LJN Newsletters

This summer, the standing committee on the federal rules of the Supreme Court's Judicial Conference will propose for public comment Federal Rule of Evidence 502 and Committee Notes, initially drafted and recommended by the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. Proposed Rule 502 addresses the waiver of privilege arising from the production of documents: the effect of inadvertent production, the scope of the waiver arising from both inadvertent and intentional production, and ' the subject of this article ' the effect on future claims of privilege of producing documents to the government in the course of an investigation.

TimeMap from CaseSoft (www.casesoft.com) has always been one of the best timeline-graphing tool available to lawyers. The latest version, TimeMap 4, contains a number of significant improvements from the TimeMap 3 version that makes it even more powerful for lawyers. Lawyers and legal IT departments may also be familiar with the other software products in the CaseSoft arsenal: CaseMap, NoteMap, Text-Map and DepPrep.

Superior representation during litigation involves more than persuasion, skill and mastery of the law. It means getting a favorable outcome while being better, faster and more cost-effective than the competition. One of the ways we have been able to achieve litigation success is by partnering with tech-savvy service providers. We have been able to strengthen our position and efficiency by working with a reporting firm that has access to the latest technology for exhibit bundling, on-demand Web access and transcript management. Other paralegals and attorneys in our firm have taken notice ' as have the client and opposing counsel.

Bowman and Brooke LLP has 160 trial lawyers coast-to-coast in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Detroit, San Jose, CA, Los Angeles and Richmond, VA. Together, the firm defends corporations in products liability, toxic torts and other high-stakes litigation throughout all 50 states.
The nature of the firm's work ' and litigation in general ' is collaborative, and often dependent upon massive amounts of data. The explosion of documentary evidence brought on by compliance and electronic discovery obligations has made finding, organizing, analyzing and understanding case evidence more challenging than ever before.

Given that the Blackberry has become something of a ubiquitous presence in the hands and pockets of many attorneys, and also given that these devices are far from bulletproof, a niche in the marketplace has emerged. It seems that not only do attorneys want a Blackberry, they also want 'their' Blackberry, which presents something of a problem for those units that are out of warranty.

When Toysrus.com, Toys 'R' Us, Inc.'s Internet retail business, sued Amazon.com to end their Internet partnership for breach of contract, it faced a key strategic decision: Could it gamble on using its opponent's own Web site as a key trial witness? Toys 'R' Us had to prove to the court that Amazon was violating its exclusivity rights under their contract. The only way to effectively do this was to show the court, live, what was happening in real time on www.amazon.com.

Attorney attrition is expensive. Replacing departing colleagues means not only recruiting and hiring strong candidates, but also investing in training for the new hires. Cost estimates for replacing an associate are typically between 100% and 200% of one's annual salary. The soft costs may be even greater ' lost institutional knowledge and potential morale problems. And attorneys who leave with bad feelings about the firm can spread their ill will in the local legal community, or try to lure others to follow. A mass exodus, of course, can cripple a firm.

Federal prosecutors continue to attack attorney-client privilege through aggressive use of the crime-fraud exception ' a government tactic easy to forget amidst the hoopla surrounding the government's attempts to exact attorney-client privilege waivers as the sine qua non of cooperation. A recent Third Circuit case illustrates the worrisome potential breadth of the exception.