Dearest EDRM Community,
Word of the week: Distillation
In legal tech last week, Elon Musk took the stand in an OpenAI trial where the practice of using other models to refine one’s own, “distillation“, was introduced. The Hon. Judge Ralph Artigliere (ret.) advocated competence and the practice of embedding safeguards into legal practice. Rob Robinson and ComplexDiscovery published Market Intelligence, building blocks of its avidly read “eDiscovery Market Size Mashup” with a compounded growth rate that will amaze even those who lived through it to tell the tale.
Please bring your toughest questions, Tuesday, May 5, at 1pm Eastern, to a lively educational webinar featuring EDRM 2.0 Co-Trustee and Director of Litigation Support for Korein Tillery, Stephanie Clerkin, and Matt Mahon, Vice President of Client Solutions for EDRM Trusted Partner Level Legal, as they share methodologies for validating TAR and GenAI workflows.
Mary Mack, CEO and Chief Legal Technologist, EDRM.
Register for the live webinar here: We Mean Business: Turning Validation Metrics into Defensible Decisions
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:
- Incomplete ESI Protocol Negotiations Do Not Justify Delay in Production
- From Training to Execution: Embedded Safeguards for Responsible AI Use in Legal Practice
- Cite Checking to Find Hallucinated Cases Deemed Insufficient
- Trial presentation checklist: The roadmap to a winning argument
- No Right to a “Hit Report” for Facially Overbroad Search Terms?
- Andrew Haslam’s eDisclosure Systems Buyers Guide at 14: What the 1H 2026 Update Reveals
- Deponent’s Use of A.I. to Answer Deposition Questions Barred; ChatGPT Was Not an Attorney
Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel:
- 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
- 19 May 2026, 1 PM ET – Important eDiscovery Case Law Decisions for May 2026
- 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: The Hon. Ralph Artigliere (ret.) advocated for going beyond official rules and current practices to recommend repeatable “embedded safeguards” in legal practice. Poland welcomed AI arbitration for more efficient, timely adjudication. Elon Musk was asked at trial about the practice of “distillation,” in which one LLM would be used to further refine the first. Going forward, the court allowed the OpenAI trial audio to be streamed. Axios joined legal commentators in considering the impact on Big Law’s talent pipeline if associate-level tasks are delegated to AI. The State of California can issue tickets to driverless cars now and has greenlighted testing of driverless trucks over Teamsters Union objections. Facebook threatened to withdraw its platforms from New Mexico over state regulation. In China, it is illegal to replace an employee with AI and fire them.
- International eDiscovery Trends: Mike Berman disagreed with the Eastern District of California court’s denial of search term hit reports in a dispute involving facially overbroad terms. Andrew Haslam’s 1H 2026 eDisclosure Buyers Guide, now in its 14th year, was updated and released just before ComplexDiscovery OÜ began publishing the building blocks for this year’s eDiscovery Market Size Mashup. Autonomy founder Mike Lynch’s superyacht did not sink due to weather. Jeff Shapiro explained the new EU E-Evidence criminal 8-hour production regime on Episode 230 of EDRM’s Illumination Zone. Microsoft warned that Windows 11 changes to secure booting require attention before the June implementation deadline. Unlocking iPhones, even after death, requires pre-planning. ChatGPT was deemed “not an attorney” for consultation purposes at a deposition.
- World Events Impacting Legal Tech: The U.S. White House said the Iran War was terminated under the War Powers Act. The US has drawn down troops in Germany and may draw down from additional European countries while communicating weapons delivery delays. Europe has made other trade deals. Ukraine hit Russian oil facilities. The UAE left OPEC. China lifted tariffs for almost all African countries. Purdue Pharma shut down after the opioid crisis trials. The U.S. Pentagon contracted with the larger AI companies, excluding Anthropic. A humanoid robot danced through a flight delay as the gate agents puzzled over whether it was too big to be a carry-on or whether it needed its own seat.
Catch our latest syndicated EDRM Global Podcast Network episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and more.
Illumination Zone Podcasts:
Recent guests include:
- Jeff Shapiro, Managing Director, Europe, HaystackID
- Jim Sullivan, Founder and CEO, eDiscovery AI
- Jon Robins, CTO and Vice President of eDiscovery, Level Legal
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 324th 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.
