As 2006 comes to a close, we would like to thank all of our subscribers and clients for the opportunity to share our knowledge of eDiscovery practices, processes and products. We gratefully acknowledge all of your comments and suggestions that validated and helped us maintain our industry focus and Mission Statement. We are about to close the books on our most successful year ever and we could not have done it without you. We will continue to work hard in 2007 to retain, or earn, our trusted advisor status in the marketplace and to exceed your expectations. The management and staff at BlueStar CS wish all of you health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year.

Our December Webinar, “Proactive eDiscovery - The Best Insurance,” featured a robust email intelligence and forensic solution from Clearwell Solutions and a unique network and data discovery solution from Deepdive Technologies. The volume of attendees exceeded our planned capacity and we apologize to anyone having either registration and/or access challenges. We experienced unforeseen technical difficulties, which we have corrected, and we have done our best to forward copies of the presentations to all who attended. Based on attendee feedback, we are scheduling additional in-depth sessions in January – one for each of these solutions. It was obvious that there was too much information and too many questions to adequately cover both platforms in the allotted time. Invitations, and a registration link on our Homepage, www.bluestarcs.com, will be finalized the second week of January.

Our year-end Newsletter is limited to only one, yet highly appropriate, topic – suggested New Year's resolutions for both law firms and corporations. Two- Thousand-and-Six has been a landmark year with the legislated acknowledgement that Electronically Stored Information (ESI) is now the dominant form of content in the discovery process for civil litigation, government regulatory actions and requirements, and the maintenance and security of intellectual property. The world has changed and the rules, processes and procedures must change with it. Not to adapt and change will only result in adverse judgments, sanctions and corporate instability.

1. Assemble an eDiscovery team with representation from all applicable departments/practices including Commercial Litigation, Compliance/Regulatory, Intellectual Property (IP), Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT) and Records/Knowledge Management (RM/KM). Empower them with the means to design and execute a plan for the capture, management, storage and access of all your organization’s ESI and ensure the team has access to the “executive suite.”

2. Understand your preservation obligations and execute a defensible “good faith” policy that will preserve relevant, or potentially relevant, information without putting an unnecessary burden on your organization’s day-to-day business operations.

3. Know what data resides on your network and where it is. Eliminate “data-in-the-wild” – ESI residing on unknown and/or unsecured data repositories including laptops, PDA’s, cell phones, home computers, voicemail systems and portable storage devices.

4. Establish a training budget and use it. Utilize inside training resources or outsource specific curricula to qualified vendors to develop and execute training programs for software applications, awareness of industry/regulatory/compliance/security guidelines, best practices or statutes, and your organization’s policies. A good example would be to review the purpose and execution of a “litigation hold” directive and the possible penalties for not following the policy. Utilize all available delivery options including classroom, Web, Computer Based Training (CBT) and “lunch & learn” sessions. Ensure that all affected employees from the boardroom to the mailroom understand their responsibilities, as well as the penalties for not following stated policies.

5. Establish a relationship with one, or more, legal technology vendors as “trusted advisors” until the all the unknown fallout from the amended FRCP rules subsides, the new processes become more familiar, and multiple jurists have established documented precedents. At least one should have forensics qualifications and at least one should be a member of your eDiscovery team, providing valuable experience as well as third-party expertise in the courtroom, if required.

6. A “best practices” review of existing technology, conducted by the aforementioned eDiscovery team, with emphasis on functionality, ease-of-use, security, flexibility and reporting deliverables. The team should have stated objective to move the organization toward a federated solution – a common platform that serves the needs of all affected departments/practices including litigation, compliance, regulatory, intellectual property, knowledge management, security, and information technology.

7. Get the greatest return on your investment in updated eDiscovery processes by being proactive rather than reactive in their application to reduce costs and risks.