Education Committee

The Role of the Education Committee

From the Committee’s inception it was clear that one of the major obstacles to efficient and cost-effective electronic discovery was the lack of knowledge by members of the bar about basic ESI concepts. At that time, many lawyers were simply not technologically savvy enough to have a productive "meet and confer" about ESI, let alone to properly focus electronic discovery requests and/or to adequately gather responses.

The Role of the Education Committee

From the Committee’s inception it was clear that one of the major obstacles to efficient and cost-effective electronic discovery was the lack of knowledge by members of the bar about basic ESI concepts. At that time, many lawyers were simply not technologically savvy enough to have a productive "meet and confer" about ESI, let alone to properly focus electronic discovery requests and/or to adequately gather responses. The perception of the Committee was that overly broad preservation letters and requests for ESI, and refusal to produce responsive discovery, were often the result of lawyers not understanding what ESI is, what ESI their clients possess, or how that is stored. The Education Subcommittee was charged with developing strategies to provide practitioners with the basics of electronic discovery and to provide education about the Principles themselves.

To address these distinct but complementary needs, the Education Subcommittee established a partnership with the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, allowing the Pilot Program to have an internet home (an earlier version of this website). The site now has the Principles, Seventh Circuit case law summaries, including the district courts, pertaining to e-discovery organized by topic. Additional resources have been posted from general handbooks on e-discovery to indispensable materials from the Sedona Conference. Finally, the subcommittee has created a "glossary" of basic terms used in e-discovery.

In addition to the "static" methods of educating the bar about the Principles specifically and ESI more generally, the subcommittee has organized and facilitated a number of webinars and live events to assist both the bench and bar in better understand the essential steps that must be taken to meet electronic discovery obligations in a cost and time efficient manner.

While a great deal of progress has been made since the formation of the Committee in 2009, the subcommittee believes that education continues to be a critical component to reforming discovery. In particular, the subcommittee is working with the Committee at large to widen the scope of e-discovery education to include the criminal bar, attorneys dealing with smaller civil matters and others who have not traditionally had access to e-discovery training.

Education Committee Members, 2017