Weekly Letter to Our EDRM Global Community

Image: Holley Robinson, EDRM with AI.

Dearest EDRM Community,

Word of the week: Impatience.

In legal tech this week, Doug Austin and Mary Mack reviewed the top trends uncovered by eDiscovery Today’s Fifth Annual 2025 eDiscovery State of the Industry Survey Results proudly sponsored by EDRM with a record number of responses and some surprising differences between stakeholders in the eDiscovery process.

Complex Discovery announced its Winter 2025 eDiscovery Pricing Survey, including questions on AI, and we are grateful to those who have already taken it. Your opinion matters as we incorporate AI into our collective processes.
Mary, Kaylee, and Holley, EDRM.

Let’s remain united in our support for each other. For support or to assist a colleague, contact us at info@edrm.net and join our weekly Community Support Call, now in its fifth year.

On the EDRM Blog:

Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel:

20 February 2025: 1PM Eastern: The Litigator’s Toolkit: Streamlining Case Preparation with AI and Modern Technology
25 February 2025: 1PM Eastern: Important eDiscovery Case Law Decisions for February 2025
26 February 2025: 1PM Eastern: 2025 E-Discovery Optimization: Faster Insights with Modern Data Strategies

Updates from Around the Globe:

Global Legal Tech Developments: DeepSeek, like TikTok before it, is in the legislative crosshairs. Ars Technica reports that DeepSeek sends unencrypted data to Bytedance-controlled servers. Sam Altman urged countries to follow France’s lead on AI. The US FTC’s focus on their competition regulation may change, but there is a formidable team assembling, especially for “big tech.” Online privacy groups urged the NFL to end facial recognition in stadiums. The UK asked Apple for encrypted data. Judge Scott Schlegel, on the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, is writing up a storm on AI. John Tredennick, CEO and founder of EDRM Trusted Partner Merlin Search Technologies, wrote about the benefits of RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) when considering bringing an LLM in-house. Forbes started highlighting the thoughts of our own Rob Robinson.

International eDiscovery Trends: Doug Austin and Mary Mack discussed eDiscovery Today’s 2025 Fifth Annual eDiscovery State of the Industry Survey, sponsored by EDRM, with a surprising gap in enthusiasm between end users, law firms, and providers on AI. Complex Discovery announced its Winter 2025 eDiscovery Pricing Survey. The Serious Fraud Office in London is reviewing cases where Autonomy’s Introspect was used to construct searches. ComplexDiscovery issued its Vendor Voices, featuring the first announcements, hires, and promotions of 2025. AI can extract the highlights of all those videos for you. EDRM Trusted Partner, Purpose Legal, attained record sales growth in 2024 as their staff earned and maintained a portfolio of certifications, partnerships, and community contributions. Reveal’s George Socha (and EDRM co-founder) will join Redgrave’s Robert Keeling (and EDRM Chair of the Global Advisory Council) on a webinar reviewing AI’s ability to streamline the Litigator’s Toolkit. Ralph Losey wrote about the shock of DeepSeek and the upgraded offerings of competitors, such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI. Thank you to Doug Austin for his overflowing Kitchen Sink.

World Events Impacting Legal Tech: The Baltic countries unplugged from Russian power. A 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Cayman Islands, and some schools remain closed because of Santorini’s earthquake. Namibia’s first president passed away at age 95, and the Dalai Lama’s brother passed at 97. Egypt organized an emergency summit to address current Mideast developments. It’s flu season, the worst in 28 years, according to the US CDC. Here are the Executive Orders signed by US President Trump and the lawsuits challenging some of them.

Catch our latest syndicated EDRM Global Podcast Network episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and more.

**Recent Illumination Zone Podcasts:**

Recent guests include Ryan Costello, Jess Moore, Jenna Rooney, Anthony Diaz, Kris Taylor, Stephanie Wienke, and Doug Kaminski.

**Recent Echoes of AI Podcasts:**

EDRM Announcements:

The AI Ethics and Bias project released its first quarter update to the Judicial Standing Orders Repository.
Update to EDRM’s Code of Conduct: EDRM has updated its Code of Conduct for respect and civility at in-person, virtual, social, and project events.
Generative AI Policy Update: Check out our updated Generative AI and Large Language Model policy, focusing on disclosure and fact-checking. Read the Policy Here.

Weekly Community Support Call: Join us every Tuesday at 6PM Eastern on Zoom for support and camaraderie. Email info@edrm.net for an invitation to our 261st call. For mental health care, consider these professional resources.

All are welcome,

Kaylee, Mary, and Holley

Email*

Country

P.S. This update was assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies as per EDRM GAI and LLM Policy.

Authors

Mary Mack

Mary Mack is the CEO and Chief Legal Technologist for EDRM. Mary was the co-editor of the Thomson Reuters West Treatise, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel for 10 years and the co-author of A Process of Illumination: the Practical Guide to Electronic Discovery. She holds the CISSP among her certifications.
View all posts
Kaylee Walstad

Kaylee Walstad, chief strategy officer of EDRM, leads the global project based organization and is the former VP of client engagement at a certification organization. Kaylee is known for her role in building communities, uniting people and companies across the globe, and brand amplification for partners through social media and events. A frequent public speaker on a variety of topics, from personal development to the nuances of e-discovery. Kaylee has a broad background in e-discovery and skills that uniquely position her to provide insight into the challenges faced by the end-users of e-discovery services and technology and the organizations serving them. She has extensive expertise in developing cross organizational discovery strategies for large litigation and investigations.
View all posts
Holley Robinson

Holley Robinson is the Marketing Operations Manager for EDRM and ComplexDiscovery OÜ. She supports social media strategy, podcast and webinar production, and content management for EDRM while also overseeing updates to ComplexDiscovery’s industry-recognized eDisclosure Buyers Guide and assisting with their social media and content efforts. A recent graduate of Texas Tech University with a background in marketing, Holley began her journey in eDiscovery as an intern with EDRM and now contributes to amplifying valuable resources for the eDiscovery community.
View all posts Marketing Operations Manager