Strategic E-Discovery: Taking Steps to Avoid Litigation (PART I)

Jason R. Baron has served since the year 2000 as Director of Litigation for the National Archives and Records Administration, and is an internationally recognized speaker and author on the preservation of electronic records. Between 1988 and 1999, Mr. Baron served as trial attorney and senior counsel at the Department of Justice, defending the government’s interests in complex federal court litigation, including in cases involving the preservation of White House email. He currently represents NARA on the Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Records Retention and Production, where he is a member of the Steering Committee and Editor-in-Chief of the Sedona Best Practices Commentary on the Use of Search and Information Retrieval Methods in E-Discovery, available at www.thesedonaconference.org. He also is a founding co-coordinator of the National Institute of Standards and Technology TREC legal track (see https://trec-legal.umiacs.umd.edu), a multi-year international information retrieval project devoted to evaluating search issues in a legal context, as well as co-organizer of the First and Second International DESI Workshops (Discovery of Electronically Stored Information), held in Palo Alto in 2007, and in London in 2008, bringing together scientists, academics and lawyers to discuss e-discovery issues. Mr. Baron has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia, where he taught cyberspace law, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland’s Graduate College of Information Studies. He also presently serves on the Georgetown University Law Center Advanced E-Discovery Institute Advisory Board. His co-authored article, Information Inflation: Can the Legal System Adapt?, available online at the RICHMOND JOURNAL OF LAW AND TECHNOLOGY, has been widely cited. Among his honors, Mr. Baron was recently named a recipient of the 2008 Fed 100 Award, sponsored by Federal Computer Week, for his e-discovery related advocacy. Mr. Baron received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Wesleyan University, and his J.D. from the Boston University School of Law.

Jeane A. Thomas is Chair of Crowell & Moring’s E-Discovery and Information Management Group and also a partner in the Firm’s Antitrust Group. Ms. Thomas has managed many types of e-discovery matters in both government investigations and civil litigation. She regularly counsels clients on Litigation Readiness Planning, including the development and application of effective document/data retention policies, legal hold protocols , and corporate content and usage policies, as well as e-discovery response plans. Ms. Thomas is a participating member of the Sedona Conference Working Group on E-Discovery, and co-chair of the Working Group's Healthcare Team. She is also a member of the Advisory Board and Faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center Advanced Institute for E-Discovery. She regularly speaks and writes on E-Discovery issues.

Steve Bennett's practice at Jones Day focuses on domestic and international commercial litigation and arbitration, including cases involving bankruptcy, construction, corporate, energy, insurance, intellectual property, securities, and other disputes. Representative clients in recent public matters include: American Electric Power, Bermuda Commercial Bank, B.F. Goodrich, Cablevision, Clark Construction, Cogswell Realty, Continental Airlines, Credit Communal de Belgique, Dana Corp., Dollar Rent A Car, Endesa, Federated Department Stores, Gerhard Schubert GmbH, Harry Winston, IBM, InterContinental Hotels, Loewen Group, Lucent Technologies, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nextel, Parsons Main, PepsiCo, Promethean, R.J. Reynolds, and Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français. 

Steve is chair of the Firm's e-Discovery Committee and a founding member of the Sedona Conference Working Group on International E-Discovery. He also has been an active member of the Firm's construction practice team and is responsible for training litigation associates in the New York Office. He co-teaches a course on advanced civil procedure (e-discovery) at Rutgers Law School and previously taught a course in domestic and international commercial arbitration at Brooklyn Law School and a course on privacy law at Hunter College. He is a member of the Large Case Advisory Committee for the American Arbitration Association and a member of the ADR Subcommittee of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Civil Litigation. 

Steve regularly speaks to a wide array of groups for CLE and other purposes. He has written more than 150 articles on a variety of topics, including: arbitration, bankruptcy, construction contracts, electronic discovery, ethics, insurance, international dispute resolution, mediation, online contracting, privacy, and civil RICO. His book, Arbitration: Essential Concepts (American Lawyer Media) was published in 2002. 

Steve writes a continuing column, "Arbitration," with Professor Samuel Estreicher, which has appeared in the New York Law Journal since 2004, and his continuing professional development column, "Firm Talk," has appeared on NLJ.com since 2004. 

Steve is currently working on a book for Aspatore/West on privacy law and a book for AAA on commercial arbitration rules.

Simon is the Senior Director for the CommVault Information Access & Management business worldwide including Information Risk, eDiscovery, Compliance, Information Search, Archiving, and Data Trend Analysis. Over the last 20 years he has worked for many large multi-national companies in various management roles including business analysis, project management, sales, product marketing and business development. His field of expertise covers a range of topics including business intelligence, data warehousing, application and information management, with over 7 years specific experience in data retention and archiving, working for or with some of the leading companies in this field to gain specialist knowledge in information risk and compliance.