By Mary Mack, Esq., Corporate Technology Counsel, Fios, Inc.

1. White collar defendants will be sunk by criminal e-discovery evidence rules created by case law involving drug dealers and child pornographers.
2. The financial crisis will increase the volume of e-discovery in bankruptcy courts and cause such a backlog with the magistrate judges that the use of special masters and mediators will double or triple.
3. In the wake of the financial crisis, law firms, IT departments and corporate legal departments will create a surfeit of top e-discovery talent as layoff by machete takes hold.
4. Credit-constrained vendors and service providers will not be able to scale on demand and will cut corners on redundancy and backup that will severely impact a client's case.
5. Software as a Service will start gaining inroads due to lack of credit and a reluctance to make capital purchases.
6. Laid-off financial services professionals will join review teams to troll through instant messaging.
7. A major government official, board member, officer or partner will be held personally responsible for e-discovery spoliation or obstruction.
8. Key cases will be used liberally: Lorraine will be used to challenge authenticity and admissibility; the Qualcomm CREDO will be issued; and Mancia, American Home Products and Qualcomm will be used to determine whether sanctions apply.
9. Family law will bring e-discovery to the state level, keeping solo forensics practitioners fully engaged.
10. A magistrate judge will get so frustrated he or she will write a sanctions opinion with the words "COOPERATION PROCLAMATION" in all caps.
11. There will be many more law schools offering e-discovery courses for credit.
12. e-Discovery providers will discover diversity and alternative billing.
13. There will be a dramatic increase in international e-discovery (e-disclosure) requirements due to the financial crisis, arbitration, class actions and competition law.
14. The number of practitioners sporting "Technology Counsel" titles will triple.
15. The federal government will create an e-discovery response team in reaction to the recent White House archiving and SEC email issues.
16. Web 2.0 will start to emerge as the next technical/legal challenge (dynamic, multi-company content).
17. e-Discovery attorneys and providers will do more case-level pro bono work, supplementing educational and rule-making activities.
18. SOX guidelines will be applied to the legal hold process.
19. Insurance providers will get involved earlier and more visibly in the e-discovery process.
20. Law firms will be sanctioned for not having their own e-discovery houses in order.