Henry Kelston of the Legal Intelligencer provides a useful summary of the amendments to the FRCP that were recently proposed by the United States Courts’ Advisory Committee on Civil Rules.
The rules would seek to create uniformity on a variety of issues including scope and proportionality of discovery, sanctions for failure to preserve discoverable information and limits on written discovery and depositions.
Continue Reading...I attended the Carmel Valley eDiscovery Retreat (CVEDR) two weeks ago, spent last week digging out from under everything that had piled up in my office, so now have a moment to share some thoughts on the event.
First, a big congratulations to Chris LaCour for putting together a successful event. I thought the content was among the best I've seen, especially the panel on defending the use of analytics. ;-) The work product series of panels explored the tension between work product protection and cooperative translucence. As you can imagine, there was some debate on the issue and highlights the need for more practical guidance—if the experts can't agree, what hope does the average practitioner have of walking this tightrope?
eDiscovery Journal's Greg Buckles was an excellent moderator and has written his own summary titled "CVEDR Take II – Monkeys and Magistrates in Monterey." Greg offered us some key takeaways and paraphrased memorable panelist statements. I would like to offer the following unattributed panelist comments or concepts to Greg's list:
There were many more excellent quotes and ideas floated at the conference. Be there next year and hear them all. In the meantime, you can listen to the 2012 Judicial Panel at ESIBytes.
The archetypal cyberweapon, the Stuxnet worm, quietly deactivated itself yesterday. What does this have to do with eDiscovery? Lots.
Not only is this worm and its siblings, Duqu and Flame, fascinating, the information security (infosec) issues have implications for data authenticity. I'll explore data authenticity is a future post, for now here are a couple recent articles on Stuxnet's death.
A few links to recent articles of interest:
Happy Friday!
I recently came across this interesting post summarizing a survey of General Counsel views on eDiscovery: 2012 Study of Global 250 General Counsel on eDiscovery. A few of the survey's findings perplex me.
Top Concerns Over the Next 12 Months: Outside Counsel Not Providing Adequate Support for eDiscovery Requirements = 63%
Top Frustrations Over the Past 12 Months: Outside Counsel Not Providing Adequate Support for eDiscovery Requirements = 75%
Top Pet Peeves Over the Past 12 Months: Outside Counsel's refusal to take responsibility on eDiscovery = 50%
Have these GCs been unable to find outside counsel that has an eDiscovery practice group? I see "Electronic Discovery and Information Governance" practice groups popping up like weeds, so it seems like they would be easy to find. Firms are falling all over themselves to woo GC's with their eDiscovery prowess, so why are so many unhappy with their outside counsel's eDiscovery services?
Perhaps they have hired firms who claimed to be eDiscovery experts but turned out to be otherwise? That's possible and quite frustrating to those of us who dedicate ourselves to the practice of eDiscovery instead of just using it as a marketing angle. It seems there are those who think they can simply read the Zubulake opinions, pay the Sedona Conference© Working Group Series℠ membership fee, and declare themselves eDiscovery experts.
If your outside counsel isn't providing quality eDiscovery services, find new outside counsel.
A few links to recent articles of interest:
Enjoy!
From the Delaware Federal Bar Executive Committee:
The Delaware Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, in conjunction with the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, is pleased to announce another exciting new initiative. On the evenings of Thursday, May 17 and Thursday, May 31, 2012, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., the District Court and FBA will sponsor a two-night seminar program entitled “The Federal Trial Practice Seminar Presents: An Introduction to Federal Practice in the District of Delaware.” The sessions will take place in Courtroom 2B at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building.
Attorneys who have been practicing in the District for three years or less are eligible to participate in this seminar. One of the two seminar sessions will relate to an attorney’s interaction with opposing counsel and participation in the litigation process, while the other session will focus on an attorney’s interaction with the Court. Each session will include a presentation from a speaker and a panel discussion. The speakers and panel members will be current and/or former judges of the District Court.
Participation is limited to FBA members. Current FBA members may register for the seminar by contacting Steve Brauerman via e-mail at sbrauerman@bayardlaw.com, by no later than May 14, 2012. Those interested in participating in the seminar who are not currently FBA members may fill out and submit the attached application form in order to become a member. Alternatively, they may contact Mr. Brauerman at the e-mail address listed above to obtain additional information about FBA membership.
Space for the seminar is limited and applicants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants should be available to attend both sessions. Admission to the seminar is free and the FBA expects to apply for Continuing Legal Education credit in Delaware for both sessions.
The "Introduction to Federal Practice" seminar will be organized by the same administrative team that has organized our successful "Federal Trial Practice Seminar" (or "FTPS") in 2010 and 2011. The FTPS, an eight-week trial skills seminar program offered to attorneys in their first ten years of practice, will be next offered again in Spring 2013.
UPDATE:
Apparently I am the only one who seems to be concerned with the Court of Chancery's unqualified allowance for parties to agree to forgo discovery of ESI. Here are the other blog posts I found that have reported on the new guidelines, not a single one raises any concern:
Delaware Court of Chancery Provides Good Advice on Preservation (Losey)
Court of Chancery Issues Guidelines for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (Brady)
Delaware’s influential Chancery Court issues preservation guidelines likely to have wide impact
Delaware Court of Chancery Issues Guidelines for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information
Delaware Court of Chancery Recently Established Guidelines for Preservation of ESI
ORIGINAL POST:
Last week, the Delaware Court of Chancery—one of the nation's premier business Courts—unexpectedly issued a one and a half page "Guidelines for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information." Surprisingly, the Guidelines seem to allow parties to opt-out of document discovery entirely (see the last item below). In summary, the Guidelines are as follows:
I am very interested to hear comments on this development.
Morris James is pleased to congratulate the lawyers listed below who were the most recommended by their professional peers, as determined by a Delaware Today survey of Delaware attorneys.
Gretchen S. Knight
Divorce
Family Law
Mary M. Culley
Elder Law
Keith E. Donovan
Personal Injury
(Dover Office)
Jill S. Di Sciullo
Family Law
To view the entire list of "Top Lawyers", please click here.
We are very pleased to receive this honor from the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce," said David H. Williams, Managing Partner of Morris James LLP, "Our firm is deeply rooted in Delaware and we are committed to providing our community with top-tier legal services.”
The Marvin S. Gilman Superstars in Business Award, named for one of Delaware’s leading small business entrepreneurs, honors businesses and non-profit corporations for their outstanding achievements and model approaches to business and management. The awards are presented to companies that have been in business for at least three years, are small businesses based on number of employees, and are members of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. Awards of Excellence are also granted to deserving companies.
Continue Reading...I am honored to be a co-panelist with Richard Baer of Qwest Communications, in a LexisNexis® webinar tomorrow, Thursday, September 23, from 2-3 pm EST. Rich is Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel for Qwest, and we will be discussing best practices for managing discovery in-house.
Here is a short summary from the webinar's website:
If your law department is under pressure to control rising costs associated with discovery, you’re not alone. In an average case, discovery expenses now represent 50% of total litigation costs—and in some cases up to 90%.
In this free Webinar, we’ve paired in-house counsel Richard Baer of Qwest Communications and outside counsel Chris Spizzirri of Morris James LLP—two professionals who are expert at minimizing the burden and costs associated with discovery. Register today to discover best practices for:
- Creating and implementing policies and procedures to streamline every phase of discovery, from preservation efforts to document production
- Utilizing technology to organize and deal with large volumes of data
- Assembling and managing response and discovery teams including internal staff, outside counsel, contract attorneys and non-attorneys
- And more strategies and tactics
Please Register now and join us for an informative session.
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For more information concerning any of these cases, contact: Richard K. Herrmann Partner at rherrmann@morrisjames.com or T: 302.888.6816
F: 302.571.1750
