2013 iConference Workshop on
Educating E-Discovery Litigation Support Professionals

February 12, 2013, Worthington Renaissance Hotel, Fort Worth, TX USA

***WORKSHOP CANCELLED ***

Introduction | Schedule | References | Organizers

Introduction

The past decade has seen explosive growth in the need for "discovery" of digital information held by one party in to lawsuit in response to a request posed by a counterparty. In less than a decade, "e-discovery" has become a multi-billion dollar industry and a substantial driver in the cost of civil litigation. No current degree programs at any level are designed specifically to educate e-discovery professionals, so employers presently recruit from many source disciplines (e.g., forensics, business schools, and law schools). iSchools seem like natural homes for such programs: some of us offer joint degrees with our law schools, others share a campus with one of the 42 law schools that offer an e-discovery course, and still others have faculty who have published on e-discovery. Expected outcomes of this workshop will be an understanding of this opportunity, some insight into what shape such programs might take, and a community of like-minded faculty who can share ideas and resources. The program will include presentations from e-discovery thought leaders, from professionals who employ litigation support staff, and from faculty who have taught e-discovery courses. Small-group sessions focused on curriculum design for one-course offerings, and on program design for more extensive offerings, will offer opportunities for close engagement between participants and presenters.

Schedule

 Except as noted, the named speakers are confirmed, but we are still tweaking the schedule.
Time Speaker(s) Event Chair
8:30 AM   Welcome Jason Baron
8:45 AM Ralph Losey The E-Discovery Industry (Part I) and
E-Discovery Education at the University of Florida Law School (Gainsville) 		Jason Baron
9:15 AM David Cowen Keynote: The Market for E-Discovery Professionals Jason Baron
9:45 AM   Group Discussion Jason Baron
10:00 AM   Break  
10:30 AM Craig Ball The E-Discovery Industry (Part II) and
E-Discovery Education at the University of Texas Law School (Austin) 		Doug Oard
11:00 AM Hans Henseler E-Discovery Education at the University of Applied Sciences (Amsterdam) Doug Oard
11:30 AM Jason Baron E-Discovery Education at the University of Maryland iSchool (College Park) Doug Oard
12:00 PM   Group Discussion Doug Oard
12:15 PM   Lunch  
1:15 PM Adam Losey E-Discovery Education at the Columbia University Business School (New York) Steven Gensler
1:45 PM   Group Discussion Steven Gensler
2:00 PM   Program Design Breakout Doug Oard
2:00 PM   Curriculum Design Breakout Jason Baron
3:30 PM   Break  
4:00 PM Doctoral students Breakout Group Reports Doug Oard
4:30 PM Steven Gensler,
Doug Oard 		Future Directions Panel Jason Baron
5:30 PM   Adjourn  

References

 Much has been published on E-Discovery generally, so no list of references could hope to be complete. Here are a few papers that we know of that we believe would be useful as background reading for the focus of this workshop. Please send recommended additions for this list to oard@umd.edu.

  1. J. Baron, Law in the Age of Exabytes: Some Further Thoughts on 'Information Inflation' and Current Issues in E-Discovery Search, Richmond Journal of Law and Technology, 17(3), Spring (2011)
  2. M. Grossman and G. Cormack, Technology-Assisted Review in E-Discovery Can Be More Effective and More Efficient Than Exhaustive Manual Review, Richmond Journal of Law and Technology, 17(3), Spring (2011)
  3. D. Lewis, Afterword: data, knowledge and e-discovery, 18 Artificial Intelligence and Law 481 (2010).
  4. D. Oard and W. Webber, Information Retrieval and E-Discovery, 6 Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval (in draft).
  5. N. Pace and L. Zakaras, Where The Money Goes: Understanding Litigant Expenditures for Producing E-Discovery, RAND Publication (2012)
  6. The Sedona Conference®, Commentary on Achieving Quality in E-Discovery (2009).

Organizers

 Jason R. Baron, University of Maryland, USA
Douglas W. Oard, University of Maryland, USA
Last Update: January 16, 2013