E-Discovery Has Me Seeing Red (and Blonde and Blue)

Her long blonde hair was like warm rays of sunshine on a late spring afternoon. Her soft, yet majestic blue eyes were highlighted by lashes that fluttered like the wings of a butterfly. She wore a simple, youthful dress that embodied her playful, carefree personality. She was perfect...and completely out of his league.

He had always been a nerdy person. As a child, while his friends were playing sports and hanging out at the mall, he was reading comics and playing computer games. In high school, some of his friends gave him the nickname, "Brainy." He never really liked the nickname, but it stuck with him and now everyone had long since forgotten his real name.

Brainy's technical prowess came in handy in adult life. He quickly established himself as THE computer guru and he quickly landed a job as a senior information technology analyst at one of the town's largest companies. But now he found himself in a difficult situation. While he was really great with computers, he was terribly awkward with women.

The company's general counsel had paired up Brainy and Smurfette (that's right, they're Smurfs) to work on a big e-discovery project. The Smurfs' sworn enemy, Gargamel, was suing the Smurfs and now they found themselves digging through endless information repositories looking for relevant company records. As Brainy Smurf scoured network shares and email servers and Smurfette dug through endless stacks of paper, it became apparent that they would not be able to complete the task by the court-mandated deadline. Brainy relented, "When Papa Smurf finds out the mess we're in, the Smurf is going to hit the fan!"

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The harsh reality of 21st Century America is that nearly all organizations are susceptible to lawsuits. There is extensive case law describing situations of "discovery gone wrong," subjecting organizations to summary judgments, sanctions, adverse inference instructions or fines. Organizations need to proactively prepare for preservation and discovery ahead of time to prevent these costly situations.

The Nebraska Chapter of ARMA International, Inc. will be holding their annual Spring Seminar on April 14th, 2010 from 7:30AM to 4:00PM at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Omaha.

Phil Droege, Director of the White House Office of Records Management will be the keynote speaker. He will talk about the unique challenges of managing White House records during a Presidential transition.

Brian Foster, PMP will spend the remaining time discussing E-Discovery planning, policy and process. His seminar will provide IT, records management, and litigation professionals with practical tools they need to improve their response to a discovery event in a compliant and cost-effective manner. For more information and registration, please visit http://www.armanebraska.com/SpringConference.php.

I hope to see you there. Have a Smurfy day!