State vs. Federal e-Discovery Rules – Lessons Learned in 2008

Duration: 60 minutes

With another year under the amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure coming to a close, state rule makers are considering whether or not to amend their own rules to conform. Nineteen states have now incorporated e-discovery provisions in their general civil procedure codes or have modified specialized rules for their business courts, and at least five other states have new provisions pending in 2009. Tom Allman, a prominent voice in the legal community on e-discovery rules, along with Fios' Mary Mack, provide a review of what states are doing – or not doing – about procedural rules for e-discovery. They discuss:

• The extent to which states have adopted their own counterparts to the amended FRCP in the past two years, and the similarities, inconsistencies and differences among states’ efforts;
• The California governor’s recent veto of a bill containing new e-discovery provisions and what we can expect in 2009 in California, New York and elsewhere;
• The debate over whether the amended FRCP have been successful in addressing e-discovery problems

Faculty:

Thomas Y. Allman, Esq., Attorney at Law,

Tom Allman served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of BASF Corporation from 1993 to 2004 and subsequently as Senior Counsel to Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, LLP. He was an early advocate of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to achieve e-discovery reform and a leader in the formulation of the Sedona Principles. He currently co-chairs the E-Discovery Committee of the Lawyers for Civil Justice and serves on the Steering Committee of the Sedona Conference® Working Group One and on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown Law Center Advanced E-discovery Institute. He is an Editor of the Sedona Principles (Second Edition) and writes and speaks widely on e-discovery, corporate compliance and information management. Mr. Allman resides in Cincinnati and New York City and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Mary Mack, Esq. (moderator), Corporate Technology Counsel, Fios, Inc.

biographical information

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