| Time |
Session |
Panelists |
| (All times EDT) |
Wednesday, October 26, 2022 |
* = moderator |
| 5:30 — 7:30 p.m. |
Welcome reception |
|
| |
Thursday, October 27, 2022 |
|
| 7:30 — 8:30 a.m. |
Breakfast & sign-in |
|
| 8:30 — 8:45 a.m. |
Welcome and Announcements |
Craig Weinlein, Martin Tully |
| 8:45 — 10:15 a.m. |
[Session 1] Case Law Review: Key Trends and Developments from 2022 |
|
| |
2022 has seen hundreds of new cases involving issues with eDiscovery and ESI. Key topics run the gamut from ESI protocols and privilege logs to Rule 34 productions, cooperation, and sanctions. This session will examine some of the most significant ESI court decisions from the past six months on these and other issues and explore how they may affect discovery practice going forward in 2023. |
Suzanne Clark, Phil Favro*, Hon. Gene Pratter, Meghan Podolny |
| 10:15 — 10:30 a.m. |
Morning Break |
|
| 10:30 — 11:15 a.m. |
[Session 2] Draft Commentary Review: Database Principles |
|
| |
WG1 last updated The Sedona Database Principles in 2014 to reflect current best practices and recommendations for eDiscovery in civil actions involving databases and information derived from databases. Since then the use and importance of cloud databases has significantly increased bringing new discovery challenges. This session will preview the member comment draft of the updated guidance. |
Laura Hunt*, Gregg Parker, Jonathan Swerdloff |
| 11:15 a.m. — noon |
[Session 3] Federal Civil Rules Update with Guest Speaker, the Hon. Robert M. Dow, Jr., Chair, Advisory Committee on Civil Rules |
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| |
The Honorable Robert M. Dow, Jr. of the Northern District of Illinois, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, will discuss the work of the Committee in considering and proposing new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. |
Hon. Robert M. Dow Jr., Ross Gotler* |
| 12:00 — 1:00 p.m. |
Lunch (provided) |
|
| 1:00 — 2:00 p.m. |
[Session 4] Defining a "Document" for ESI in Modern Collaboration Platforms |
|
| |
Collaboration platforms like Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace are prompting reevaluation of how relevant data should be handled in eDiscovery. The complex layers of these applications—including short messaging, document sharing and versioning, links, and more—present new challenges for all phases of discovery. The dialogue leaders will discuss and elicit membership feedback on the status and direction of the Evolution of Documents Brainstorming Group for these issues. |
Andrea D'Ambra, Tara Emory*, Hon. Jane Manning, Emily McIntosh, Josh Samra |
| 2:00 — 3:00 p.m. |
[Session 5] Mental Health Challenges in eDiscovery: What We Know and How We Can Help |
|
| |
The eDiscovery industry is not immune from the mental health crisis plaguing the legal industry. Increased awareness and support resources for mental health do not seem to be enough to stem the tide. This panel will explore the root causes of mental health challenges in our industry and how we can best solve for them. It will also discuss what is and isn't working and introduce the Mind-Budget Connection initiative, which was started by a group of attorneys and researchers and seeks to reverse this downward mental health trend in eDiscovery by examining the relationship between contractual relationships and mental health in the industry. |
Candace Beck, Kevin Brady*, Jill Rorem, Amy Sellars |
| 3:00 — 3:30 p.m. |
Afternoon Break |
|
| 3:30 — 4:30 p.m. |
[Session 6] Draft Outline Review: Commentary on Discovery-Related Sanctions |
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| |
The Sedona Conference has undertaken a paper focusing on the application of discovery-related sanctions. Following the Midyear Meeting, the Drafting Team has worked on incorporating the membership’s feedback and will discuss the paper’s current outline and elicit feedback from the membership on same. |
Hon. Iain Johnston, Robert Keeling, Jeannine Kenney, Eric Mandel, Kelly McNabb* |
| 4:30 — 5:00 p.m. |
[Session 7] Draft Commentary Review: eDiscovery in Small Cases |
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| |
It is time to revisit the Small Cases Primer. A lot has changed in the past couple years, yet there is still a need for guidance on how to handle ESI in small cases. Practitioners and jurists alike continue to express interest in more pragmatic, day-to-day eDiscovery advice for the majority of cases that are modest in scope and often litigated in state courts. This session is dedicated to a review of the latest version of the Small Cases Primer and how the best practices memorialized in various WG1 publications can be adapted to more routine and smaller-scale matters. This session will also address various low- or no-cost tools, tips, and tricks that practitioners can utilize to achieve best practices while staying true to principles of proportionality. |
Hon. Jerome Abrams, Kimberly Duplechain, Tara Emory, Greg Kohn*, Michael Scimone |
| 5:00 — 7:00 p.m. |
Reception (guests invited) |
|
| |
Friday, October 28, 2022 |
|
| 7:30 — 8:30 a.m. |
Breakfast & sign-in |
|
| 8:30 — 10:00 a.m. |
[Session 8] Voices from the Bench: The Judicial Perspective for 2022 and Beyond |
| |
This session offers a variety of judicial perspectives about issues that are trending in the field, including:
- Ethical obligations regarding eDiscovery competence – with 40 states having adopted some form of technological competence requirement, is attorney competence in eDiscovery improving?
- Is the proliferation of cloud services and syncing of data across systems making preservation easier or more problematic?
- What is and isn’t working for ESI protocols?
- Sanctions beyond 37(e) – what additional remedies are available for misconduct that doesn’t fit within the scope of FRCP 37(e)?
- Is ephemeral messaging generally viewed with suspicion by courts?
|
Hon. Jerome Abrams, Hon. Michael Baylson, Hon. Robert Dow Jr., Hon. Iain Johnston, Hon. Jane Manning, Claudia Morgan*, Hon. Katharine Parker, Hon. Gene Pratter, Hon. Cynthia Rufe |
| 10:00 — 10:15 a.m. |
Break |
|
| 10:15 — 11:00 a.m. |
[Session 9] Brainstorming Group Report: Unique eDiscovery Challenges in Multidistrict Litigation |
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| |
Multidistrict Litigations (MDLs) are the 800-pound gorilla in federal courts, requiring creativity in case management, including discovery mechanisms. The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules created an MDL subcommittee in August 2017 to examine, among other things, unique aspects of discovery in MDL proceedings. A Sedona WG1 Brainstorming Team was formed after the 2022 Midyear Meeting to explore the challenges and best practices regarding eDiscovery in MDL. This panel will discuss the Brainstorming Team’s recommendations on this topic and next steps. |
Hon. Michael Baylson, Gilbert Keteltas*, Beena McDonald, Hon. Cynthia Rufe, Jodi Munn Schebel |
| 11:00 — 11:30 a.m. |
[Session 10] The State of Working Group 1 |
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| |
We will discuss recent publications of WG1 and papers currently in the publication process, and dialogue on the evolving state of the industry and where WG1 should be focusing its publishing and thought-leadership efforts over the next 24 months. |
Martin Tully |
| 11:30 — 11:45 a.m. |
Break |
|
| 11:45 — 12:45 p.m. |
[Session 11] Stranger Things in eDiscovery: Ethical Challenges and Considerations for Discovery of New and Changing Technologies |
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| |
Lawyers face an ever-changing landscape of complex technological and legal issues as new technologies create new sources of ESI and new eDiscovery tools. Current challenges include vast volumes of ESI generated by mobile devices, ephemeral messaging apps, collaboration platforms, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence. This panel of ethics and eDiscovery experts will explore the benefits and risks associated with various technologies and provide guidance on evolving duty of technological competence. |
Vince Carnevale, Kimberly Duplechain*, Shauna Itri, Carol Stainbrook, Hon. Katharine Parker |
| 12:45 — 1:00 p.m. |
Closing remarks and wrap-up |
Craig Weinlein |
| 1:00 p.m. |
Adjournment & Grab-and-go lunch (provided) |
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