Weekly Letter to Our EDRM Global Community

Word of the week: Provenance

In legal tech last week, a Florida judge was reprimanded for using a deepfake conversation in a campaign. Tools for proving where content comes from multiplied. During Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a sober reminder: authenticate in-person agents as well as AI or automated agents.

EDRM wishes Mike Hamilton, “Mr. E-Discovery Day,” well and thanks him for his contributions to our community as he joins Portland’s Navex, an eDiscovery-adjacent and highly respected compliance firm.

Provenance runs through our next webinar. Join us on Oct. 13 for The Judicious Judge’s Guide to Generative Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models – Session 1 with Hon. Xavier Rodriguez, Hon. Allison Goddard, Samuel Thumma (ret.), and Dr. Maura R. Grossman.
Mary Mack, CEO and Chief Legal Technologist, EDRM.

EDRM is interested in publishing thought leadership articles and posts to move our community forward. Contact us at info@edrm.net for guidelines or to suggest a topic for one of our authors.

On the EDRM Blog

Upcoming Webinars on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel

13 October | 1 PM ET – The Judicious Judge’s Guide to Generative Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models – Session 1
20 October | 1 PM ET – Comprehensive eDiscovery Case Management
28 October | 1 PM ET – The DSAR Horror Story: When Privacy Requests Become eDiscovery Matters
3 November | 1 PM ET – Beyond Search: From Keywords to AI-Integrated eDiscovery

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:

Updates from Around the Globe

Global Legal Tech Developments: A Florida judge was reprimanded for an AI deep-faked recording used in a campaign. Leaked chats show the Silent Ransom Group recruited people to pose as IT staff inside about 50 organizations, mostly law firms. Steve Embry recapped David Horrigan’s RelFest judicial panel, where five judges said hallucinated citations are rare compared with total filings. AT&T’s in-house LegalEdge unit is partnering with OpenAI to build AI legal workflows. USA Today and 13 affiliates sued OpenAI in New York federal court, seeking more than $250 million and destruction of models trained on their content. At the IBA annual conference, legal futurist Richard Susskind urged firms to plan for AI-empowered clients and create contingency plans for artificial general intelligence within five to 10 years. Sharon Nelson, John Simek, and Michael Maschke warned that cyber insurance is not a cybersecurity strategy: 70% of businesses buy it, but only 59% have formal AI-use policies. The Law Commission for England and Wales proposed bringing software and AI within product liability law; the comment period closes Jan. 14, 2027.
International eDiscovery Trends: A federal judge in Oklahoma suppressed license plate-reader evidence gathered without a warrant (opinion). Greg Buckles shared his RelFest Chicago copious notes, including hallway conversations looking for great eDiscovery talent. 121 members of Congress asked Google to halt buying Spirit Airlines emails and Teams messages for AI training and to become the next Enron dataset (The Record). Google opened SynthID Detector to the public, and Microsoft Teams will support third-party deepfake detection, expected in November. OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT and Codex output in the EU. Bruce Schneier examined Apple’s verified photography system, the Reference Image, and how it handles attempts to protect photographers’ anonymity. Siri in iOS 27 can index more personal app data, and Norway proposed a temporary ban on AI smart glasses in health facilities, schools and gyms. Atlassian urged immediate patching of a critical flaw in self-hosted Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket.
From our Trusted Partners: HaystackID on courts’ limits on text and chat message searches and where agentic AI fits 2027 RFPs; Relativity on getting Smarsh data into aiR; Exterro on 2026 AI court rulings and the coordination layer in ESI workflow; Nextpoint on the ethical risks of AI in law; Cellebrite on purpose-built investigative AI and time to a verified finding; Proteus Discovery Group on what EDRM 2.0 actually changes; and Khrys McKinney of K. L. McKinney on EDRM 2.0, mentorship, and the future of eDiscovery. Doug Austin highlighted Amanda Wong of Nextpoint’s recap of Holley and Mary’s conversation about EDRM 2.0, including information governance as the foundation and disposition as its own phase.
World Events Impacting Legal Tech: Houthi attacks on Riyadh’s airport killed three, and some airlines suspended service, oil executives cancelled plans to attend a conference there, and the US considered joining Saudi Arabia to address the threat. Iraq devalued its currency as oil exports shifted to costlier routes. Russian strikes killed at least 35 across Ukraine, including at least 30 on a bus in Kramatorsk. The energy ceasefire declared by the US did not hold. The US formally complained to Russia over its lack of transparency about a death at a Siberian anti-plague institute. India’s “Cockroach” leaders were released from custody after a crackdown. The Pacific region just set a record for hurricane activity.

Catch our latest syndicated EDRM Global Podcast Network episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

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EDRM Announcements

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 alongside eDiscovery Today, ACEDS, and LegalOps.com. Learn more here.

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 347th 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 Marketing Operations Director 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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