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The Sedona Conference Working Group 1 Annual Meeting 2022

Date
-
Location

Philadelphia, PA
United States

Venue: The Bellevue Hotel, 200 South Broad Street

The 2022 Annual Meeting of The Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production (WG1) will be held at The Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, PA, on Thursday, October 27, and Friday, October 28. A welcome reception will precede the meeting on Wednesday, October 26, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Join us in Philadelphia to dialogue on the latest work product from WG1 and hot-button topics in the electronic discovery field. We will be joined by U.S. District Judges Robert Dow and Iain Johnston of the Northern District of Illinois, and Michael Baylson, Gene Pratter, and Cynthia Rufe of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker of the Southern District of New York; and State Court Judges Jerome Abrams of Minnesota and Jane Manning of Georgia.

Judge Dow, chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, has graciously accepted an invitation to discuss recent activity of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. 

The full agenda will include the following sessions:

  • ESI Case Law Review: Key Trends and Developments from 2022
  • Voices from the Bench: The Judicial Perspective for 2022 and Beyond
  • Federal Civil Rules Update with Guest Speaker, The Hon. Robert M. Dow Jr. 
  • Mental Health Challenges in eDiscovery: What We Know and How We Can Help
  • Stranger Things in eDiscovery: Ethical Challenges and Considerations for Discovery of New and Changing Technologies
  • Draft Commentary Review: Database Principles
  • Draft Commentary Review: eDiscovery in Small Cases
  • Draft Outline Review: Commentary on Discovery-Related Sanctions
  • Brainstorming Group Report: Unique eDiscovery Challenges in Multidistrict Litigation
  • Brainstorming Group Report: Defining a "Document" for ESI in Modern Collaboration Platforms
  • The State of Working Group 1

Further details on the agenda and dialogue leaders will be announced in the coming weeks.

CLE:

We will seek CLE accreditation for this event in selected jurisdictions as dictated by attendance.

Hotel information:

We have obtained a very favorable room rate of $259 at The Bellevue for a limited block of rooms on the evenings of October 26-27.  This room block expires on October 4. After that date, rooms are subject to availability.  Reservation information will be provided in your meeting registration confirmation email.

We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia!

Hastings, MN, USA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Washington, DC, USA
Herndon, VA, USA
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Montgomery, AL, USA
New York, NY, USA
Chicago, IL, USA
Washington, DC, USA
Chantilly, VA, USA
Alpine, UT, USA
New York, NY, USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Rockford, IL, USA
Washington, DC, USA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Washington, DC, USA
Roseland, NJ, USA
Minnetonka, MN, USA
Marietta, GA, USA
Haverford, PA, USA
Dallas, TX, USA
New York, NY, USA
New York, NY, USA
New York, NY, USA
Arlington, VA, USA
Richmond, VA, USA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Chicago, IL, USA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Oakland, CA, USA
New York, NY, USA
Somerset, VA, USA
Minnetonka, MN, USA
New York, NY
Chicago, IL, USA
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Time Session  Panelists
(All times EDT) Wednesday, October 26, 2022  * = moderator
5:30 — 7:30 p.m. Welcome reception  
  Thursday, October 27, 2022  
7:30 — 8:30 a.m. Breakfast & sign-in  
8:30 — 8:45 a.m. Welcome and Announcements Craig Weinlein, Martin Tully
8:45 — 10:15 a.m. [Session 1] Case Law Review: Key Trends and Developments from 2022  
  2022 has seen hundreds of new cases involving issues with eDiscovery and ESI. Key topics run the gamut from ESI protocols and privilege logs to Rule 34 productions, cooperation, and sanctions. This session will examine some of the most significant ESI court decisions from the past six months on these and other issues and explore how they may affect discovery practice going forward in 2023. Suzanne Clark, Phil Favro*, Hon. Gene Pratter, Meghan Podolny
10:15 — 10:30 a.m. Morning Break  
10:30 — 11:15 a.m. [Session 2] Draft Commentary Review: Database Principles  
  WG1 last updated The Sedona Database Principles in 2014 to reflect current best practices and recommendations for eDiscovery in civil actions involving databases and information derived from databases. Since then the use and importance of cloud databases has significantly increased bringing new discovery challenges. This session will preview the member comment draft of the updated guidance. Laura Hunt*, Gregg Parker, Jonathan Swerdloff
11:15 a.m. — noon [Session 3] Federal Civil Rules Update with Guest Speaker, the Hon. Robert M. Dow, Jr., Chair, Advisory Committee on Civil Rules  
  The Honorable Robert M. Dow, Jr. of the Northern District of Illinois, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, will discuss the work of the Committee in considering and proposing new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Hon. Robert M. Dow Jr., Ross Gotler*
12:00 — 1:00 p.m. Lunch (provided)  
1:00 — 2:00 p.m. [Session 4] Defining a "Document" for ESI in Modern Collaboration Platforms  
  Collaboration platforms like Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace are prompting reevaluation of how relevant data should be handled in eDiscovery. The complex layers of these applications—including short messaging, document sharing and versioning, links, and more—present new challenges for all phases of discovery. The dialogue leaders will discuss and elicit membership feedback on the status and direction of the Evolution of Documents Brainstorming Group for these issues.  Andrea D'Ambra, Tara Emory*, Hon. Jane Manning, Emily McIntosh, Josh Samra
2:00 — 3:00 p.m. [Session 5] Mental Health Challenges in eDiscovery: What We Know and How We Can Help  
  The eDiscovery industry is not immune from the mental health crisis plaguing the legal industry. Increased awareness and support resources for mental health do not seem to be enough to stem the tide. This panel will explore the root causes of mental health challenges in our industry and how we can best solve for them. It will also discuss what is and isn't working and introduce the Mind-Budget Connection initiative, which was started by a group of attorneys and researchers and seeks to reverse this downward mental health trend in eDiscovery by examining the relationship between contractual relationships and mental health in the industry. Candace Beck, Kevin Brady*, Jill Rorem, Amy Sellars
3:00 — 3:30 p.m. Afternoon Break  
3:30 — 4:30 p.m. [Session 6] Draft Outline Review: Commentary on Discovery-Related Sanctions  
  The Sedona Conference has undertaken a paper focusing on the application of discovery-related sanctions. Following the Midyear Meeting, the Drafting Team has worked on incorporating the membership’s feedback and will discuss the paper’s current outline and elicit feedback from the membership on same. Hon. Iain Johnston, Robert Keeling, Jeannine Kenney, Eric Mandel, Kelly McNabb*
4:30 — 5:00 p.m. [Session 7] Draft Commentary Review: eDiscovery in Small Cases  
  It is time to revisit the Small Cases Primer. A lot has changed in the past couple years, yet there is still a need for guidance on how to handle ESI in small cases. Practitioners and jurists alike continue to express interest in more pragmatic, day-to-day eDiscovery advice for the majority of cases that are modest in scope and often litigated in state courts. This session is dedicated to a review of the latest version of the Small Cases Primer and how the best practices memorialized in various WG1 publications can be adapted to more routine and smaller-scale matters. This session will also address various low- or no-cost tools, tips, and tricks that practitioners can utilize to achieve best practices while staying true to principles of proportionality. Hon. Jerome Abrams, Kimberly Duplechain, Tara Emory, Greg Kohn*, Michael Scimone
5:00 — 7:00 p.m. Reception (guests invited)  
  Friday, October 28, 2022  
7:30 — 8:30 a.m. Breakfast & sign-in  
8:30 — 10:00 a.m. [Session 8] Voices from the Bench: The Judicial Perspective for 2022 and Beyond
 

This session offers a variety of judicial perspectives about issues that are trending in the field, including:

  • Ethical obligations regarding eDiscovery competence – with 40 states having adopted some form of technological competence requirement, is attorney competence in eDiscovery improving?
  • Is the proliferation of cloud services and syncing of data across systems making preservation easier or more problematic?
  • What is and isn’t working for ESI protocols?
  • Sanctions beyond 37(e) – what additional remedies are available for misconduct that doesn’t fit within the scope of FRCP 37(e)?
  • Is ephemeral messaging generally viewed with suspicion by courts?
Hon. Jerome Abrams, Hon. Michael Baylson, Hon. Robert Dow Jr., Hon. Iain Johnston, Hon. Jane Manning, Claudia Morgan*, Hon. Katharine Parker, Hon. Gene Pratter, Hon. Cynthia Rufe
10:00 — 10:15 a.m. Break  
10:15 — 11:00 a.m. [Session 9] Brainstorming Group Report: Unique eDiscovery Challenges in Multidistrict Litigation  
  Multidistrict Litigations (MDLs) are the 800-pound gorilla in federal courts, requiring creativity in case management, including discovery mechanisms. The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules created an MDL subcommittee in August 2017 to examine, among other things, unique aspects of discovery in MDL proceedings. A Sedona WG1 Brainstorming Team was formed after the 2022 Midyear Meeting to explore the challenges and best practices regarding eDiscovery in MDL.  This panel will discuss the Brainstorming Team’s recommendations on this topic and next steps.  Hon. Michael Baylson, Gilbert Keteltas*, Beena McDonald, Hon. Cynthia Rufe, Jodi Munn Schebel
11:00 — 11:30 a.m. [Session 10] The State of Working Group 1  
  We will discuss recent publications of WG1 and papers currently in the publication process, and dialogue on the evolving state of the industry and where WG1 should be focusing its publishing and thought-leadership efforts over the next 24 months. Martin Tully
11:30 — 11:45 a.m. Break  
11:45 — 12:45 p.m. [Session 11] Stranger Things in eDiscovery: Ethical Challenges and Considerations for Discovery of New and Changing Technologies   
  Lawyers face an ever-changing landscape of complex technological and legal issues as new technologies create new sources of ESI and new eDiscovery tools. Current challenges include vast volumes of ESI generated by mobile devices, ephemeral messaging apps, collaboration platforms, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence. This panel of ethics and eDiscovery experts will explore the benefits and risks associated with various technologies and provide guidance on evolving duty of technological competence.  Vince Carnevale, Kimberly Duplechain*, Shauna Itri, Carol Stainbrook, Hon. Katharine Parker
12:45 — 1:00 p.m. Closing remarks and wrap-up Craig Weinlein
1:00 p.m. Adjournment & Grab-and-go lunch (provided)  
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