PALO ALTO, CA – April 26, 2011 – TERIS Bay Area announced today that it has hired Ian Bagger as its Director of Client Services for the Bay Area Region. In assuming this new position for the company, Bagger will build and manage an important group responsible for overall client satisfaction. He brings to TERIS a deep background in litigation and electronic discovery management, following a successful career as a practicing attorney. TERIS Bay Area continues to see a dramatic increase in its eDiscovery business in the Bay Area thus far in 2011, and it counts on Bagger to strengthen the client services offering TERIS’s growing business will require.

Bagger has more than 20 years of professional experience, successfully migrating from an early career as an attorney to become one of the industry’s top eDiscovery project management experts. He comes to TERIS from Black Letter Discovery, where he personally managed large-scale electronic discovery projects for AmLaw 100 firms and general counsels of large corporations. While at Black Letter, he also built and led the team of project managers. In addition to serving as an attorney and eDiscovery project manager, Bagger has experience as a professional instructor, having taught preparation courses for students studying for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) for over seven years.

At TERIS, his responsibilities include:

• Consulting on eDiscovery management for large and complex cases
• Overseeing the Bay Area Client Services department
• Enhancing TERIS’s best practices
• Designing cost effective strategies for exploiting TERIS’s suite of eDiscovery technologies
• Ensuring that our clients continue to receive the high level project management that they’ve come to expect from TERIS

“Ian has a wide range of professional legal experience that will serve our clients well as Director of Client Services,” said Kevin Brooks, Executive Vice President, TERIS Northern California. “Combined with our other recent hires, TERIS professionals now offer a breadth of expertise that adds real value to our clients as we continue to provide five star service in the marketplace. We are excited about the growth prospects for Ian and are confident he will help us continue to improve our clients’ experience with TERIS.”

Ian is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and received his JD from the University of California, Los Angeles. . He also earned a Diploma with Honors from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.

 Electronic Discovery, or eDiscovery, is continuing its rapid growth in the world of civil litigation. There is hardly a practicing attorney today who doesn’t turn to the internet and other digital technologies to gather information about their cases. With eDiscovery being used so commonly, there are many trends prevalent so far this year. Here is an overview of six of them.

Project Management

A case is not a project most attorneys can easily manage. It is a misinterpretation made by many lawyers as they tend to muddle up the workflow process by trying to handle the project management themselves. Cases have to be handled by the lawyers but the project management has to be left to the experts, such as trained and certified professionals who are adept at doing it. Outsourcing project management is certainly an ongoing trend in the field.

“Cloud” Technologies

The “cloud” refers to the data storage software which is used by law firms and lawyers to upload and archive information they have access to in the future. Concerns surrounding cloud technologies include reliability, data protection and preventing unauthorized access. Until there is absolute certainty that the cloud is safe and secure, law professionals are going to be hesitant to use it. However, many of these issues are being rapidly addressed as there are so many benefits associated with cloud computing. The prediction here is we’ll only see more of it in the future.

Social Media

Social media has become a headache for many law firms and departments as employees cannot be totally prevented from posting controversial views (or photos) on Facebook or Twitter. This means that the firm has to keep an eye on the actions of its employees on the social media websites to avoid legal sanctions. Developing and implementing a strong social media policy is highly recommended.

Interdisciplinary Teams

Instead of using a separate legal and IT team for its work, law firms are beginning to have teams that incorporate experts from both fields. This means that there is a better workflow process in place and fewer problems for smooth operation.

Interoperatibility

Sharing and shifting data between various levels of the eDiscovery is a risky process which could lead to data loss as well as other issues. Interoperatibility between the levels ensures that this problem does not occur and this is why many law firms are integrating it into their eDiscovery usage, making it a linear process.

Outsourcing eDiscovery

The root problem is that many firms are apprehensive about investing in an in-house eDiscovery system for themselves. It depends on the level of usage that the law firm has for eDiscovery which determines whether they should outsource it or have it in-house, but more and more firms are now opting to partner with firms such as TERIS, who specialize in eDiscovery. 

Copyright has been a hotly debated issue for decades now. Its the reason consumers have to pay money to acquire CDs, DVDs and MP3s. The illegal streaming of copyrighted material has been a headache for the Obama administration, particularly because it does not currently constitute to a federal offense. A number of amendments to the copyright law have been proposed which will make the illegal streaming of audio and video a federal felony. FBI Agents would also have the right to be able to wiretap the people who are suspected to have breached this law.

According to the administration, there are many shortcomings which hinder the effective levying of the intellectual property laws currently in place. Congress is now tasked with the responsibility of making adjustments to the law to make it more fair and enforceable. A report on this topic was presented to the house by Victoria Espinel. Espinel is the first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator and was confirmed by the Senate in December 2009. The report tackles the issues in intellectual property law which includes a range of issues – including counterfeit pharmaceuticals as well as the royalties generated overseas by copyright holders.

The key features of the report include:

• The ambiguity over what constitutes illegal streaming of content. There are concerns that it does not fall under the scope of criminal law, and thus, cannot be prevented or restricted. The illegal contravention of copyrighted works shall be deemed to be a crime under the new law.
• The effective inquiry of alleged infringement of copyrighted works should be made possible for the FBI by allowing wiretaps on suspected criminals. This will be an addition to the existing law which permits wiretaps in the case of reported terrorism activities being aided.
• The copyright holders shall be allowed to file civil suits when devices or technology which can aid in the distribution of hardware or software illegally are imported into the country. The copyright holders will be duly informed and provided assistance should they end up in court.

There are many websites which do not originate from the US, but are a threat to the effective enforcement of US copyright laws. There is still debate over how best to manage these cases so the topic is far from resolved.

In a rarity, the report has been greeted with enthusiasm from all corners with both the Republicans and Democrats agreeing that piracy should be prevented at all costs. It seems this may be a unique case where we’ll see bi-partisan cooperation. Time will tell.