As your 2021 chair, and on behalf of the E-Discovery, Information Governance & Cybersecurity Section, welcome to 2021! Thank you for your membership, and we are excited to turn the page to what we hope will be a great year for our section. We closed out 2020 with another successful E-Discovery Day. I also want to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing chair, Robert Simmons of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, for his leadership during an unprecedented year.

Get to know members of the E-Discovery, Information Governance & Cybersecurity Section! This blog series highlights section members, their practice and their personal interests. Take a seat and get to know them! This week's post features Helen Geib of Hoover Hull Turner LLP.

How can you keep up with pending legislation that’s important to you and your practice? With the help of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, the IndyBar Legislative Committee (chaired by Mindy Westrick of the Indiana Energy Association) provides weekly Bill Watch reports throughout the session, which highlight progress and recent actions taken on bills being monitored by the association.

Looking to find your next great law clerk or show your support for diversity in our community? Employer and sponsor registration is now open for the 2021 Diversity Job Fair!

New year’s resolutions are especially apropos in 2021 given that the prevailing attitude to the old year is goodbye and good riddance. Millions of unused gym memberships notwithstanding, resolutions can be effective when done right. The key is to be specific and realistic.

Big data sets are the “new normal” of discovery and bring with them six sinister large data set challenges. These challenges range from classics like overly broad privileged screens, to newer risks in ensuring sensitive information does not inadvertently make its way into the hands of opposing parties or government regulators. While these challenges may seem insurmountable due to ever-increasing data volumes (and also tend to keep discovery program managers and counsel up at night) there are new solutions that can help mitigate these risks and optimize workflows.

It's the season of giving and even during the hardships of 2020, generous sponsors, bidders and donors helped the Indianapolis Bar Foundation raise over $26,000 during IndyBar's Giving, this year's online silent auction to benefit the programs and initiatives of the foundation.

Electronic discovery – like discovery generally – can bring out the best and the worst in lawyers. A process that is supposed to be about each side peacefully and politely exchanging documents and information so that their dispute can be fairly litigated is rarely genial. Combine the normal levels of discovery angst with the added technical stress of handling large volumes of emails, spreadsheets and PDFs, and it’s enough to turn any discovery dispute into a full-blown “discovery war.”

Three-quarters of Americans use social media and most use several platforms. Many people visit their favorite sites at least once a day. Some social media users are passive consumers but more are actively creating content. That all adds up to a whole lot of potentially discoverable data. 

2020 has been (and no doubt will continue to be) like riding a roller coaster in a hurricane. Fortunately, for the IndyBar, we have a committed membership that has responded in amazing ways. While the pandemic will affect the practice of law for years to come, we can all be proud of the work our association did to respond in positive and uplifting ways. In a non-COVID year, we would typically recognize our IndyBar award winners at our annual Recognition Breakfast — typically a packed event with comradery and good cheer. Like many things this year, we will recognize our award winners in different (but no less important) ways.