For well over a decade, the E-Discovery and Information Management attorneys at Eckert Seamans have successfully guided clients through the ever-changing landscape of document production in litigation. The demands of e-discovery on businesses involved in litigation have increased in recent years due to advancements in technology as well as changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governing the production of electronically stored information (“ESI”). Technology has allowed more information to be created and stored in more ways on more types of devices. As a result, businesses are exposed to increasing legal risks and costs in identifying, preserving, collecting, reviewing and producing massive amounts of ESI. The attorneys at Eckert Seamans represent clients in all types of litigation and pre-litigation matters. Our experience in e-discovery is broadly based, having reviewed and produced over hundreds of millions of documents and thousands of databases, media files, and other data repositories.

Information Management

We counsel clients on information and risk management by providing a wide range of pre-litigation services so that when litigation arises, the electronically stored information can be identified, properly preserved and produced without undue delay, effort and expense. These services include:

• Review existing document and information management plans including the evaluation of document retention and litigation hold policies;
• Develop, refine and assist in implementing sound record retention policies, information management plans and litigation hold policies and notices;
• Provide training programs for clients seeking assistance with the identification and proper preservation of documents and electronic information;
• Recommend automated data protections and advise clients on record management contracts and vendors.

Electronic Document Review

Eckert Seamans has extensive experience in a broad range of matters involving electronic document review and discovery including: pharmaceutical mass tort litigation; class actions and multi-district litigation regarding alleged deceptive marketing and sales practices, wage and employment claims, and securities issues; litigation and investigations initiated by government agencies such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, state attorneys general; as well as internal investigations and third party subpoenas. Our E-Discovery attorneys have utilized many of the available ESI processing and hosting vendors and with this experience Eckert Seamans counsels our clients on selection of the appropriate vendor for the review project. We have the expertise to produce documents in discovery of all sizes including multi-million page document productions and we have the practical know-how to complete such projects in a timely, efficient and cost-effective manner. Electronic document review services include the following:

• Review by experienced attorney reviewers including bi-lingual and multi-lingual reviewers for the evaluation of foreign language documents;
• Assessment of relevance, confidentiality and document properties, objective, subjective and key issues coding;
• Dedicated privilege review and preparation of privilege logs;
• Quality control prior to production.

E-Discovery Counsel

Eckert Seamans serves as e-discovery counsel for multiple US and foreign companies in mass tort litigations and has primary responsibility for:

• Preservation and collection of documents and electronically stored information;
• Development and negotiation of discovery-related and other Case Management Orders;
• Investigation and preparation of responses to written discovery;
• Document/ESI review and production;
• Creation of deposition preparation and key issue files, chronologies and trial modules.