Phrase of the week: Crunch time
In legal tech last week, our eDiscovery community gingerly stepped into “high season” for court deadlines, conferences, and end of year activities. AI companies warned of the possibility for catastrophic events if human oversight, governance, and ability to control is outstripped by rapid evolution of LLM’s.
Join us on September 15 at 1 p.m. ET for Inside EDRM 2.0: The Trustees Discuss the New Model, where the co-project trustees will take us inside the updated model’s key changes, the decisions behind them, and the role our community’s feedback played in shaping the final EDRM 2.0.
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
- Post in progress
- Law professors propose a three-part test for what counts as AI slop
- The Day the AI Cheated
- Relativity Announces Skadden as the Next Participant in Advanced Access Program for Relativity claiR
- AI Search Can Find the Meaning. But It Can Still Miss the Evidence
- Asking When Untimely Discovery Responses Will Be Provided Doesn’t Consent to an Extension
- 6 time management tips for lawyers handling ediscovery
- Dispute over A.I. Protective Order
Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel
- 15 September 2026 | 1 PM ET – Inside EDRM 2.0: The Trustees Discuss the New Model
- 23 September 2026 | 12 PM ET – [HaystackID® Webcast] Getting AI Right in eDiscovery: Quality, Validation, and Results
Can’t make it to a live session? Past EDRM webinars are available to watch anytime on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel. Missed a recent one? Catch up on our most recent on-demand webinars:
- [HaystackID® Webcast] From Breach to Legal Crisis: The Hours That Define Your Exposure
- Quantum Law: AI, Quantum Computing, and the Future of Legal Judgment
- [HaystackID® Webcast] From Hype to Workflow: Insights from Experts on the Impact of AI on eDiscovery
Updates from Around the Globe
Global Legal Tech Developments: The deeply detailed ILTA 2026 Technology Survey has been published. The Brennan Center white paper chronicling threats to judicial safety is chilling. Bolch Judicial Institute published an article on how an impartial legal system deserves the sportsman-like acceptance of final outcomes in tournament play. The ABA/Krill Strategies survey on lawyer mental health cannot be described as anything other than depressing and alarming. Derek Muller analyzed the current and past bar exam pass rates, and he is underwhelmed. Washington State greenlighted the company Legata to deliver technology enabled estate planning. Judges in the OpenAI v New York Times litigation are asked to weigh in on what is determined fair use when it comes to AI training. GCVC has launched with investment from corporate general counsels and law firm Wilson Sonsini.
New AI misuse reports galvanized the attention of data scientists, reporters and politicians to address whether and how to protect against the effects of rapidly self-improving AI capabilities evolving faster than effective human oversight.
- Anthropic called for a slower pace: We Must Pace the Frontier
- OpenAI called for constraints: An Alien Mind and agreed on embedded monitors.
- Facebook advocated to move fast: The Future is for Everyone.
- Microsoft released a code of conduct to guide their AI development and deployment.
- Nvidia asserted the AI warnings are to gin up cyber security business.
- Herb Roitblat, eDiscovery AI pioneer, advocated that the warnings serve a commercial purpose.
- Bridgewater, a hedge fund, advocated for a slowdown and tax changes to advantage labor and assign liability for harms.
International eDiscovery Trends: Spirit Airlines may become the new Enron Data Set but panic is reported to be setting in for more than just personal data but also supplier trade secrets. Apple’s announcements last week included more ESI: Judge Schlegel mused about the impact of recording watches in the courtroom and PC Mag declared the watch a mass surveillance device. AppleInsider introduced Apple’s new Reference image for authentication, and upgrades to Siri including conversation history synced across products, with attachments, encrypted indices of calendars, contacts and ephemeral AI searches, both on device and in private compute. There is now reportedly a way to discover if Meta glasses in your vicinity are recording, and a zero click worm for phones via WeChat calls. LG explained what it collects with its Smart TV’s.
World Events Impacting Legal Tech: Iran was reported to the UN atomic watchdog for the first time. The Houthi’s are having a bigger impact on the Strait of Hormuz and the pipeline bypassing it with hostilities escalating. UAE cut ties with Algeria. Russia was accused of bombing a passenger train on its way to Warsaw. Beijing banned drones after a deadly tower crash. Ebola continued its relentless spread. Over 100 arrested for arson for Indonesian wildfires. NASA and IBM collaborated on an AI model to study the moon.
Catch our latest syndicated EDRM Global Podcast Network episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
Illumination Zone Podcasts
Recent guests include:
- Episode 242 | Esther Birnbaum, Executive Vice President of Data Intelligence, HaystackID
- Episode 241 | Gabe Landau, Senior Vice President of eDiscovery and Incident Response Solutions, HaystackID
- Episode 240 | Harsh Behl, Vice President of Product Management, Exterro
EDRM Announcements
- Survey Request: Cybersecurity, information governance and legal discovery professionals are invited to complete ComplexDiscovery OÜ’s Summer 2026 eDiscovery Pricing Survey. Now in its sixteenth edition and conducted in partnership with EDRM, the anonymized survey takes approximately five minutes and is open through November 20, 2026.
- Upcoming Webinar: Join EDRM Trusted Partner Magnet Forensics for Ask Me Anything: Running faster, defensible internal investigations with digital forensics on Wednesday, September 16, at 11:00 a.m. ET. This live, interactive session will offer practical guidance on conducting faster, defensible internal investigations.
- Upcoming RelFest Session: Join EDRM’s session at RelFest Chicago 2026, EDRM in Action: Framework Updates and Faster, Lower-Cost Email Discovery, on Wednesday, September 30, from 3:30–4:15 p.m. CT. Learn how EDRM 2.0 and IGRM 4.1 support Legal Data Intelligence and explore practical approaches to email deduplication and cross-border data movement.
- Save the Date: eDiscovery Day is December 3, 2026. Now in its 12th year, the annual event is organized by Trusted Partner Exterro, with EDRM proud to support. (More details coming soon.)
Weekly Community Support Call: Join us every Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET on Zoom for support and camaraderie. Email info@edrm.net for an invitation to our 342nd 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
