Welcome to the web site of The Maas Consulting Group. We specialise in working with lawyers, IT people and suppliers, negotiating, delivering cost-effective solutions, writing, speaking, listening, hearing, attention to detail, humour, determination, tact and diplomacy, project management, encouraging the best out of people, removing problems, team work and getting things done.
BONG!
(04 January 2021)
©️ 2016-21 | The Maas Consulting Group Ltd
©️ all photographs 2016-21 | Jonathan Maas
Who we are
The Maas Consulting Group is led by Jonathan Maas, a renowned paper and electronic discovery/disclosure veteran with an unparalleled 38 years experience in the field: 27 years in international law firms, seven years in international consultancies and four years leading the Maas Consulting Group. Jonathan speaks and writes on the subject widely and has been involved in developing civil procedure in England & Wales to respond to the modern demands of litigating in the digital age.
Jonathan’s métier is acting as a verbal or written bridge between technical experts and lay people, whether it’s conveying complex technology concepts to a legal audience or explaining matters of detailed legal procedure to IT specialists. He has the ability to unite diverse teams to complete discovery exercises as cost- and time-effectively as possible. In this way he has delivered numerous successful projects for national and international businesses and local and central government. This translates into extremely experienced and empathetic support for lawyers and IT professionals.
His experience of identifying, collecting, classifying and acting on data in the legal environments of investigations and disputes continues to add value in the current environment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Information Governance and preparations for the UK to leave the European Union (BREXIT). Sound and defensible data management is more important in business than it has ever been.
Jonathan has also researched and implemented computer systems in law firms for the purposes of library and know-how management, litigation support, costs budgeting, collaborative working and more.
At a glance, since 1982 Jonathan has worked at:
Hogan Lovells
Simmons & Simmons
The Litigation Support Company
DLA Piper
EY
Huron Legal
Consilio
Maas Consulting Group
This is the home of the BONG! Jonathan regularly sends out a popular daily email alert (see to the right, his “BONG!”) to subscribers, containing brief snippets of interesting and current discovery, GDPR, legal technology and other news. Every weekend The Project Counsel Group sends out curated selections from that week's BONGs to an international distribution list of some 12,000 individuals, from Swiss paralegals to US judges. Also, every month Jonathan distills the more important eDiscovery news from that month's BONGs into a column - "ICYMI" (In Case You Missed It) - for Legal IT Insider, with a brief note putting each selected item into context.
Although based in London Jonathan has set up and managed case teams in Australia, Bermuda, France and Hong Kong.
Click here for information about some example projects from Jonathan's long career.
View Jonathan Maas'
An informal and occasional selection of recent international eDisclosure / eDiscovery / GDPR / legal IT / data protection / information governance / interesting news / articles collated since 2011 by Jonathan Maas of The Maas Consulting Group in London. Simply pick and click from below.
These links are copied from a recent BONG! I BONG! most work days as an email to subscribers: anyone can email Jonathan@MaasConsultingGroup.com to subscribe / unsubscribe. Subscription is free.
Don't forget to visit my BONG! archive. All my BONG! items are available and searchable (via your web browser). Thought you saw it? Now you can search for it!
BONG!
Equipe v Higgins Construction: Disclosure, what’s it really good for? (Hardwicke: Helena White) https://maas-bong.io/357y99n
"Helena White successfully defends an application for disclosure. This short but useful judgment elucidates important aspects of disclosure during protective proceedings and the pandemic."
BONG!
Here we go again? A running listing of eDiscovery events in 2021 (ComplexDiscovery: Rob Robinson) https://maas-bong.io/3pGjyts
"This non-comprehensive planning list highlighting selected eDiscovery-related events, conferences and meetings may be beneficial for individuals and organisations in the eDiscovery ecosystem evaluating sponsorship, support and attendance plans for 2021."
BONG!
Is VR the future of remote meetings? (Technology Magazine: Nigel Cannings [Intelligent Voice]) https://maas-bong.io/2L2qwuf
"If there is one thing that we have all learned from lockdown, it’s that Zoom-type meetings are exhausting. While the theory is the same as your standard team briefing, in practice it leaves you drained. So, while the future of work might be remote, the future of working is not the videoconference of today. But what’s the alternative?"
BONG!
What does the AccessData acquisition mean for the forensics and law enforcement community? (Exterro: Bobby Balachandran) https://maas-bong.io/3rTevrp
"We are not only working to modernise FTK, but we shall also reshape it with the more robust features users have been asking for, while injecting powerful new technology to deliver the future of forensics within the tool you know and trust."
BONG!
PODCAST: Robots in law - How AI is transforming legal services (Lawyers on Fire: Joanna Goodman) https://maas-bong.io/3b7KrlV
"In this year’s Christmas episode, Lawyers on Fire speak with Joanna about business intelligence, artificial intelligence, robots, impact on the legal profession, COVID, lockdowns - looking back on 2020 and ahead into 2021."
BONG!
Five (unforeseeable, predictable and surprising) legal tech trends in 2020 (Above the Law: Jean O'Grady [Dewey B Strategic]) https://maas-bong.io/3b76zwQ
"The momentum of technological change and innovation in 2020 assured a steady stream of new products."
BONG!
The case for client-centric design in law firm technology roadmaps (Legal Evolution: Carlos Gámez, Carly Toward [Thomson Reuters]) https://maas-bong.io/2KYzwAw
"As the legal services market becomes more competitive, law firm strategy - or lack thereof - will have real consequences."
BONG!
Review of civil procedure in 2020 - The opening lines of judgments: Dunnys, unicorns, a requiem, butt shaking and insects (Civil Litigation Brief: Gordon Exall) https://maas-bong.io/3b7rUXe
"This year has been a boom year for the 'opening lines of a judgment' contest. The search has gone international and these opening lines tell us much about the legal world, and life, in 2020. There are so many good ones I have not declared a winner."
BONG!
Legal tech's predictions for eDiscovery in 2021 (Legaltech News: Zach Warren) https://maas-bong.io/3pMvxFR
"No in-person review? No problem. Lawyers and legal technologists make their predictions on how the move to remote work, the proliferation of collaboration platforms and more will affect eDiscovery in 2021."
BONG!
eDiscovery mergers, acquisitions and investments in Q4 2020 (ComplexDiscovery: Rob Robinson) https://maas-bong.io/3pL4VVR
"During Q4 2020 there were at least eight M&A+I events, a pulse rate that exceeded the pre-COVID investment pulse rate of seven events during the same time frame in 2019."
A selection of upcoming and potentially interesting live webinars / webcasts (please check the local times yourself)
12 Jan 1300 EST Digital WarRoom 10.0 - eDiscovery product showcase (ACEDS / Digital WarRoom) https://maas-bong.io/34kJ27F
13 Jan 1700 GMT TAR in the real world: From promise to practicality (HaystackID) https://maas-bong.io/2JIIxgz
13 Jan 1800 GMT Predictive analytics: An agile approach to finding the right tool for your matter (Legility / CHS / Jones Day) https://maas-bong.io/3rhUASN
19 Jan 1200 ET Evolutions in legal project management (CLIF / iManage) https://maas-bong.io/35Bu1iw
20 Jan 1200 UTC The biggest talking points across UK eDiscovery in 2020 (Exterro / Baker McKenzie / Alvarez & Marsal / Stephenson Harwood) https://maas-bong.io/2X8z6dk
21 Jan 1300 EST Product showcase: Keeping an evergreen list of eDiscovery sources (ACEDS / Exterro) https://maas-bong.io/3r4GgNt
26 Jan 1200 ET How is the role of in-house counsel evolving in a crisis? (CLIF / LawyersInHouse) https://maas-bong.io/3f5zEsM
Let me know of any upcoming webinar / webcast you'd like to see included in this list.
By the way, I have noticed that sometimes the links we compile above have registration / paywall information inserted between the referenced site and you. At the time I compose these emails there are no such distractions so I can only assume sites randomly impose registration/payment requirements on links to them. I apologise in advance as my intention is to give you all untrammelled access to this information.
(Incidentally, and for those outside the UK (or in the UK but without televisions), BONG! is a reference to the main evening TV news in the UK, on which headlines are read out between strikes (bongs) of the now-silent Big Ben, the bell in the Elizabeth Tower (renamed from the Clock Tower in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee) at the Palace of Westminster. (You can thank a particularly persistent pedant early on in the life of the BONG! for this rather precise explanation.)