Electronic-Discovery

Looking to jump-start your legal technology career but don't know how? Jared Coseglia of TRU Staffing Partners writes a monthly column on certifications to know and training to acquire in the industry for Legaltech News. This month's piece takes a look at the revived LAW PreDiscovery certification, named CloudNine LAW.

There was a time when LAW PreDiscovery was the go-to, if not only, option in the e-discovery data processing software ecosystem. Over the last decade, a number of entrées including Nuix, Venio, Relativity, OpenText, EDT, Ipro, Disco, Everlaw and others have all developed or acquired their own proprietary processing technology. Some have created specific training and certification programs around their tools. In the years leading up to its CloudNine acquisition, the LAW certification and training program went dormant, perhaps giving other organizations an opportunity to capture market attention given the vacuum. Now, LAW PreDiscovery not only has a new name (CloudNine LAW), but LAW certification and training is back! Under the vision and leadership of new parent company CloudNine, a lot has changed even as much remains the same.

Doug Austin, vice president of products and services for CloudNine, says the biggest change since the acquisition has been “doubling our development and customer success staff for the products.” With a focus on increased tool functionality immediately after acquisition, the inherited training and certification program has been left behind. “The training curriculums were behind all of the actual functionality changes we made to the software,” says Austin, “So we've been ramping up capabilities and features, and we've been working hard to get the training and certification caught up with the functionality updates.” Austin also emphasizes that training and certification updates are now “rolling” and that “we make updates [on the tool] as we go, and then training and certification follows.”

So, what's new about CloudNine LAW that warrants recertifying and retraining? “LAW has been a popular product for 15 to 20 years, but, recently, it has needed some major revamping,” admits Austin, “and right now it's getting that.”

For starters, LAW has historically been 32-bit single-core, and CloudNine is changing most of the functionality now to 64-bit multicore. At Legalweek New York 2019, CloudNine released LAW 7.0 that demonstrated increased throughput of ingestion by 400 percent, four times faster than the previous ED loader module. Since the end of January, Austin says, “the LAW 7.1 release is now 12 times faster,” which translates to “a large 45 GB container file, which would have taken a day to process, now can be done in about two hours.”

The economics of using LAW as a customer are also affected by these technology updates. The upgrade to 64-bit multicore reduces the hardware required to maximize utilization of the LAW tool. “Clients can now be more economical with their environment. They don't need as many machines now. You can have one machine with four to eight cores and run multiple instances,” details Austin.

LAW is also now focused on working seamlessly with peer products in the marketplace, a shift in overall tool development since CloudNine took over. “We're the type of company that's committed to working well and playing well with other products,” says Austin. “Customers have a need to move data to the tool they want. We are a Relativity development partner, and we have been talking to several other companies about partnership opportunities as well.”

LAW now boasts a partnership with Compiled's ReadySuite product that has developed a LAW to Relativity interface and automatic data import. That has become a critical option and necessary domain expertise for LAW users and for customers who have Relativity but like to process in LAW or perhaps use LAW for running productions out of Relativity.

All these changes in functionality and partnership mean updates to the training and certification program. To start, configuring LAW will be very different in order to take advantage of multicore processing. There is a new process for ingesting data. These are very administrative-focused skills for back-end wielders of the technology, but not the starting point for training in LAW. “Even though LAW is robust, it's designed to be easy to use and a product on which you can get up to speed quickly,” says Austin. In an effort to indoctrinate more users to the tool and help clients create value (often billable value) from their staff using the tool, the LAW certification has now trifurcated. Austin recommends new users take these programs in order, but past users may choose to skip ahead.

LAW 101 is a half-day course that will teach the fundamentals of LAW. This program is designed for anyone with a role in the electronic discovery process or system administration. According to Austin, part of the thinking with the aptly named 101 course is that “training is not just how the tool works but also why it does what it does.” LAW 101 grads are often end users, paralegals, lit support staff and contract attorneys, all trying to gain mastery in how the tool integrates and can be used effectively in the discovery process. Topics in this segment include creating a new case, importing files to the case, batch processing, addressing TIFF conversion errors and exporting data to other review platforms.

“LAW 201 is really focused on ESI processing with lots of hands-on examples,” says Austin. LAW 201 comes with an eDiscovery processing certification; LAW 101 does not. In the past, this certification was criticized for being an open-book examination. Austin quickly points out that, “Yes, it is still an open-book test, and we are taking a look at that for the future. But we don't give people enough time to complete it without knowing the information.” The time frame for a LAW 201 certification is two hours. “You can't pass it unless you can show you understand how to process data in the tool,” says Austin.

LAW 301 is the administrator training and certification. Administrative duties include installing LAW, maintaining cases and licensing, handling technical errors and exceptions and hardware, software and network setup. More significantly perhaps, an admin in LAW can look for opportunities to use the tool more effectively and created efficiencies in the discovery process. The CloudNine website professes that “every firm and service provider needs Certified Administrators.”

Doug Austin agrees: “If you're a shop that's using LAW for processing, you have lots of projects going on at the same time. The person who has to manage that workflow, coordinate that information and oversee those projects is the one who should be a certified administrator.”

Teachers of the training curriculum are LAW product experts. “We actually brought back former product solutions consultants to the organization who trained on the tool in the past,” says Austin. Standard classes are online and classes occur on scheduled days. Each class is available a few times a month. CloudNine does offer group training and on-site training for companies that want their entire staff trained and certified. Individuals can sign up online independently. One more thing that will also be different: LAW certifications will have a two-year shelf life before recertification is required at the 201 and 301 levels. “There will be enough changes in functionality over a couple of years to make a two-year renewal appropriate,” says Austin. “We want our certifications to be meaningful.”

More info on CloudNine LAW certification can be found on CloudNine's website.

Jared Coseglia is the founder and CEO of TRU Staffing Partners, an Inc 5000 Fastest Growing American Company 2016 & 2017 and National Law Journal's #1 Legal Staffing Agency. Jared has over 15 years of experience representing thousands of professionals in e-discovery, cybersecurity and privacy throughout the world.