Outsourcing Law & Business Journal™ – March 2012
March 21, 2012 by Bierce & Kenerson, P.C.
OUTSOURCING LAW & BUSINESS JOURNAL™ : Strategies and rules for adding value and improving legal and regulation compliance through business process management techniques in strategic alliances, joint ventures, shared services and cost-effective, durable and flexible sourcing of services. www.outsourcing-law.com. Visit our blog at http://blog.outsourcing-law.com.
Insights by Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. Editor. www.biercekenerson.com.
Vol. 12, No. 3, March 2012
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Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Time: 11:00 AM EDT – 12:00 PM EDT
Speaker: William B. Bierce, President of Bierce & Kenerson, P. C. (full disclosure, also the publisher of this website)
Cost: Free! To register, click here.
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1. Computer-Assisted Document Review in e-Discovery Can Avert Manual Review, Even if Not 100% Certain: “Predictive Coding” Protocol Passes Muster.
2. Humor.
3. Conferences.
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1. Computer-Assisted Document Review in e-Discovery Can Avert Manual Review, Even if Not 100% Certain: “Predictive Coding” Protocol Passes Muster. When can parties rely upon nearly fully-automated “Big Data” procedures under U.S. federal e-discovery rules? In a landmark class-action decision under the Equal Pay Act and Fair Labor Standards Act for gender discrimination and pregnancy discrimination, U.S. federal Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck ruled on February 24, 2012, that “predictive coding” can be legally sufficient even though it fails to meet a 100% confidence level. The decision is welcome news for business defendants accused of mass torts or repeated wrongful practices under class action litigation procedures. It is also welcome news for software developers that market computer-driven “relevancy” analysis, but bad news for FTE-based legal process outsourcing vendors hoping for large labor-intensive discovery requirements.
In short, this precedent adopts labor-saving software technology in lieu of manual review of Big Data in large litigations. For more, click here.
2. Humor.
Big Data, n. (1) a lot of little data running amok, waiting to be corralled, interpreted and captured as insights; (2) e-plankton in the path of the great e-White Whale.
Document Review, n. (1) a legal process for eliminating irrelevant documents to cull relevant documents for later use in pre-trial and trial preparation; (2) the quest for relevancy in world of irrelevancy, at least in the population of documents; (3) the quest for the smoking guns as the first step to non-disclosure based on privilege, breach of confidence, or other lame excuse for concealment.
e-Discovery, n. (1) computer-assisted pre-trial disclosure process for exchange by adversary parties of relevant, non-privileged documents and testimony; (2) using computers to identify and expose to shame and punishment the lies of the cheats, fraudsters, oppressors, discriminators, monopolists, bribers and other social misfits identified in Dante’s Inferno.
Predictive Coding, n. (1) in legal process management of e-discovery protocols, a machine-based triage mechanism to identify relevant documents based on an agreed level of recall and stipulated (or mandated) percentage of precision; (2) IT-enabled soothsaying.
3. Conferences.
April 23 – 25, 2012, IBC presents The Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Outsourcing Conference, Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London, United Kingdom. 20+ international legal and regulatory experts are coming together to provide the latest advice on achieving efficient, cost-effective and compliant outsourcing. Topics include The Smarter Legal Model; trends in regulation, accreditation and certification; the business case for outsourcing; service delivery models; vendor selection; ethics and compliance; outsourcing case studies; structuring and negotiating an LSO contract; data protection and security; technology enablers; managing the outsourcing relationship; business optimisation between the stakeholders and the future of outsourcing in law firms. 20% discount for Outsourcing-Law, use VIP code FKW82266OTLEM
April 23 – 25, 2012, 6th Corporate Counsel Exchange, Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, London, United Kingdom. The award winning Corporate Counsel Exchange is back in London! Our 6th Corporate Counsel Exchange, in London, United Kingdom, will be co – located with the 3rd Corporate Compliance Exchange. View co – located agenda. In April over 150 General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officers will gather to share strategic insights, discuss the latest developments in the legal and compliance sphere and meet with a range of leading law firms and solution providers offering innovative tools and services to help you increase the efficiencies of your department. For more information visit www.corporatecounselexchange.co.uk, call: +442079689745 or alternatively email: exchangeinfo@iqpc.com.
April 23 – 25, 2012, Corporate Compliance Exchange,Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, London, United Kingdom. Corporate Compliance Exchange will once again unite Chief Compliance Officers in senior level networking forum in London, United Kingdom. The 3rd Corporate Compliance Exchange is co – located with our 6th Corporate Counsel Exchange. Through a series of streamed sessions, joint networking panel discussions and roundtables, the award winning Exchange format offers Chief Compliance Officers and General Counsel a unique opportunity to keep current on the most pressing compliance issues and find out what strategies your peers have put in place to safeguard their organisations against compliance risks.For more information visit www.complianceexchange.co.uk, call: +442079689745 or alternatively email: exchangeinfo@iqpc.com.
May 14, 2012, 4th eDiscovery Oil & Gas Conference, Houston, Texas. Mark your calendar for the 4th eDiscovery Oil & Gas Conference. Building off of the success of our 2011 event, eDiscovery Oil & Gas will return to Houston on May 14-16 for you to improve your organization’s eDiscovery capabilities and comply with the requirements of the FRCP. Learn from industry leading experts about effective e-Discovery strategies that they employ. This conference will leverage best practices to show how to conduct thorough, cost-effective and defensible e-Discovery. For a copy of the program agenda click here.
May 16 – 18, 2012, SSON presents the 12th Annual Shared Services Finance & Accounting, Dallas, Texas. This event covers the entire spectrum of Finance & Accounting challenges in Shared Services from Process Design, Governance, Benchmarks, Metrics, and Audits through to Training and Change Management. Each speaker will be diving straight into the specifics of their case studies offering timelines, metrics, results and lessons learned for you to take back to your own office. For more information, visit their website.
May 21 – 23, 2012, SSON’s 11th HR Shared Services & Outsourcing Summit, Chicago, Illinois. Creating the foundation for strategic human capital management through HR shared services, this event will will cover HR Shared Services challenges in Process Design, IT integration, Standardization, Benchmarks, Metrics, and Harmonization through to Training and Change Management. Topics include Globalization, Inhouse-vs. Outsourcing, Growth Opportunities and more. To register, visit their website.
May 29, 2012, Global Sourcing Council presents 3S Awards 2012, New York, New York. The Sustainable and Socially responsible Sourcing Awards, was conceived by the Global Sourcing Council, a non-profit organization, to honor and celebrate 3S actions taken by the sourcing industry. The GSC 3S Awards recognize exceptional achievements in the global sourcing marketplace by individuals and organizations who exhibit a combination of positive social and economic leadership. The 3S awards will bring to the forefront individuals, start-ups, and companies (e.g. suppliers, buyers and advisory organizations) that have worked to innovate, implement and improve communities/peoples and the environment through Sustainable and Socially Responsible Sourcing practices. Submissions began January 1, 2012 and will be accepted until April 15, 2012. Click here for more information.
June 7, 2012, 6th Annual Financial Services Industry Transformation & Outsourcing Strategies Summit, New York, New York. The event presented by FSO Knowledge Xchange (FSOkx) is a premier one day event with a focus on effective transformation strategies in the financial services industry. This event brings together senior decision-makers, regulators, consultants and service providers to share ideas and insights about the future of the banking, insurance, and capital markets industries. The participants will examine how regulatory reforms and cost pressures are transforming the financial services industry. The insightful event discussions will explore emerging and innovative operating models within financial services firms. For registration details, please call 732-462-3763. For more information, click here.
June 24 – 26, 2012, SSON 6th Annual Shared Services Exchange, Pinehurst, North Carolina. For the 6th year in a row, the Shared Services Exchange will be the elite event for shared services executives who are looking to develop new strategy, solve challenges and source partners that will allow them to create efficiency and drive more value out of their shared services centers. Efficiency is still on the minds of these executives as they search for solutions to create consistency across multiple business functions and develop hybrid strategies that utilize outsourcing and captive centers—all while sustaining centers as a core business strategy. This event will continue IQPC Exchange’s ongoing tradition of offering cutting-edge, strategic networking and learning opportunities for senior level shared services executives. For more information, click here.
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FEEDBACK: This newsletter addresses legal issues in sourcing IT, HR, finance and accounting, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, customer relationship management including outsourcing, shared services, BOT and strategic acquisitions for sourcing. Send us your suggestions for article topics, or report a broken link at wbierce@biercekenerson.com. The information provided herein does not necessarily constitute the opinion of Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. or any author or its clients. This newsletter is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Reproductions must include our copyright notice. For reprint permission, please contact: wbierce@biercekenerson.com. Edited by Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. Copyright (c) 2012, Outsourcing Law Global, LLC. All rights reserved. Editor-in-Chief: William Bierce of Bierce & Kenerson, P.C., located at 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 2920, New York, NY 10170, 212-840-0080
Outsourcing Law & Business Journal™ – October 2011
October 21, 2011 by Bierce & Kenerson, P.C.
OUTSOURCING LAW & BUSINESS JOURNAL™ : Strategies and rules for adding value and improving legal and regulation compliance through business process management techniques in strategic alliances, joint ventures, shared services and cost-effective, durable and flexible sourcing of services. www.outsourcing-law.com. Visit our blog at http://blog.outsourcing-law.com.
Insights by Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. Editor. www.biercekenerson.com.
Vol. 11, No. 8, October 2011
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Webinar Announcement
Join our expert panel on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11AM EST for a Webinar on The Future of Law and the Impact of Outsourcing. This will be a timely global debate on the future of the legal profession and the growth in delivery of legal support services via outsourcing and cloud technology. Cerebra LPO, together with Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. (Full disclosure: Bill Bierce, the Editor-in-Chief, will be on the panel) and PA Consulting and expert panel guests will convene an interactive webinar to discuss the implications of cloud, change and outsourcing in the legal sector. For more information and to register click here.
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1. Impact of “America Invents” Patent Law on Global Sourcing.
2. Federalizing Data Security Breach Rules.
3. Humor.
4. Conferences.
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1. Impact of “America Invents” Patent Law on Global Sourcing. On September 16, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the Leahy-Smith “America Invents Act,” H.R. 1249, 112th Cong., 1st Sess. The first major patent reform since 1952, this law restructures the processes for obtaining and maintaining the validity of U.S. patents. Given the troubles with certain business method patents, particularly those used in software for financial services, the law opens new avenues for challenging business method patents. This brief article will focus on the impact of the changes on domestic and international trade in technology-enabled services. For the complete article, click here.
2. Federalizing Data Security Breach Rules. Virtually all U.S. states have adopted “data security breach notification” laws to alert individuals and local governmental officials of possible identity theft. In California, victims of such breaches can sue for damages. On September 22, 2011, Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, Connecticut) introduced a draft federal law on data protection: Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011, S. 1535, 112th Cong., 1st Sess. It would create a new federal crime of intentionally failing to disclose a security breach. It would also coordinate breach reporting with criminal investigations. It would create federal standards that could effectively supersede state laws on security breach notification and repair of an individual’s identity.
The draft law would apply particularly to financial institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and HIPAA-covered entities. Each would need to implement a comprehensive personal data privacy and security program that includes administrative, technical and physical safeguards “appropriate to the size and complexity of the business entity and the nature and scope of its activities.” While the draft law identifies certain criteria for the design, risk assessment and risk management and control, the sufficiency of any security program will depend on the facts and therefore invites litigation. For more, click here.
3. Humor.
Prior art, n. (1) in patent law, technical knowledge of others that pre-dates the date of your invention; (2) in copyright law, another master’s masterpieces that pre-dates yours; (3) in trademark law, someone else’s gorgeous logo that has acquired secondary meaning in the marketplace; (4) in warfare, the cunning of a master warrior, studied for fighting the next war under new conditions; (5) in life, what you always knew but were too stupid or shy to claim it as your own original, novel, useful invention or as your own masterpiece. See “invalidate.”
Invalidate, v. (1) to find a convenient technicality; (2) to enact a new law with a new convenient technicality; (3) to liberate yourself from the oppression and economic enslavement of someone else’s prior art. See “prior art.”
Infringe, v. (1) to identify as yours that which an imposter claims is his prior art. See “Prior Art” and “Invalidate.”
Appropriate, adj. (1) the minimal effort that meets the “raised eyebrow” standard of judicial review; (2) the lowest common denominator of least “best” practices; (3) convenient judicial standard for ascertaining criminal neglect of statutory duty.
Safe Harbor, n. (1) a small pond surrounded by raging storms; (2) a temporary refuge; (3) an opportunity for misguiding a stranded sailor into the maelstrom; (4) a legal framework that is unsafe until so adjudicated; (5) legalized “trick or treat.”
4. Conferences.
October 20-21, 2011, ACI presents its 6th Annual Forum on Reducing Legal Costs, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ACI’s 6th Annual Forum on Reducing Legal Costs has been uniquely tailored to provide in-house counsel and legal sourcing managers, as well as private practice attorneys and law firm marketing/business development specialists who are serious about working with their clients to reduce legal costs, with the practical guidance, key insights, expert knowledge, and proven strategies that they need in order to successfully implement cost-reduction initiatives both internally and externally. For more information, click here.
November 17, 2011, Global Sourcing Council’s Annual Meeting, South African Consulate, New York, New York. Join this non-profit organization, focused on helping organizations from all sectors, buyers and sellers, achieve their economic goals without sacrificing sustainability, at their annual meeting; network and meet George Monyemangene, South Africa’s Consul General and other professionals with a keen interest in this educational mission. To register, click here.
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FEEDBACK: This newsletter addresses legal issues in sourcing IT, HR, finance and accounting, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, customer relationship management including outsourcing, shared services, BOT and strategic acquisitions for sourcing. Send us your suggestions for article topics, or report a broken link at wbierce@biercekenerson.com. The information provided herein does not necessarily constitute the opinion of Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. or any author or its clients. This newsletter is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Reproductions must include our copyright notice. For reprint permission, please contact: wbierce@biercekenerson.com. Edited by Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. Copyright (c) 2011, Outsourcing Law Global, LLC. All rights reserved. Editor-in-Chief: William Bierce of Bierce & Kenerson, P.C., located at 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 2920, New York, NY 10170, 212-840-0080