Jonathan Redgrave and Erica Zolner Share Insights in “E-discovery Practitioners Are Racing to Adapt to Social Media’s Evolving Landscape”

In a recent Legaltech News article, “E-discovery Practitioners Are Racing to Adapt to Social Media’s Evolving Landscape,” Jonathan Redgrave and Erica Zolner share insights on how eDiscovery professionals must adapt to new challenges as social media platforms evolve. 

E-discovery Practitioners Are Racing to Adapt to Social Media’s Evolving Landscape

By: Ella Sherman

As new social media platforms appear and existing ones update their features, e-discovery professionals must deal with the consequences of a perpetually shifting environment.

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Redgrave founding partner Jonathan Redgrave says his firm has its own team dedicated to tracking changes in social media.

“We are a very unique law firm in the sense that we've got an entire stack of professionals who are our directors, managing directors and advisors … folks that are deep into the technology weeds all the time,” he said.  “What we do is stay abreast of what the changes are in platforms, whether they be at mainline like Office 365 in the cloud … or you're doing social media collections.”

Redgrave partner Erica Zolner added that expertise in social media is extremely valuable as it can be case altering material.

“This is our sweet spot and it's still a lot to grapple with,” she said.  “If it isn't something that you are working on and working through on a day-to-day basis, it comes down to just you don't know what you don't know, and it's really important to understand that you have absolute blind spots if this isn't your area of expertise.”

New Rules

While e-discovery practitioners may be aware of the latest social media, they also have to be aware of each platform’s procedures for its users. This makes them responsible for keeping their clients, the courts, and opposing parties informed as well, especially throughout litigation investigations.

“Because the capabilities change, you've really got to frame what the capabilities looked like at various points in time so that your client or your opposing party who is working with you to get the relevant response of information really understands what capabilities existed at the moment in time in question,” Zolner told Legaltech News

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“If they're changing their business approach, how's that going to impact your ability to use some of the tools to extract?  How's it going to impact if you're doing third party subpoenas?  How responsive are they going to be?  Are they changing their attitudes about how quickly or how well they'll respond,” Redgrave said.