Avoiding Objections to Privilege Logs: Criteria for Inclusion, Descriptions, Format Options, and Technology Tools
Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Class Action and Other Litigation
- event Date
Thursday, August 19, 2021
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will provide attendees with practical guidance on preparing and producing below-budget privilege logs that will not draw valid objections. The panelists will discuss the key components of a log, negotiating less onerous logging requirements, metadata, categorical logs, identifying flaws in adversaries' privilege logs, and how technology can reduce cost, improve quality, and prevent privilege waiver.
Ms. Grounds is a partner at Troutman Pepper based in Atlanta and is the founder and Managing Director of eMerge – a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm focused on providing clients with end-to-end, integrated discovery services. She serves a national discovery counsel for clients, ensuring for the effective, efficient, and proportional use of eDiscovery across matters. Ms. Grounds uses her trial experience to advocate on behalf of clients in courts across the country, takes and defends depositions related to eDiscovery issues, and leverages technology to help her clients find the facts necessary to resolve their legal matters. She is also an adjunct professor of eDiscovery and Legal Technology at Emory University School of Law and is nationally ranked for her eDiscovery practice by Chambers and Partners.
Mr. Lichter is the Director of Discovery Services at Troutman Pepper eMerge, the firm’s wholly-owned subsidiary providing end-to-end, integrated eDiscovery services. At eMerge, he develops and implements strategies to ensure that Troutman Pepper clients receive superior, defensible, and cost-effective legal and technological eDiscovery services. Mr. Lichter advises colleagues and clients on how to leverage industry-leading tools and well-honed best practices to efficiently guide matters throughout the eDiscovery lifecycle. His strong technical background includes substantial computer science coursework while an undergraduate at Yale University, followed by real-world experience as a software engineer for Sapient, a leading digital business transformation consultancy. A litigator by training, Mr. Lichter has represented clients on a wide variety of complex commercial, employment, and intellectual property disputes in state and federal courts.
Ms. Campbell represents clients in arbitration proceedings and federal and state courts at the trial and appellate levels in a variety of complex litigation matters. She thinks outside the box to develop efficient, cost-effective and successful litigation strategies and solutions.
Unless the parties stipulate otherwise, Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5)(A) mandates that when withholding an otherwise discoverable document on the grounds of privilege or other protection, responding parties must assert the basis for withholding the document and provide sufficient information to assess that claim. But within those general requirements lies substantial room for interpretation. This webinar will share best practices for generating logs that satisfy governing obligations without engaging in a costly, fully manual exercise prone to error.
The best place to start is well before the first privilege log entry is drafted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f)(3)(D) expressly contemplates agreements on "issues about claims of privilege" as part of the meet-and-confer process, and parties are advised to take advantage of this opportunity to exempt whole categories of documents from logging.
Jumping ahead, counsel should serve a privilege log only after a thorough quality-control screening to identify third parties that could cause a privilege waiver. Diligent opposing counsel will scrutinize privilege logs closely.
Listen as the panel discusses these and many other strategies for avoiding costly privilege log mistakes that frustrate courts and sidetrack parties from the merits.
- Introduction (purpose/importance of privilege logs)
- Governing rules
- Key privilege log components
- Negotiating less onerous/narrower logging requirements
- Redactions
- Partially privileged documents
- Email threads
- Post-complaint communications with outside counsel
- Privilege log types
- Traditional (document by document)
- Categorical
- Automated/metadata
- QC strategies
- Ways to leverage technology
- Recent cases on privilege log objections and sanctions/waiver
The panel will review these and other issues:
- What categories of documents should ordinarily be negotiated out of privilege logs?
- How can technology be deployed to create internally consistent privilege logs efficiently?
- When are metadata and/or categorical privilege logs appropriate?
- What best practices can be gleaned from recent cases, particularly when responding to objections and seeking to avoid waiver or other sanctions?
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