Ninety percent of corporate communications and data are no longer printed. As a result, the recovery and production of Electronically Stored Information has become one of the most expensive stages of commercial litigation. It is not unusual for ESI discovery and attendant disputes to overwhelm the litigation itself.
The court mechanisms for handling such disputes are often inadequate. Meet and confer conferences only work if all parties are aware of the range of ESI discovery options and are willing to compromise without prodding. Motion practice is inefficient and requires briefing and argument, resulting in delays in the discovery process and significantly increased costs.
As a former co-chair of a large firm’s Electronic Discovery Practice Group and a Fellow of the Academy of E-neutrals, I have the training and practical experience help parties focus their efforts on the most relevant document custodians, work with them on jointly developing production protocols, and negotiating solutions to their production conflicts. All of these efforts are aimed at assisting the parties in getting the information relevant to their cases, while keeping the costs proportionate the amounts in dispute. With permission of the court, I can serve as a special master to resolve the issues in a quicker manner than litigants can expect from an overburdened judge.
My articles on Electronic Discovery and presentations are more fully described in my full resume.