In this episode of The Digital Edge, hosts Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway talk with PayneGroup CEO Donna Payne about ways attorneys can better handle their metadata. Donna reminisces about starting her company in 1998, the client experience that inspired the creation of her Metadata Assistant software, and The Wall Street Journal’s front page article mention that resulted in 150,000 downloads. She analyzes how metadata has changed since she started and provides a list of things, such as track changes and hidden text, that lawyers should be on the lookout for. She states that one of the best things you can do if you can’t afford a third party assistant program is to know what is in the document and use any free options available in your preferred office software suite. Donna closes the interview with an explanation of what exchangeable image file format data is, her checklist of the most common metadata mistakes that lawyers make, and some daily best practices that lawyers can implement to help protect their data.

Donna Payne is the founder and serves as chief executive officer of PayneGroup, Inc. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Project Management Institute. In addition Donna is an original member of the Microsoft Legal Advisory Council. She is a frequent speaker at legal and technical conferences worldwide and has spoken to Congressional committees, the Senate, and at international judicial conferences on the subject of metadata and preventing accidental disclosure.

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