In this edition of Fresh Intellegentsia we cover an association (Air Canada and LegalX); a survey report on e-discovery workload and technology investment priorities. (The Cowen Group); and an essay by Robert Ambrogi about Magistrate Judge (U.S.D.C. Southern District New York) Andrew Peck and his recent e-discovery ruling.

• Air Canada Legal has announced that it has entered into an association with the LegalX Cluster at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. “This partnership is testimony to our commitment to being at the cutting edge of legal service delivery in Canada,” said David Shapiro, Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer of Air Canada. “We look forward to LegalX’s contributions to our work and to helping them bring Canadian entrepreneurs to the international marketplace,” he said.

“Stepping up to sponsor LegalX—and to seek out new relationships with entrepreneurs—speaks volumes about how Air Canada Legal is embracing change and the value it places on innovation,” said Aron Solomon, Innovation Lead at LegalX.

• The Cowen Group has announced its Q2 2016 Critical Trends Survey results about e-discovery workload and technology investment priorities. TCG polled 70 executives from law firms and Fortune 500 corporations across the U.S., reports David Cowen, president and managing director.

Among the findings:
• 76% of respondents said that their e-discovery workload has grown in the last 12 months.
• 54% stated that their top 2016 tech invesment priorites are early case assessment or analytics software.
• At least 60 firms plan to re-evaluate litigation tech service provides and spend more money with fewer e-discovery vendors.

The Cowen Group will hold a free webinar about the survey, on Aug. 24 at 1 p.m. Eastern.  Sign up here.

• Robert Ambrogi‘s Tuesday’s”Perspective” essay, “Judge Peck: Party’s Preference Trumps TAR,” discussing U.S.D.C. (Southern Districk, N.Y.) Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck‘s Aug.1 ruling  where he refused to order New York City to use TAR (technology assisted review aka predictive coding) instead of keywords to search for relevant documents. Read it at Bloomberg Big Law Business here.

Ambrogi is a lawyer and writer based in the Boston area, and also serves as director of communications at Catalyst Inc.

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance analyst and journalist. She has worked with The Cowen Group and co-hosts the Law Technology Now podcast (Legal Talk Network) with Ambrogi. She also writes for Bloomberg BLB. She has never worked for Air Canada, but flew on it for the first time last week. (My parents both worked for United.) Twitter: @MonicaBay  Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. 

Cover image: Clipart.com