A group of lawyers from Gibson Dunn’s Electronic Discovery and Information Law practice group launched the first publication in a planned ten-part series entitled “E-Discovery Basics.” The first publication, “Why Should I Care About E-Discovery?” went out yesterday and discussed how, despite the fact that most lawyers have little interest in learning anything about the topic, e-discovery has become too important and too intertwined in the legal process, that it is simply an area that in-house and outside lawyers need to understand. The trio of Gareth Evans (Partner, Los Angeles), Jennifer H. Rearden (Partner, New York) and Farrah Pepper (Of Counsel, New York) kick off the series by advising in-house and outside lawyers that just like death and taxes, “electronic discovery is unavoidable in an era in which virtually all business information and communications are digital.”
I contacted Gareth Evans by email and asked what the genesis was behind creating a series on e-discovery basics. Evans responded that he had discussions with in-house lawyers who wanted to learn more about e-discovery, but most simply “do not have a lot of time available” to devote to learning the topic, “and in many cases do not know where to start.” Gibson Dunn has published numerous mid-year and year-end reports, and client alerts that discuss e-discovery topics, but those seemed to focus on changes in the overall e-discovery topic, but didn’t create a good starting point for someone that may not have a solid grasp of the subject. Evans told me that his team “had not seen anywhere an easily accessible and comprehensive overview of all aspects of e-discovery” could be found, “so we decided to put together this series.”
The series is scheduled to go out on a regular basis over the next few months and cover the following topics:
- The E-Discovery Life Cycle
- Litigation Preparedness
- Legal Holds
- Preservation
- Collection
- Processing and Review
- Production
- Admissibility
- Cross-Border Discovery Challenges
Evans said that the “intended audience is primarily in-house lawyers and compliance personnel,” but they are hoping that it will have a much wider appeal. “[W]e hope that these pieces will be valuable to anyone interested in learning about e-discovery.” The Marketing team at Gibson Dunn will be sending out the “E-Discovery Basics” updates to their clients and others as well as posting them on the practice group’s web page.
For those of you that have been asking for a primer on e-discovery, it looks like the E-Discovery practice group at Gibson Dunn is stepping up to fill that need. If you want to sign up to receive future installments of the “E-Discovery Basics” publications, you can send an email to clients@gibsondunn.com, with the subject line “SUBSCRIBE to E-Discovery Updates”.