Webinar on The Sedona Conference Commentary on Legal Holds, Second Edition: The Trigger & The Process

Date: Friday, January 25, 2019

Time: 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Duration: 90 minutes

The preservation of discoverable Electronically Stored Data (ESI) is the essential first step in eDiscovery, but it presents some of the most vexing legal and practical questions. Failures to preserve discoverable ESI are also a significant source of discovery disputes and sanctions. The trigger and scope of the duty of preservation was the subject of one of the first Sedona Working Group commentaries, published in 2007 for public comment and “finalized” in 2010. But the introduction of new types of ESI, advances in eDiscovery technology, and the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure required Sedona Working Group 1 members to revisit the analysis and guidelines published ten years ago. The process started with dialogue at Working Group meetings in 2016, the establishment of a drafting team in 2017, and the presentation of several iterations for Working Group peer review in 2018. We are now pleased to announce the release of the Commentary on Legal Holds, Second Edition: The Trigger & The Process, available free for individual download here.

This is a “public comment version,” and we invite you to submit your comments before February 8, 2019, to [email protected]. To advance the public comment process, members of the drafting team will participate in a webinar on Friday, January 25, to discuss their work, explore some of the changes and updates from the 2010 edition, and pose some questions on which they would appreciate your feedback. Among the topics that may be covered in this 90-minute webinar are:

  • The legal framework for the duty to preserve, and the impact of the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules
  • Recent court interpretations of the trigger and scope of the duty to preserve
  • The “reasonableness” standard in implementing preservation
  • The responsibilities of outside counsel in implementing preservation
  • The relationship of the duty of preservation to statutory or regulatory data retention requirements
  • The preservation duties owed to—and by—non-party custodians of discoverable ESI

During the webinar, you may ask questions or submit comments, which the panel will address to the extent time allows. But all questions and comments submitted, whether or not they are aired “live,” will be forwarded to the drafting team for its consideration.

Please download the Commentary on Legal Holds, Second Edition and register today for this timely and important webinar.

Host

Kenneth J. Withers
The Sedona Conference

Moderator

DLA Piper

Panelists

Ahdoot & Wolfson, PC

New York, NY, USA

DATALAW PLLC

Chantilly, VA

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

San Antonio, TX, USA

Merlin Search Technologies, Inc.

Denver, CO, USA

Shook Hardy & Bacon