Notices from banks with whom they have no account; warning them of the dire consequences of not verifying the intimate details of accounts they do not hold by logging into a poorly disguised Czech or Nigerian website?

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