September 4, 2020
Dear Readers,
We are proud to bring you Issue Three of Volume XXVI of the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology. This issue is comprised of articles written on novel topics on the intersection of law and technology as well as articles geared toward our 2020 Symposium, “Technology, Innovation, and Modern Lawyering,” which we offered virtually this year. Speakers discussed a variety of topics relating to the changes technology has brought to the business model of legal practices, as well as ethical implications that arise with the implementation of technology in the practice of law.
Our first article was written by Tanya M. Marcum and Jacob A. Young. Dr. Marcum is a professor of business law in the Foster College of Business at Bradley University. Dr. Marcum conducts research in the areas of employment law, small business start-up issues, alternative dispute resolution, privacy law, and the protection of whistleblowers—the focus of this article. Dr. Young is an assistant professor of management information systems in the Foster College of Business and the Director of the Center for Cybersecurity at Bradley University. Dr. Young conducts research on privacy, security, and anonymity issues related to information systems with a primary focus on anonymous whistleblowing systems. He serves as the Senior Advisor on Cybersecurity at the National Whistleblower Center in Washington, D.C. His work has been published in AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, among several other journals and conference proceedings. This article was supported by Bradley University’s Center for Cybersecurity and the National Whistleblower Center in Washington, D.C. Defining the Whistleblower: The Digital Realty Case and Proposed Legislation discusses current legal protection for whistleblowers and suggests language needed to amend legislation in order to best protect whistleblowers.
Our second article was written by Brittany A. Yantis, James A. Sherer, and Melinda L. McClellan. Ms. Yantis is an associate at BakerHostetler, and Mr. Sherer and Ms. McClellan are partners at the firm. Ms. Yantis focuses on international and data privacy-related litigation, electronic discovery, information governance, and technology application. She has authored articles focused on social media and related ethical considerations and has performed substantial technological research in support of firm clients. Mr. Sherer is a co-leader of the Emerging Technology team of BakerHostetler’s Digital Assets and Data Management group and directs the firm’s Artificial Intelligence and Information Governance engagements. Mr. Sherer writes and presents on e-discovery, information governance, privacy, investigation, and merger and acquisition issues. Ms. McClellan focuses on privacy, cybersecurity, regulation of emerging technologies, compliance with evolving U.S. state and federal privacy legislation, and cross-border data protection matters. Their article was originally submitted for comment as part of the Futures Industry Association’s 41st Annual Law & Compliance Conference on the Regulation of Futures, Derivatives and OTC Products in 2019. The authors discuss various challenges that social media presents to attorneys and law firms and advise attorneys to take an organizational approach in asking and answering the hard questions relating to the risks of social media use.
Our third article was written by Professor Stuart N. Brotman. Professor Brotman is a Leonardo da Vinci Research Fellow at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law. He is the inaugural Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor of Media Management and Law and Beaman Professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Professor Brotman served as Harvard Law School’s first Visiting Professor of Entertainment and Media Law. He has written hundreds of articles and reviews on business, technology, policy, law, and regulation. This article focuses on the intersection of copyright law and communications law and presents options for interested parties to enable harmonization between the two based on the realities of the media marketplace.
Our fourth article was written by JOLT’s own Dylan Phillips, a third-year law student at the University of Richmond and a member of JOLT’s Editorial Board for the 2020-2021 academic year. Each year, JOLT holds an internal competition where our members author comments on emerging areas of law. This year, the Board selected Mr. Phillips’ comment for publication. In his comment, Mr. Phillips explores sting operations and whether prosecutors may collaborate with law enforcement to use deceitful means online to gather information during criminal investigations. Mr. Phillips addresses several ethical, constitutional, and civil issues that the law must address in order for law enforcement to keep pace with an ever-changing technological environment.
Our fifth and final article was written by Robert Keeling, Rishi Chhatwal, Peter Gronvall, and Nathaniel Huber-Fliflet. Mr. Keeling is a partner at Sidley Austin, LLP. He is an experienced litigator whose practice includes a special focus on electronic discovery matters. Mr. Keeling is the co-chair of Sidley’s eDiscovery Task Force. Mr. Chhatwal is an Assistant Vice President and Senior Legal Counsel at AT&T Services, Inc., and heads AT&T’s Enterprise eDiscovery Group. Mr. Gronvall and Mr. Hubert-Fliflet are both Senior Managing Directors at Ankura Consulting Group. They advise law firms and corporations on advanced data analytics solutions and legal technology services. In their article, the authors discuss the ways in which technological advancements are influencing the legal services landscape. The authors focus on predictive coding in the e-discovery process and argue that human attorney review significantly increases the quality of document review in litigation.
On behalf of the JOLT staff, I would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to our authors for their contributions to this issue. We are grateful for their flexibility and patience as our staff navigated publication of this issue.
Additionally, in light of the challenges that our journal faced due to COVID-19, I would like to thank each and every member of the JOLT Board and Staff, both incoming and outgoing, for their hard work, dedication, and patience over the past year. It has been my honor to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Volume XXVI, and I wish next year’s Editorial Board and staff a successful and exciting year.
Sincerely,
Scottie Fralin
Defining the Whistleblower: The Digital Realty Case and Proposed Legislation
By Tanya M. Marcum & Jacob A. Young
The Risks of Social Media: Asking and Answering the Hard Questions for Attorneys
By Brittany A. Yantis, James A. Sherer, & Melinda L. McLellan
By Stuart N. Brotman
By Dylan Phillips