Some of us knew it already. Others denied it. Still more did not want to know about it and others closed their minds to it.
I am not talking about Legal Process Outsourcing, nor Smart e-Discovery. I am talking about a report I first heard early last Thursday morning on the Today programme about the discovery of more than 70 flint tools and chips unearthed in Happisburgh on the North East coast of Norfolk.
Happisburgh (hands up all of you who thought it was called Happy’s Berg, when it should be pronounced Hazeboro’!!) is a small village on the coast of Norfolk between Cromer and Great Yarmouth. Until last week it was remarkable for little more than a red and white painted lighthouse, a nearby garden owned and cultivated by one Alan Gray and a propensity for its houses nearest to the sea to fall off the cliffs into the waves below, a phenomenon common enough on the east coast of England and one which arouses huge controversy every time someone suggests that it would be a better use of taxpayers’ money NOT to shore up the ever crumbling cliffs against the encroaching sea but to pay proper compensation to the house owners to enable them to move elsewhere.
Continue reading ‘Life, but not as we know it’
In the June 24th edition of The Economist there appeared an article entitled “Passage to India”.
This was not a reference to the E M Forster story written in the 1920s, which uses the trial of Doctor Aziz accused of raping Adela Quested on a visit to the Marabar caves to produce a trenchant commentary on the sometimes awkward relations between India and the British Raj some quarter of a century before Independence. This was a story about the growth of legal outsourcing with a subsidiary strap line proclaiming “Companies and law firms are turning to India for cut price legal services”.
Much has been written recently about the growth of legal process outsourcing and in a piece entitled A cunning plan [7th April, 2010] I mentioned that, on the back of outsourcing legal work to Indian lawyers at CPA Global thereby saving 20% of its legal costs, Rio Tinto’s general counsel Leah Cooper had jumped ship to join CPA as its strategy director.
Continue reading ‘Technophobia alive and well and living offshore’
I was fortunate to be invited to dinner recently at the House of Commons with two MPs, one my first time elected local MP and the other an old university chum, now a Minister. Being early for my meeting in the Central Lobby, where I bumped into a solicitor I know (what a small world it is!) I had time to marvel at the building that is Westminster Hall. Dating from the 11th century it survived the Great Fire in 1834 thanks to the intervention of Sir Walter Eliot who decided the Hall should be preserved and the then Chamber of the House of Commons should be allowed to burn. It also survived the best efforts to destroy it by Goering’s Luftwaffe in the 1940s and attempts by the Provisional IRA in the 1970s.
What a glory it is, particularly with its magnificent hammer beam roof, dating from the reign of Richard II (1377-99) when the original three aisles dividing the building from 1097 were replaced by “the greatest creation of mediaeval timber architecture”.
Continue reading ‘Utopian vision’
Sir Humphrey: Now go in there and inform me of their conversation.
Bernard Woolley: I’m not sure I can do that, Sir Humphrey. It might be confidential.
Sir Humphrey: Bernard, the matter at issue is the defence of the realm and the stability of the government.
Bernard Woolley: But you only need to know things on a need to know basis.
Sir Humphrey: I need to know everything! How else can I judge whether or not I need to know it?
Bernard Woolley: So that means you need to know things even when you don’t need to know. You need to know them not because you need to know them, but because you need to know whether or not you need to know. And if you don’t need to know you still need to know, so that you know there is no need to know.
…
So, how do we know what we need to know in the field of e-Discovery? Busy litigation lawyers have not got the luxury afforded to Sir Humphrey of a Bernard to put it all into context. There are numerous sources available but where are they?
Pride of place must go to the CPR and recent judgments although it is as well to be aware of the influence of the individuals and bodies we have chosen to call the ‘movers and shakers’.
Continue reading ‘The need to know’
What clients want is a fence at the top of the cliff rather than an ambulance at the bottom.
Richard Susskind’s analogy, accompanied by the appropriate slide, the contents of which I will leave to your imagination, was one of a number of catchy themes he used to describe the changing world of legal services last week at the Commercial Litigators’ Forum.
What came to mind as he spoke was an image of Starship Enterprise and a reminder of the most celebrated split infinitive in the entire universe. Whilst the opening credits of Star Trek talk of the ship’s mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before”, back on earth my mind was on the bold new frontiers facing those engaged in the business of litigation.
Continue reading ‘To boldly go’
This week I trained my 100th lawyer on using the CaseLogistix review platform. During the dozen or so training sessions I have conducted over the past couple of months both face to face and via the web a number of people have commented that it is unusual to see the Managing Director running training sessions. This got me thinking about the nature of the industry and the approach we adopt at Millnet.
Over the past six years I have witnessed countless sales pitches and demonstrations of litigation support software. Reflecting on these, they have been more often poor than good and have at times been truly dire. Dissecting the reasons for this it seems there are a number of common deficiencies on the part of the demonstrator – Continue reading ‘Musings from the coalface’
Many readers (and we have had a dramatic increase since the start of the year) will recall that my modest hope for 2010 was that there would be more strategic thought during the litigation process than is often apparent when we are called in to assist.
Frankly, not a lot of strategic thought can be undertaken when the disclosure deadline is only days away and there is a terabyte of data to review and the other side has just produced more material than you thought possible or likely.
Of course, if you have plenty of time you can mull over strategy to your heart’s content but most litigation cases do not allow the participants that luxury!
So, how can you make time?
Continue reading ‘Readiness is next to godliness’
Fresh from the mauling the Chilcot inquisitors suffered recently at the hands of Tony Blair, the former PM would doubtless wish to offer a similarly spirited and robust defence of his 1996 speech when campaigning for the return of a Government of New Labour, in which he asserted that the three main priorities for government were: Education, Education, Education.
My recollection, on first hearing this speech, was that I thought immediately of the rather turgid 1970 film about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, called “Tora. Tora, Tora”! Presumably this was because I did not take the content of the speech seriously enough and could only think of the film with a similarly three-worded title (which I believe means “Attack, Attack, Attack”)!
Now, 14 years after the speech and billions of pounds of investment later, some would argue that the priorities had not necessarily been achieved and might question whether the money had been put to good use.
Continue reading ‘Education, education, errm…’
At approximately 3pm on Wednesday October 26th 1881, a gun battle took place in Tombstone, Arizona involving the legendary Earp brothers and “Doc” Holliday. The fact that the fight did not actually take place in the OK Corral did not prevent it becoming known by that name nor does it detract from its notoriety even some 129 years later.
When I was about 7 years old my Canadian godfather, who lived in Calgary, sent me a pair of cap and ball guns with silver plate and ivory handles engraved with the name Wild Bill Hickok and the holster and leathers to go with them (sadly all imitation). Incidentally, I suspect that this would now be regarded as a wholly inappropriate and un-PC present today. More’s the pity!
Continue reading ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’
