Gary Marchant and Robert Singleton appeared on AZ PBS to discuss the technical implications of growing technology and the ninth annual ASU-Arkfeld eDiscovery conference. The conference, held in March, will discuss the issues affecting the practice of law in the digital age. During their interview Marchant, faculty director of the Center for Law, Science and Innovation and Singleton, the co-chair and director of eDiscovery and data management for Squire Patton Boggs, discussed the vulnerabilities that arise when lawyers are not knowledgeable on developing technologies.
“Homeland security has warned that one of our biggest vulnerabilities is law firms themselves. Because law firms get a lot of this confidential information from their clients, and they are run by who? Lawyers..” Marchant said, “And so these law firms are incredible risks traditionally and they are now being hacked more and more because they don’t have the right data security that maybe a big company might.”
The rise of personal data retention is also cause for privacy concerns as users are now generating way more data than before, something Marchant says lawyers need to take into account.
“We all are generating all of this data now, from all these different devices and technology: in our houses, in our cars, on our wrists, all of that now becomes fair game if you are involved in a lawsuit.” Marchant said, “Today now because people participate on social media and talk about what they are doing, their phones are tracking them and how fast they are moving. Now anybody involved in a lawsuit is gonna have data produced that is very private.”
Next month, the eDiscovery conference will bring in jurists, attorneys and technology experts from around the country to discuss these issues and bring in solutions.
“The conference is really driven by the fact that as technology is evolved the law has not kept up.” Singleton said, “So we are reaching out to practitioners to discuss the evolution of technology, the impact it has on the law and how as lawyers, we need to keep up in our practices so that we are able to better advise our clients.”
To watch the episode of Arizona Horizon, click here.
To sign up for the eDiscovery conference, click here.