April 2011 Issue

Cover Story

As Bulging Client Data Heads for the Cloud, Law Firms Ready for a Storm

Perhaps no case could be a more monumental example of the reality of modern e-discovery than the ongoing Viacom copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube filed back in 2008. In that dispute, the judge ordered that 12 terabytes of data be turned over, according to Matthew Knouff.

"People often say that one terabyte equals 50,000 trees, and 10 terabytes would be the equivalent of all the printed collections of the Library of Congress," says Knouff, who is general counsel of Complete Discovery Source, a New York City-based electronic discovery services provider. For the Viacom/YouTube case then, the demand was for the printed equivalent of the entire Library of Congress. And then some.

Experiences like these have left law firms and in-house attorneys scrambling to make sense of the new risks associated with the seemingly endless data produced by emerging technologies like cloud computing and social media—first as a way to get their own house in order and second as a sorely needed service for the vulnerable corporations employing them.

A correction has been made to this story.

Feature Section

More Discovery Woes from Web 2.0

An Inescapable Conflict

The Civil War ended slavery and saved the Union, but many of its battles are still being fought.

Lincoln and Davis: A Friendship That Made History

Secession: How the South Nearly Won

Lincoln’s War Powers: Part Constitution, Part Trust

The Dawn of a Republican Court: Lincoln’s Justices

The End of War and Slavery Yields a New Racial Order

The Conspirators: Tried by Military Commission

Web Attacks Can Diminish Your Good Name, But Something Can Be Done

Florida lawyer Frank Sheppard can’t recall when he first learned that a disgruntled litigant had put up a website attacking his firm, but he won’t easily forget the embarrassment it caused.