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ILTA’s litigation and practice support steering committee is really excited about our line-up of speakers for our peer group sessions at conference this year. Since May is ILTA’s spotlight month for litigation and practice support, I will be blogging about the speakers we have lined up for the conference in Las Vegas.

Our spotlight today shines on Bill Belt who will be a panelist on the session titled “A Numbers Game: The Value of E-Discovery Metrics.”  The panel is described as follows:

Einstein once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Come find out which e-discovery metrics really count. Corporate counsel want more certainty surrounding the time and cost of e-discovery, and our panelists will share their experiences implementing e-discovery metrics and lessons learned. Join us as we explore what to measure, how to collect data and what key metrics have added value for clients.

So Bill…

Q.  When and how did you begin your career in Litigation and Practice Support?

A.   I started out as a litigator in 1989.  Collecting and reviewing the documents for the Exxon Valdez litigation -  I learned the importance of well a executed discovery effort to drive strategy and build trial themes.   I have built eDiscovery groups at two law firms, and have now joined Deloitte to help develop the workflows, technology and resources to achieve the goal we were seeking to achieve in the Valdez litigation, find the evidence to help clients tell the most powerful story to judges, juries and government investigators. 

Q.   How has your role in this field changed over time?

A.  Having started as a trial lawyer, my role has changed as my focus has changed.  Discovery is no longer an isolated series of collection and privilege review projects that precede fact and expert depositions.  Discovery now demands specialized knowledge – a combination of legal and technical expertise.  The stakes are just as high, if not higher, and the technology and legal environment changes constantly.  The only way to keep up is to do it – run projects and talk to colleagues.  Find out what’s new and how others have solved problems on their projects, and then apply those lessons learned to help clients.

Q.  What do you find most interesting about this profession?

A.  What makes this industry so interesting is the passion of the people in it.  In-house legal teams, corporate IT experts, outside counsel teams, technology developers – almost everyone in eDiscovery shares a passion for what we do.  Improving the process, figuring out how to harness the power technology and global resources to improve our legal system is a compelling job description.  Most everyone remembers the Berkeley paper “How Much Information.”  It was the paper that made us think of evidence in terms Gigabytes instead of boxes.  While we often  focus the challenge, we all recognize that we are improving the quality of evidence we use to tell our clients’ stories.      

Q.  What do you do for fun?

A.  My two kids play sports – a golfer at St. Andrews in Scotland and a swimmer at Boston College.  I enjoy traveling with my wife Michelle to their schools and cheering them on. 

Q.   What are some of the key concepts you hope to cover in your session at the 2013 ILTA Conference?

A.  We are talking about metrics.  A key concept we hope to discuss is the link between metrics and the improvements we all seek to achieve in eDiscovery.  With so many different stakeholders in the discovery process and with so much at stake, it can be difficult to assess effectiveness and progress.  Metrics give us objective feedback to gauge the effectiveness of new technologies, workflows and resources.

Q.   Anything you’d like to say to Conference attendees?

A.  Thanks for investing the time and energy to join us.  Hopefully, you will find the conference informative and fun.   

Bill Belt has 23 years of experience in litigation and eDiscovery.  He built eDiscovery practices at two law firms while serving as National eDiscovery Counsel for national and global clients.  His team’s defense verdict in a landmark EMF trial was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the 10 most significant defense verdicts of 2002, and he was recognized by the American Bar Association for his discovery work in the Exxon Valdez litigation.