(photo courtesy of Chris Dale)
6 October 2018 (Rome, Italy) — Nigel Murray was at the forefront of the litigation support and eDisclosure industry in the UK since 1991. He managed the first eDisclosure project to go before a UK court in the early 2000’s and helped facilitate the development of the industry within the major law firms in the UK, mainland Europe and the Middle East. But he was an intensely private man. The brain cancer that had plagued him for two years (and claimed him this past Wednesday) was known only to a small circle of friends.
I did not know Nigel to the extent he was known by so many in the eDiscovery/eDisclosure world (as Jonathan Maas points out in his tribute below “there was only one Nigel in the eDiscovery world: the legend, like Prince, required no surname”). But Nigel made significant impacts on my professional life which I will get to in a minute. First, tributes from three others who knew him very well:
Craig Ball perhaps said it best: “Nigel was a soldier, a gentleman and a rascal in the best sense of each. To lift a glass with Nigel at events here and abroad to discuss the state of e-disclosure was always a pleasure”. And Craig goes on to say something that pinged my heart: “Nigel’s scope was constrained by his illness, but he never let it define him”. You can read Craig’s full tribute by clicking here.
Chris Dale (who took the iconic photo above) has a delightful tribute to Nigel and his long association with him, noting “we made trips together to try and bring electronic disclosure to the north of England, staying in rural Yorkshire pubs en route to Leeds and Newcastle, where blank incomprehension greeted our efforts”. I can only think the world has been robbed of an interesting film remake of the traveling The Odd Couple. You can read Chris’ moving tribute by clicking here.
Jonathan Maas also has a personal touch in his tribute, noting “we always seemed to be lunching together at the moment when defining events happened in our personal or professional worlds”. Jonathan’s story about Nigel taking over a project (“lock, stock and smoking barrel”) thereby saving a client an enormous amount of difficulty and money is priceless. And classic Nigel. You can read Jonathan’s tribute with other Nigel “war stories” by clicking here.
Me? I met Nigel in 2005 through Paul Mankoo. I had moved to Brussels (lock, stock and barrel) in 2005. My e-discovery/legal technology job posting service (The Posse List) was going great guns in North America but I was not getting any traction in the UK or the rest of Europe. Nigel made some introductions to law firms and legal vendors and within a few months several UK-based firms and vendors were using my job service, and also referring me on to their Continental Europe colleagues. Nigel also let me use his Trilantic offices whenever I was in London. I am forever thankful.
And he encouraged my writing (he read every post and often emailed me critiques) and became one of my biggest fans. And he often chided me with “that was way too long … but I read it anyway” 🙂
But he also impacted another of my pursuits. I have a company that staffs eDiscovery/eDisclosure document reviews, as well as data collection/data extraction, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I assisted him on two such projects in Dubai and Oman. We talked about doing “extreme discovery” projects — data collection/data investigation in extreme environments in such places as Cote d’Ivoire, Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Syria where there was a big need. It was he that recommended me for a “data extraction” project in 2006 on behalf of an oil services company that sent me to Cote d’Ivoire for two weeks. It was somewhat dangerous but quite exhilarating. A few years later he referred me to a project in Moscow.
Two years ago I did another “extreme discovery” project in Iraq and I told him about it and he urged me to do a blog post because it would be of help and interest to our industry. Alas, I never found the time. Nigel, that post will be out shortly and I will include many of the thoughts you had.
You will not remember how much money you made throughout your career. However, you will remember every single person that graciously opened a career door for you. Opening doors for others is important and meaningful work. Thank you, Nigel.
I will leave you with a video interview we did in 2015 at the LawTech Europe Congress. Nigel explains what information governance really means … bringing together five disciplines … and he provides some great inside on contract management. I must note that the night before the interview we were all out until 3am at my neighborhood bar in Brussels. We then shot this video next day at 10am. Two people arrived for the interview, one incredibly energetic and full of life. The other one was somewhat worse for wear. You can guess who was who:
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