Our mission

The Posse List is over 7 years old and its membership now exceeds 18,000 members world-wide.

This blog and web site provides a guide to a particular area of litigation and the process of discovery — electronically stored information (ESI), meaning all information in computers.

Discovery is the pre-trial exchange of information by parties in a litigation.  During the past two decades, personal computers have generated (and contain) enormous amounts of information.  The average personal computer hard drive today can easily store 300+ gigabytes of data and large organizations’ computer networks commonly store information in terabytes, petabytes, and exabytes.

All this information can be subject to discovery — “electronic discovery” or e-discovery.  A cottage industry of forensic specialists and other experts  emerged with the sole purpose of assisting corporations and law firms comply with their electronic discovery obligations, all working within the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM).   The EDRM, launched in May 2005, was created to address the lack of standards and guidelines in the electronic discovery market. The completed reference model provides a common, flexible and extensible framework for the development, selection, evaluation and use of electronic discovery products and services.

So it this ESI management and e-discovery industry that we seek to cover, by providing information on jobs, trends, commentary, articles of interest, coverage of the major legal conferences, etc.

Our history and where we are today

When we started The Posse List in 2002 our base was contract attorneys, the lawyers who worked on document review and production — the “right side” of the EDRM.   These cases required an army of attorney and paralegal document reviewers — called in like a “posse” at the last minute, as needed.   Law firms adopted the cost-saving manufacturing principle of “just-in-time” production, and applied it to a service industry: hire attorneys “just when you need them” but only on a short-term, part-time basis. 

But as the technology improved, the need for these large numbers dwindled.  But there was an increase in the need for greater sophistication and expertise in ESI management and e-discovery.   

Now our members include contract attorneys, forensics consultants, paralegals, in-house counsel, law firm attorneys, solo practitioners, e-discovery companies, legal media entities, and numerous legal support professionals.   

We maintain two websites to cover ESI management and e-discovery: this site and The Electronic Discovery Reading Room site where you can learn all the basics of e-discovery, ESI, cloud computing, in-house e-discovery, etc.   You can also download (for free) the e-book A Process of Illumination: The Practical Guide to Electronic Discovery by e-discovery expert and luminary Mary Mack.

To get on our mailing lists click here. 

And, if you are thinking of going solo or freelancing as an attorney visit our sister site The Posse Ranch by clicking here.

Have a question?  Need advice?  Have a comment or suggestion?  Email us at: manager@theposselist.com