Weekly Letter to Our EDRM Global Community

Dearest EDRM Community,

Word of the week: Vigilance

In legal tech last week, we continued to navigate a global environment rife with conflict, a technical environment galloping toward Q Day, and a 10-day production expectation looming in the EU.

With the environment in flux, we encourage your participation in ComplexDiscovery OÜ’s 2026 1H eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey.

EDRM is proud to collaborate with our Trusted Partner on this ongoing industry survey series. Results will be sent to participants and published once the survey concludes.

For the latest survey results currently available from ComplexDiscovery, see the Winter 2026 eDiscovery Pricing Survey, which highlights how the market and community are pricing eDiscovery, including new models designed to accommodate AI.
Mary Mack, CEO and Chief Legal Technologist, EDRM.

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

On the EDRM Blog:

Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel:

22 April 2026, 12 PM ET – [HaystackID® Webcast] When Seeing Isn’t Believing: Deepfakes, Digital Evidence, and Proving Authenticity in the Age of AI
29 April 2026, 11 AM ET – [EDRM Workshop] Discovery at a Crossroads: Global Perspectives on Emerging Challenges
05 May 2026, 1 PM ET – We Mean Business: Turning Validation Metrics into Defensible Decisions
06 May 2026, 1 PM ET – Collection Types Strategy: Confidently Collect the Right Data for Any Case

Updates from Around the Globe:

Global Legal Tech Developments: The Hon. Ralph Artigliere (ret.) and Professor William “Bill” Hamilton advocated for the importance of legal judgment as a higher professional octave than mere competence. Mike Berman considered whether a recent case may signal a growing expectation that parties uncover opponents’ hallucinated citations. Ralph Losey revisited his opinion on the risk of AI taking our jobs and offered updated guidance. ComplexDiscovery reported on $145,000 in hallucination penalties. The US Congress temporarily extended FISA surveillance authority. Deloitte restructured its workforce into distinct talent models and adjusted benefits for “Center” workers, including those in administrative and IT support roles. An AI skeptic’s father reportedly relied on hallucinated advice from AI to delay treatment before his death. Ella Sherman at Law.com examined the rise of AI-enabled law firms. Reed Smith provided an early look at The Sedona Conference’s study on how federal judges are using AI. Indian courts also pushed back against AI hallucinations.
International eDiscovery Trends: Charged with protecting highly sensitive trade secrets, privacy, and privileged data, eDiscovery teams also need to understand the risks and opportunities presented by new AI models, including Anthropic’s Mythos and Project Glasswing, as highlighted by Forrester. Dan Goodin, security reporter at Ars Technica, assessed the state of quantum readiness across major platforms and explained why it matters, particularly for protecting encrypted data that adversaries could decrypt in the coming years. Reddit was also the source of data for a study on potentially under-reported side effects of new weight-loss drugs. The San Diego Paralegal Association hosted four of the Legalweek Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Shannon Bales, David Greetham, Florinda Baldridge, and Mary Mack, for a celebratory discussion on mentoring and its domino effects. eDiscovery AI’s Jim Sullivan joined us on Illumination Zone. ComplexDiscovery also released its anonymized 2026 1H eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, a five-minute survey.
World Events Impacting Legal Tech: Commercial ships remain stranded near the Strait of Hormuz after the US intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo ship and Iran shut down the critical chokepoint. The Atlantic Council published 15 charts showing which countries and commodities are most affected by the Strait’s closure and ongoing instability. Israel’s military published a map of its new deployment line in southern Lebanon, detailing the territory now under its control. Ukraine announced that it only used unmanned drones and robots to retake territory from Russian forces. Global energy demand increased, but not as much as expected. Amazon announced it will acquire Globalstar, integrating its satellite network into Amazon’s broader connectivity efforts.

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

Illumination Zone Podcasts:

Recent guests include:

EDRM Announcements:

The 1H 2026 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, from ComplexDiscovery OÜ and EDRM, is now open. Please take five minutes to share your insights and help capture the pulse of our industry.
EDRM released an open call for contributors for key projects, including the ESI Protocol Project, the Discovery Workflows Project, the AI-Ethics and Bias Project, and the Testimony Evidence Reference Model (TERM) Project. If you are interested in collaborating and contributing, please email us at info@edrm.net.

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 322nd 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’s 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.

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Holley Robinson

Holley Robinson is the Senior 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.

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