Agenda

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The conference will examine a work-in-progress discovery proportionality benefit-burden model, developed under the center’s auspices by teams  of lawyers and judges. The model’s structured methodology creates a new analytical framework, which is designed to enhance a party’s proportionality assessments, facilitate discovery negotiations with the opposing party, and better inform judicial resolution of discovery disputes. 

The model is a process that classifies custodians and their respective data sources into four broad categories by priority and discovery burden. Custodians with highest priority at lowest discovery burden are quickly identified. Under the model, a table of projected discovery costs for every custodian and every data source is developed to refine proportionality assessments. The model’s assessments can be adjusted periodically to account for evolving and new information learned through interactions and negotiations with opposing party. View an illustrative example of the model’s core features, its “heat map” and table of costs.

The conference will also feature a panel discussing statistical findings demonstrating that discovery that achieves lower recall rates than are now typically required will uncover all topics identified as being relevant in 90%-plus of cases.

Following the conference, the center will continue to refine the model and publish it for public comment. The center will also consider developing best practices promoting the use of the model as a standard proportionality-analysis framework for the bench and bar. Judges and practitioners attending the conference will be given the first opportunity to join teams drafting these influential class-action best practices and guidelines under the center’s auspices with assistance of its Scholars Council.

The conference is held under the Chatham House Rule: "Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), or that of any other participant, may be revealed."

A conference addressing e-discovery case-management practices is expected to be held annually. Experienced practitioners attending the conference will be considered to be invited as panelist speakers for a future discovery conference. The conference is made possible by lawyer conference-registration fees and the generous contributions of sponsors.

Registration

The registration fee is $299. On request, a deeply discounted group deal for up to five individuals is offered at $750.  If you would like to register a group, please email [email protected], and Navis will contact you with the registration template, along with the invoice for the group-registration fee.  Register here.

CLECLE will be applied for in New Jersey. Attorneys will receive a Certificate of Attendance and a completed Uniform Application for Accreditation form after the conference in order to submit CLE hours for your state.  

Thursday, March 25, 2021 [All Times -- Eastern Time Zone]

10 – 11 am: Welcoming Remarks:  Overview of Proportionality Model—A New Framework

11:15 am − 12:45 pm:  Panel 1 - Deep Dive into New Framework: Prioritizing Custodians Possessing Relevant Information (Moderator – Professor Rick Marcus, Hastings Law School) 

1:15 − 2:45 pm: Panel 2 - Deep Dive into New Framework: Ranking Data Sources by Degree of Burden in Accessing Information from Them (Moderator – Associate Dean Alan Morrison, George Washington Law School)

3 – 4:30 pm: Panel 3 - Deep Dive into New Framework: Projecting Discovery Cost for Each Identified Custodian by Data Source (Moderator – Professor Thomas Main, University of Nevada Las Vegas Law School)

Friday, March 26, 2021 [All Times -- Eastern Time Zone]

10 − 11:30 am: Panel 4 - Applying the New Framework to an Individual Case (Moderator – Professor Steven Gensler, University of Oklahoma Law School)

Noon − 1:30 pm: Panel 5 - Foundational Issue for New Framework: Why is 75%-85% Recall Used as the Standard?  (Moderator – Professor William Hubbard, University of Chicago) 

1:45 – 3:15 pm: Panel 6 - Applying the New Framework: Recent Caselaw Decisions and How the New Framework Model Might Have Affected Their Analysis (Moderator – Professor Edward Cooper, University of Michigan Law School)

3:30 – 5 pm: Panel 7 - Counsel Views on New Framework (Moderator – Professor William Hamilton, University of Florida Law School)

Information will be provided soon.

Founding Patron

Premier Patron

Collaborator Sponsor 

James F. Humphreys Complex Litigation Center