Dearest EDRM Community,
Word of the week: Hybrid
In legal tech last week, we celebrated our all-community holiday, eDiscovery Day, with education and networking, featuring the EDRM webinar titled Hybrid Work, Hybrid Risks: Guidance for Governing E-Discovery in an AI World. Thank you to our speakers and our Trusted Partner Exterro, the creator and steward of the event, for another great year. Doug Austin released the 2026 eDiscovery Today State of the Industry Survey. EDRM is proud to sponsor this benchmark for the sixth year with our Trusted Partner and respectfully asks for your opinion.
Save the date for the Gayle O’Connor Spirit Award on Tuesday, December 16, at 1PM Eastern. Watch for registration details later in this week!
Mary Mack, 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 sixth year.
On the EDRM Blog:
- Motion to Compel Production of Native Files Denied
- Join Us for eDiscovery Day 2025: Exploring the Intersection of AI, Risk, and Modern Discovery
- What Triggers an Insurer’s Duty to Preserve in a Coverage Action?
- The Hidden Cost Center No One Understands: Why 40% of Legal Pros Still Misunderstand eDiscovery
- Decision on 557 Requests for Admission in Blake Lively v. Wayfarer Parties/Justin Baldoni
- Fast, Cheap, and (Potentially) Dangerous: How to Use GenAI in eDiscovery Without Losing Control
- Three Major LLMs Released in Twelve Days: Why Single-Model Discovery Platforms Are Now a Liability
Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel:
- 8 December 2025, 1 PM ET – Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat | Key eDiscovery and Information Governance Considerations for In-House Legal Teams
- 10 December 2025, 1 PM ET – Beyond Document Review: GenAI for Partner-Level Trial Strategy and Investigations
- 17 December 2025, 1 PM ET – Simplify Internal Investigations with Guardian Collaborate for Enterprise
- 18 December 2025, 1 PM ET – Most Important eDiscovery Case Law Rulings of 2025
Updates from Around the Globe:
- Global Legal Tech Developments: Ralph Losey reviewed the Stanford-Carnegie Stanford Study on hybrid v. autonomous use of AI. Australia will start enforcing the under-16 social media ban this week, with fines of up to $33 million. Clio released its popular Legal Trends Report, and Fastcase sued Alexi. AI unicorns Legora and Harvey have expanded their presence in NYC. The Legal Tech Fund (TLTF) raised a cool $110m. A federal judge blocked former FBI Director Comey’s attorney’s emails from the US DOJ on 4th amendment grounds. Another federal judge ordered the release of the Epstein grand jury documents. And yet another put a one-year limit on Google’s default search contracts. Waymo recalled software that reportedly allowed self-driving cars to pass stopped school buses.
- International eDiscovery Trends: Save the date for the Gayle O’Connor Spirit Award on Tuesday, December 16, at 1PM Eastern. eDiscovery Day, stewarded by Exterro*, was celebrated in fine form on Thursday, December 4, 2025; if you missed any webinars, you can find them on demand here. Phil Favro kept us up to date on eDiscovery search for HaystackID*. Transperfect snagged one of the eDiscovery Chicks, Angie Nolet. Law.com’s Benjamin Joyner explained what the legal battle between the NYT and OpenAI means for eDiscovery. Exterro* clued us into the deep well of savings that are a reward for in-house teams who understand eDiscovery. Mike Berman continued to analyze the eDiscovery decisions emerging from the Blake Lively litigation. Complex Discovery* updated its analysis of the compounding effect of error rates for data transfers in eDiscovery and, based on the results of the 2H 2025 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, described our market as a “pressure cooker.”
Thank you to eDiscovery Today’s* Doug Austin for filling his Kitchen Sink with EDRM bloggers: Mike Berman on Motion to Compel Production of Native Files Denied, Rob Robinson on Thankful for Human Oversight? MIT’s Iceberg Index Reveals the AI Already Beneath Us, Team Exterro on The Hidden Cost Center No One Understands: Why 40% of Legal Pros Still Misunderstand eDiscovery, and Ralph Losey on The New Stanford–Carnegie Study: Hybrid AI Teams Beat Fully Autonomous Agents by 68.7%. Doug always includes Aaron Patton’s Gates Dogfish hysterical memes.
*EDRM Trusted Partner - World Events Impacting Legal Tech: Hamas is reportedly ready to store or freeze arms. The Institute for the Study of War assessed and reported on the current state of the Russia-Ukraine war. The US issued a national defense policy focused on the Western Hemisphere. The Thai-Cambodian border dispute boiled over. One hundred of the abducted Nigerian schoolchildren have been released. M&A activity is heating up, with IBM acquiring Confluent, and Paramount making a hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery despite the Netflix deal. Wildfires are burning in Australia, as Indonesia and Sri Lanka are flooding.
Catch our latest syndicated EDRM Global Podcast Network episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and more.
Recent Illumination Zone Podcasts:
- Recent guests include Nate Latessa, Greg Moreman, Justin Tolman, Capri Miller, and Alex Walstad.
Recent Echoes of AI Podcast:
- Episode 41 | The New Stanford–Carnegie Study: Hybrid AI Teams Beat Fully Autonomous Agents by 68.7%
- Episode 40 | Google’s New ‘Quantum Echoes Algorithm’ and My Last Article, ‘Quantum Echo’ (Debate Style)
- Episode 39 | Google’s New ‘Quantum Echoes Algorithm’ and My Last Article, ‘Quantum Echo’ (Conversational)
EDRM Announcements:
- Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell hosted EDRM’s Mary Mack on the Kennedy-Mighell report, the longest-running legal tech podcast.
- EDRM will be celebrating the holidays from December 19 through January 6, 2026. As always, we will hold our Tuesday support call.
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 303rd call. For mental health care, consider these professional resources.
All are welcome,
Mary and Holley
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P.S. This update was assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies as per EDRM GAI and LLM Policy.
