Balancing the Needs of Requesting and Producing Parties: Getting E-Discovery Right

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About the Symposium

In December 2015, sweeping changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure’s discovery-related provisions went into effect with potentially broad implications for how litigants would operate in federal civil cases. The amendments introduced specific changes regarding proportionality in discovery, now requiring discovery to be proportional to the needs of the case and placing renewed emphasis on proportionality factors to be considered by parties and the court. At the time, proponents touted the amendments as potential antidotes for what they asserted was rampant e-discovery abuse and ever-increasing litigation costs, while opponents saw the changes as fundamentally tilting the scales of justice in favor of well-resourced defendants.

Given the importance of these issues to litigation outcomes, and the effectiveness and efficiency of the civil justice system more broadly, the RAND Institute for Civil Justice will bring together leaders in the legal, judicial, academic, and policy communities for a symposium on this topic.

We invite you to review the agenda below and hope you will join us for this 1½ day event. CLE approval is pending.

The registration period for this event has ended. For further information, contact ICJevents@rand.org.

Program

October 3 Panels

PANEL 1: Quantifying the Unquantifiable: How do the Parties, Their Counsel, and the Courts Assess Proportionality?

• Moderator: Oral Pottinger, Partner, Mayer Brown
• George Bellas, Principal and Senior Partner, Bellas & Wachowski Attorneys at Law
• Steve Blonder, Principal, Much Shelist, P.C.
• Hon. Paul W. Grimm, Director, Bolch Judicial Institute; David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law, Duke Law School
• Hon. Beth W. Jantz, Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• Ariana J. Tadler, Founder & Managing Partner, Tadler Law LLP

PANEL 2: Practical Effects of the 2015 Changes

• Moderator: Hon. John M. Facciola, Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown Law School
• Lea Malani Bays, Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
• David Gaston, Assistant General Counsel, Chief of E-Litigation, National Labor Relations Board
• Hon. Kristen Mix, Magistrate Judge (ret.), Judicial Arbiter Group
• John Rosenthal, Partner; Chair, eDiscovery and Information Governance Practice, Winston & Strawn LLP

PANEL 3: The Expense of E-Discovery: What Are the Options for Reducing Costs and Their Impact on Information Exchange?

• Moderator: Nicholas M. Pace, Senior Social Scientist, RAND Corporation
• Hon. Ron Hedges, Principal, Ronald J. Hedges LLC
• Sandra Metallo-Barragan, eDiscovery Counsel, Proskauer Rose LLP
• John T. Nicolaou, Partner, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
• David Perla, Co-Chief Operating Officer, Burford Capital

PANEL 4: ESI Protocols: Promise vs. Reality

• Moderator: Hon. Rukhsanah L. Singh, Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
• Hon. Maria A. Audero, Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
• Douglas Forrest, Senior Vice President, eDiscovery Analytics & Strategy, International Litigation Services
• Megan Jones, Partner, Hausfeld LLP
• Michelle Six, Of Counsel, Gunster

October 4 Panels

PANEL 1: TAR Validation: Science or Fiction?

• Moderator: Phil Favro, Special Master, Innovative Driven
• David Buchanan, Partner, Seeger Weiss LLP
• Bruce Hedin, President and Consultant, Hedin B Consulting
• Robert D. Keeling, Partner, Founder and Head of eDiscovery and Data Analytics Group, Sidley Austin LLP
• Hon. Young B. Kim, Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

PANEL 2: Best Practices and Next Steps

The panelists will draw upon their own knowledge and experience as well as the previous day’s discussions to identify best practices moving forward. This panel will also help RAND identify possible research that will help public and private decisionmakers address the issues that were raised throughout the day.

• Moderator: James Anderson, Director, RAND Institute for Civil Justice
• Robert A. Clifford, Founder and Senior Partner, Clifford Law Offices
• Joy Flowers Conti, Senior District Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• Maura R. Grossman, J.D., Ph.D., Research Professor, School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo; Principal, Maura Grossman Law
• Hon. Iain D. Johnston, District Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

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