The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require that companies be prepared to discuss the location and accessibility of potentially relevant electronically stored information (ESI) shortly after litigation begins. Discovery rules and recent case law require the quick and effective imposition of a litigation hold once a triggering event occurs and litigation is reasonably foreseeable. This presents numerous challenges for large companies that are generating voluminous amounts of documents and emails. Litigation has also become increasingly expensive and is only increasing in the areas of intellectual property, products liability, employment, securities and M&A.
In this challenging economic environment, how can you mitigate and reduce eDiscovery risks? What is the best way to manage and reduce eDiscovery costs? How do you leverage existing and implement new technologies to achieve discovery objectives? In this CLE course DTI Associate General Counsel Jeff Jacobs will answer these key questions and provide points on how to reduce discovery costs and risks through litigation readiness. The main topics addressed by Mr. Jacobs include case law & rule evolution, proactively addressing the eDiscovery challenge, records retention & policy review, eDiscovery process development, litigation holds and risk & cost mitigation. Additional topics include why eDiscovery matters, discovery sanctions, judicial intolerance for poor eDiscovery, critical sanction cases, the EDRM (Electronic Discovery Reference Model), finding the relevant information, ESI assessment, saving costs through effective retention & disposition, what judges want, the development of an effective litigation discovery response plan and the creation of a targeted data map.
Jeff Jacobs is the General Counsel and Senior Consultant for DTI. For the past five years he has advised clients on litigation readiness, email & records retention and the planning & execution of electronic discovery matters. Prior to joining DTI, Jeff spent seven years as an Associate Litigation Counsel at MCI/WorldCom, where he managed the electronic discovery associated with the government investigations of the WorldCom accounting fraud, related securities class actions and other litigation and the acquisition of MCI by Verizon. He also served as counsel to the company’s Records and Information Management group and managed the subpoena compliance unit. Before MCI, he was a Special Counsel in the litigation group of Sullivan & Cromwell?s Washington, DC office. Jeff is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Chicago Law School and was in the first class of candidates to qualify as a certified electronic discovery specialist by the Association of Electronic Discovery Specialists (ACEDS).