Proposed Rules to reduce the cost of over-preservation by setting forth clear guidelines for document disposal are well on their way to adoption. If adopted, this will be the greatest victory yet for our economy in reducing the cost of storing electronic information. As mentioned in our interview with Mary Mack in this issue on page 17, as soon as the proposed Rules become final, documents can be disposed of provided that the disposition is not “willful or in bad faith.”
Much credit for the progress that has been made goes to Lawyers for Civil Justice, a coalition of defense counsel organizations, corporate counsel and defense counsel under the leadership of Marc Williams, its president, Barry Bauman, its executive director, and Alex Dahl, its counsel.
LCJ’s mission over many years has included drawing upon the expertise of defense counsel and corporate counsel to reduce the cost of e-discovery. Most recently, a major focus of this effort involved finding a solution to the increasingly exorbitant cost of storing documents that may never be needed in litigation – a cost that impacts the global competitiveness of our corporations.
Because The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel reaches a broad audience of corporate counsel online and in print, it served as a vehicle for permitting LCJ to give our corporate counsel audience the opportunity to voice their support for the proposed Rules. Over three hundred corporate counsel responded favorably.
However, new challenges driven by the pace of technological change will inevitably face corporate counsel and their defense counsel. Following up on its success in taming over-preservation, it is clear that LCJ is up to meeting those challenges – and we will be there to help.
Al Driver
The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
Published March 25, 2014.