Bobby Malhotra, Of Counsel at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, joins George Socha, Senior Vice President of Brand Awareness at Reveal, as part of a special ACEDS #eDiscoveryLeadersLive series broadcast from ILTACON 2022.
Recently elevated to Of Counsel at Munger Tolles, Bobby Malhotra primarily focuses on navigation complex eDiscovery issues in high-stakes litigation and investigations using unique combinations of both technical knowledge and legal experience. As a member of the firm’s litigation practice group, Bobby develops innovative, cost-effective, and defensible strategies for the preservation, collection, review, and production of electronically stored information. He regularly advises clients on issues related to eDiscovery preparedness, planning and execution, as well as information privacy and data security. Bobby’s extensive experience includes counseling the firm’s financial institution clients on the unique eDiscovery challenges they face in high-exposure matters, as well as leading training on eDiscovery platforms and workflows, and providing advice on eDiscovery vendor management and budgeting. Bobby also serves as a trusted eDiscovery advisor to some of the firm’s largest financial and technology sector clients. In this role, he provides counseling and guidance in connection with legally defensible and standardized company-wide discovery practices.
Bobby shared with us his background, news of his promotion, and a look into his current role at MTO. He talked about why we do eDiscovery and what he and his colleagues at MTO are doing to expand the eDiscovery and related capabilities, including building out a discovery consulting practice. Bobby discussed how they are incorporating AI into wide swaths of their practice, talked about client reactions to the use of AI, and gave his thoughts on how to handle AI with clients, opposing counsel, the courts, and the regulators. After turning to information governance, Bobby offered advice for eDiscovery newbies and closed by talking about the Metaverse and what it means on the eDiscovery front.
Key Highlights
- [2:37] Bobby’s background.
- [3:13] eDiscovery as an opportunity, not a necessary evil.
- [4:14] Getting evidence to support your claims and defenses.
- [4:47] Bobby’s path to MTO.
- [5:54] Bobby’s new role at MTO.
- [6:40] Growing the discovery counseling practice.
- [7:12] The benefits of MTO’s discovery counseling practice for clients.
- [8:53] Educating the firm’s attorneys.
- [10:28] MTO’s eDiscovery and information governance group.
- [11:23] Incorporating AI into the practice across a plethora of different verticals.
- [13:31] Flipping the switch on using AI.
- [13:51] Building an AI model.
- [15:15] The positive client reaction to using AI.
- [15:47] Using AI in the M&A space – a quick case study.
- [16:49] Working with opposing counsel to facilitate the use of AI models.
- [18:16] Helping judges better understand the value of using AI in eDiscovery.
- [19:55] Growing acceptance of AI for eDiscovery.
- [21:06] AI and the regulators.
- [22:00] Information governance – a growing awareness but often still in the back seat, and an opportunity to gain an advantage.
- [25:46] Advice for newcomers to eDiscovery.
- [27:34] Metaverse challenges and opportunities.
Key Quotes
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- “I look at discovery as an opportunity. One, it’s an opportunity to ensure we’re controlling costs for the client…. The other opportunity is obviously to get the evidence that you need from your adversary to support the claims and defenses of your case….and am I getting what I need to ultimately try the case.”
- “The reason I want to grow [our discovery consulting practice] out, it’s really a win-win for our clients and our firm. When I say win for the client, it’s really an area where they need guidance…. They’re coming to us to, one, help them come up with an eDiscovery and information governance program…. When the client actually gets involved in a large-scale litigation and they retain our firm we use that knowledge to tackle eDiscovery in the most strategic, cost-effective sense.”
- “To me, the sky’s the limit for AI…. I think we’ve just started to scratch the surface in terms of what AI can do and how comfortable the attorneys are, the clients are, as well as the judiciary when it comes to AI.”
- “I try to incorporate AI into just about every facet of my practice, eDiscovery and out of eDiscovery…. I use it in the M&A context where we are representing one of the transaction parties and we want to keep from disclosure confidential documents…. We build an AI model. I work with financial institutions building models to help them comply with anti-money laundering, nondisclosure laws. We are building models in the context of everyday business…. We are using it with energy companies…. In the compliance world, we are using it routinely on a daily basis.”
- “Any time you have an information governance challenge or a data challenge, you should think about using AI.”
- “I think the approach [to using AI] really depends on the type of client you are dealing with. My mantra is always, if it’s a new client, they’re not used to it, baby steps, explain the defensibility of the process, talk about potential costs savings because that really resonates with clients, and from there expand.”
Connect with Bobby