Electronic Discovery Law – Page 3 – Legal issues, news and best practices relating to the discovery of electronically stored information.

Celebrating e-Discovery Day: e-Discovery Exchange with Ellen Blanchard

Dec 01 2022

Today we celebrate World e-Discovery Day, an annual industry-wide event for lawyers and legal professionals to highlight the critical role e-discovery plays in our legal systems. To mark this occasion, the K&L Gates e-Discovery Analysis & Technology (“e-DAT”) Group is launching a series of Q&A videos with e-discovery industry veterans. In the first episode in this “e-Discovery Exchange” series, Ellen Blanchard and Julie Anne Halter explore the evolving nature of communication technologies in the hybrid and remote workplaces and their e-discovery implications.

Welcome Back to Ediscoverylaw.com!

Dec 01 2022

The K&L Gates e-Discovery Analysis & Technology (“e-DAT”) Group has spent the last few weeks adding additional content and making a number of revisions and updates to our ediscoverylaw.com website. You’ll see that this website now relies on a blog format, which still allows for identifying particular e-discovery case summaries through keyword searches and category tags. With these changes, we expect that the ediscoverylaw.com website will continue to be a resource and discussion forum for issues related to electronic discovery for years to come.

First Pittsburgh “Under the Wire” CLE Seminar Features Presentation on E-Discovery “Hot Topics”

Nov 18 2022

The Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates recently hosted its first “Under the Wire” CLE seminar on November 15th, 2022. The CLE seminar was the first of a new series of in-person CLE events hosted at the K&L Gates Pittsburgh office.

At the inaugural seminar, Daniel Miller (a partner in our e-Discovery Analysis & Technology (“e-DAT”) practice group) and Laura Veith (an associate focusing on commercial litigation) presented on a number of e-discovery “hot topics.” The presentation emphasized how record preservation and collection efforts must adapt in light of clients’ increasing use of new technologies, including mobile devices and applications present on those devices, ephemeral messaging, and enterprise collaboration platforms, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack.

Attorney Mindfulness When Addressing Emails and Texts: ABA Formal Opinion Provides Ethical Guidance to Lawyers on Electronic Communications

Nov 11 2022

In their roles as advisors, advocates, counselors, negotiators, and client representatives, lawyers communicate extensively though electronic means, particularly email and increasingly text messages. However, the fact that use of these electronic communication tools is commonplace in legal practice doesn’t mean that attorneys shouldn’t exercise caution when crafting their communications. The American Bar Association (“ABA”) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility published a formal opinion this month that advises lawyers to refrain generally from including their clients on emails and texts sent to opposing counsel.

In re Grand Jury: Supreme Court to Consider Attorney-Client Privilege in “Dual-Purpose Communications”

Nov 04 2022

Because of the volumes of information and the complexities of data found in many cases that require extensive electronic discovery, issues related to attorney-client privilege can require significant attention during the document search, review, and production processes for these cases. Addressing attorney-client privilege requires particular nuance when considering “dual-purpose communications,” in which both legal advice and business guidance are discussed. By granting certiorari to hear arguments on In re Grand Jury, 23 F. 4th 1088 (9th Cir. 2022), the US Supreme Court will consider soon a split among federal judicial circuits regarding the test to use when assessing whether attorney-client privilege applies with regard to such “dual-purpose communications.”

Electronic Discovery Institute Article – “The New e-Discovery Wild West: Slack, Teams, Zoom, and Other Collaboration Technologies”

Oct 28 2022

The pandemic has spawned many new and exciting innovations, but many of those innovations have also created new risks. One such risk — and often a very material one — is that employees working at home have created a new “Wild West” of e-discovery and data storage, where pandemic pioneers working in their homestead offices may have inadvertently escaped the well-controlled data storage environment in place in their workplace.

New Data Privacy Considerations Heighten the Need for Attention to Records Management and Information Governance Practices

Oct 21 2022

Information governance and records management are important considerations for all organizations. New data and documents are generated at ever-increasing rates through the normal (and “new normal”) course of business, and these data and documents must be maintained for different periods of time to satisfy their business and legal compliance purposes. With regard to legally-mandated retention requirements, certain business sectors (such as banking institutions, aviation and maritime companies, and businesses operating within the scope of federal Department of Energy regulations) are subject to record retention and reporting obligations that extend beyond those applicable to other types of organizations. Also, there may be insurance, contractual, and other considerations applicable to certain types of records that impact the period of time they should be maintained in the ordinary course of business. Finally, the need to preserve records potentially relevant to known or reasonably anticipated legal proceedings can create additional record preservation burdens on an organization.

K&L Gates Arbitration World Podcast: Virtual Collaboration Tools and their e-Discovery Implications in Arbitration and Litigation

Oct 14 2022

In a recent K&L Gates Arbitration World podcast, Julie Anne Halter (a partner in our Seattle office and co-chair of our e-Discovery Analysis & Technology (“e-DAT”) practice group) and Martin King (a partner in our London office who focuses on international arbitration and complex commercial litigation and disputes) discussed virtual collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams and the e-discovery challenges, opportunities, and pitfalls these tools may present in the context of arbitration and litigation

2023 Best Lawyers in America Recognitions

Oct 07 2022

Congratulations to our very own Julie Anne Halter and Thomas J. Smith, the co-chairs of our e-Discovery Analysis & Techology (“e-DAT”) practice group, and two of more than 270 K&L Gates lawyers named among the 2023 Best Lawyers in America®!

Please see our firm announcement regarding these rankings, as well as our LinkedIn post for more information.