Dearest EDRM Community,
Phrase of the week: Compute crunch
In legal tech last week, large tech companies laid off thousands while the appetite (and supply and demand) for memory, storage, and tokens skyrocketed.
Join EDRM and HaystackID on April 29 at 11 AM ET for “Discovery at a Crossroads: Global Perspectives on Emerging Challenges,” with me, Bryant Isbell, Managing Director, Global eDiscovery and Data Advisory Group, Baker McKenzie; Martin Nikel, Independent Consultant; Inés Rubio, Senior Director, Technology, FTI Consulting; Jeff Shapiro, Managing Director, Europe, HaystackID; and Mary Bennett (Moderator), Senior Director, Content Marketing, HaystackID, and Senior Director, Content and Community Initiatives, EDRM.
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:
- Trial preparation checklist: A tactical workflow from discovery through verdict
- A.I. Protective Orders Are Becoming Routine
- ComplexDiscovery OÜ Launches 1H 2026 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey With Expanded AI and Revenue Focus
- Relativity to Establish Singapore Entity, Expanding APAC Footprint
- Request for Broad “Apex” Executive Discovery Replaced by Phased Discovery Order
Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel:
- 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
- 20 May 2026, 12 PM ET – [HaystackID® Webcast] The AI eDiscovery Sea Change: Privilege, Work Product, and Hyperlink Productions
Updates from Around the Globe:
- Global Legal Tech Developments: Wallet encryption is the biggest quantum threat to crypto, according to CoinDesk. Anthropic’s Mythos stressed crypto security as it partnered with Google and Amazon. Sam Altman apologized on behalf of OpenAI for not alerting authorities to an account they had banned prior to a mass shooting. Tom’s Guide compared the latest ChatGPT and Claude models. Meta and Microsoft laid off 20,000 employees combined, with Microsoft offering voluntary buyouts. Rob Robinson of ComplexDiscovery OÜ shared his Forbes article that stratified marketing into awareness, credibility, demand generation, and integration. The compute crisis caused AI platforms to restrict usage, electric rates to rise, and hardware costs to dramatically increase. China released DeepSeek-V4 at reportedly one-sixth the token cost of other leading models. The agentic Google ecosystem includes an organizational Knowledge Catalog. Tim Cook stepped down, and Apple doubled down on hardware, choosing John Ternus to succeed him. Microsoft reduced forced updates during reboots.
- International eDiscovery Trends: ComplexDiscovery OÜ released the 1H 2026 Andrew Haslam eDisclosure Systems Buyers Guide as it entered its 14th year, looked at AI’s likelihood of displacing the billable hour in eDiscovery, and explored Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell’s opinion in Morgan v. V2X, Inc., No. 25-cv-01991-SKC-MDB, 2026 WL 864223 (D. Colo. Mar. 30, 2026), regarding privilege, protective orders and disclosure regarding agentic, generative AI. Michael Berman analyzed Tripp v. Perdue Foods LLC, 2026 WL 1021135 (D. Md. Apr. 15, 2026), where the defendant successfully offered an unchallenged compromise in a proportionality dispute with Apex implications. Relativity expanded its APAC footprint. Nextpoint’s Elizabeth Guthrie shared a trial preparation checklist.
- World Events Impacting Legal Tech: Direct talks between Iran and the US were canceled. The US President and government officials were unsuccessfully targeted at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The EU sought a workaround to blunt energy shortages. Israel ordered Lebanese villages to evacuate. Russia and Ukraine continued attacking each other. Rebels gained territory in coordinated attacks in Mali. Northern Ireland experienced a second bombing aimed at a police station. Victor Orbán stepped down from the Hungarian parliament. A highway bombing hit Colombia amid a “wave of attacks.” Japan battled wildfires.
Catch our latest syndicated EDRM Global Podcast Network episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and more.
Illumination Zone Podcasts:
Recent guests include:
- Jim Sullivan, Founder and CEO, eDiscovery AI
- Jon Robins, CTO and Vice President of eDiscovery, Level Legal
- Michael Cammack, Deputy Information Security Officer, and Stephanie Wienke, Security Specialist, HaystackID
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 323rd 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.
