Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat-Great debut!

Nearby Asilomar Beach

When Chris La Cour invited me to attend the inaugural Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat I was a little hesitant to accept.  I have attended many legal technology, legal education, and eDiscovery shows, both as a speaker and blogger, so I expected an inaugural event to be, well, not very good.  I was wrong.  This event ran as smoothly as any conference I have ever attended.  The panels of legal and judicial speakers were top notch, up to date, and the setting was spectacular.   There were no problems with audio, acoustics, or scheduling.  The event was well-attended but there was ample comfortable seating and spacious meeting areas to interact with other attendees.  I am not alone in my praise.  I heard quite a few other attendees lauding the venue and agenda.  Some of the speakers really shared some valuable eDiscovery lessons.  Here are just a few of the comments:

• Laura Zubulake (the most famous eDiscovery plaintiff)-To attorneys wondering what ESI information to request from defendants- "Ask the plaintiff. They know what information is there!"
• Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck-"Sometimes, when you look closely at the gold standard for review, there isn't much gold."
• Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte-"The Cooperation Proclamation is important.  The system cannot function without more cooperation."
• Kimbur Tate (McKesson)-"Sometimes when rolling out a new policy, it is best not to call it a policy."
• Laura Zubulake-"As a plaintiff, she would have loved to receive inadvertently produced privileged material."
• Anthony Knappen (Chevron)-"Hold-in-place can work if you have a process and you have the legal team follow-up."  

I will post more about some of the specific sessions soon.