E-Discovery of Databases – Plaintiff’s and Defendant’s Perspectives

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Listen to an all-star panel of lawyers and technologists moderated by Karl Schieneman, Director of Legal Analytics and Review with JurInnov. On this show we have Karin Roberts from Hall Render a defense oriented law firm in Indianapolis, Indiana, Keith Altman from Finkelstein & Partners, a national plaintiff law firm based in Newburgh NY and Conrad Jacoby, a founder of efficientEDD and a former outside lawyer based in Washington, DC joining us on our show to talk about how to deal with database Electronically Stored Information in E-Discovery. This is an area with a good deal of complexity but database information can often reveal a substantial amount of information in a case. However, how to get at that information can be fairly complex.

Now, let me introduce the panelists: Karin Roberts has over 12 years of electronic discovery and litigation experience at law firms and in-house legal departments. She is currently a litigation support specialist at Hall Render Killian Heath and Lyman in Indianapolis, Indiana. Prior to joining Hall Render, Karin was the Corporate Electronic Discovery Coordinator for Eli Lilly & Co., developing records management and electronic discovery best practices as well as managing large scale electronic discovery projects. She is a frequent speaker and active in the litigation support industry through her memberships of The Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production (WG1), International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), the Association of Litigation Support Professionals (ALSP), and Women in eDiscovery (WiE).

Keith Altman is an attorney with Finkelstein & Partners Mass Tort Department and specializes in pharmaceutical litigation. After consulting on several major pharmaceutical litigations since 1996, Keith was admitted to the Bar of California in 2008. Keith is also an expert in electronic discovery and is the founder of the American Association of Justice Electronic Discovery Litigation Group. He is also a member of Working Group One of the Sedona Conference on electronic discovery and is a member of several drafting teams. Keith has lectured throughout the United States on electronic discovery issues. Keith has a B.S., Magna cum Laude in Astronomy/Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. While there, he worked on several research projects as well as a lab conducting experiments in quantum electronics. Keith has done extensive software development for data analysis and litigation support tools.

Conrad Jacoby, founder of efficientEDD, is an attorney and consultant whose practice focuses on technology and its intersection with the law. Over the course of his legal career, he has assisted pharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturers, petroleum companies and engineers, and several pioneering internet-based companies in transactional, intellectual property, and litigation matters. He is active in the legal community, serving as Founding Chair of the E-Discovery Committee of the District of Columbia Bar Association Litigation Section, Chair of the DC Bar’s Listserv and Electronic Communications Task Force, and as a member of the Defense Research Institute’s Technology Committee. He has served on the editorial board of the Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production. Mr. Jacoby is a frequent speaker on e-discovery, litigation support, and information management topics. He lectures both in the United States and abroad on topics concerning information management and technology. His articles have appeared in numerous national publications, including Law Technology News, e-Discovery Law & Strategy, For the Defense, and online at law.com and llrx.com, where he contributes a monthly E-Discovery Update.

What is unique about this show is it can turn into a bit of a debate because we have both plaintiff and defense oriented experts on this show. From both perspectives we will try to cover when database information can be useful to a case, how to get at it, what the challenges seem to be, the process of preserving, collecting and reviewing database ESI, proportionality concerns, where to find good database E-discovery experts, and what developments we see in the database field related to electronic discovery. This should be a very interesting show.

Recorded 10/23/2009