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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES, January 30, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Setting the global standards for e-discovery, the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) is pleased to announce its newest affinity partner, the Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve access to justice and make legal and regulatory compliance more efficient through the use of open source software and secure cloud computing. The Merlin Foundation was established in 2019 by John Tredennick, its executive director and a longtime industry expert and former CEO and founder of Catalyst Repository Systems, a leading search and technology-assisted review e-discovery platform.

EDRM sets standards and best practices as well as provides tools and guides to improve electronic discovery and information governance. Legal professionals that leverage EDRM are well-equipped to properly handle the complexities that come with data identification all the way through production and preservation.

“The Merlin Foundation is John Tredennick’s love letter to the legal tech community,” says Mary Mack, CEO and chief legal technologist for EDRM. “John is a serial entrepreneur to the core, and he is now focused on bringing open source software to legal with his nonprofit. I am proud to serve on his board and proud John serves on the EDRM board.”

Further, EDRM and the Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation are excited to announce a joint new processing specifications project to develop industry requirements for an e-discovery processing platform. Processing is a key stage in the EDRM, bridging the gap between identification and collection and the review, production and presentation of the collected ESI at a trial or hearing.

The e-discovery specifications project will focus on articulating the required steps to transform ESI into a format suitable for e-discovery review. The goal is to canvas legal professionals across the industry to determine what functionality is necessary to meet industry needs around the world. Anyone wishing to participate in the project should reach out to project trustee Tredennick, who is organizing the EDRM standards team, or info@edrm.net.

The project will move forward in tandem with another project concurrently initiated by the Merlin Foundation to develop an industry-standard open source processing platform. Licensed as open source, the software will be available for free. Developers and legal professionals around the world will be invited to help extend and enhance the code base, which will be continually updated to meet future industry needs.

“It is an honor for the Merlin Foundation to partner with EDRM, the leading legal standards body in the world,” says Tredennick. “E-discovery processing is a critical stage for the EDRM, bridging the gap between data collection and review. Developing standards for e-discovery processing will provide a blueprint for the worldwide legal profession and help reduce the costs and risks of e-discovery.”

About EDRM

Empowering the leaders of e-discovery, the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) creates practical global resources to improve e-discovery, privacy, security and information governance. Since 2005, EDRM has delivered leadership, standards, tools, guides and test datasets to strengthen best practices throughout the world. EDRM has an international presence in 113 countries and growing and an innovative support infrastructure for individuals, law firms, corporations and government organizations seeking to improve the practice and provision of data and legal discovery. Learn more about the EDRM today at EDRM.net.

About the Merlin Foundation

The Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation is dedicated to improving access to justice and streamlining legal and regulatory processes through the use of open source software. A worldwide nonprofit educational and charitable organization, the foundation strives to foster education about the benefits of open source software, provide a central platform for legal professionals to collaborate on open source development projects and distribute open source software under free license to individuals and organizations around the world. To learn more about the Merlin Foundation go to MerlinFoundation.org.

Vicki LaBrosse
Edge Legal Marketing for EDRM
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