E-Discovery

Williams Mullen’s eDiscovery Team recognizes that the cost-effective management of electronically stored information (“ESI”) is critical for success in litigation, regardless of the size of the dispute or the jurisdiction of the case. Our experienced team of partners, associates and technology specialists work closely with our clients to ensure that all eDiscovery issues are managed efficiently and effectively, from pre-litigation assessments through the resolution of disputes. At Williams Mullen, we call on our eDiscovery Team at the start of any investigation, arbitration or litigation to advise our clients about eDiscovery issues, with the goal of minimizing risks and costs.

The eDiscovery Team is comprised of experienced litigators who understand the role discovery plays in all disputes and technology specialists who have experience with the latest litigation support tools. The partners leading the eDiscovery Team focus their entire practice on electronic discovery and high technology issues. We provide strategic advice to help our clients navigate a clear path through all phases of discovery - identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis, production and presentation. From complex patent infringement cases to wage and hour class actions, from commercial disputes to tax controversies, the Williams Mullen eDiscovery Team helps our clients comply with their obligations within the parameters and needs of each individual case, and, when necessary, we negotiate and litigate complex electronic discovery and spoliation issues to resolution. Our eDiscovery attorneys bring to the table our technical acumen combined with a skilled litigator’s understanding of the legal landscape and the ability to present and argue technical issues to a non-technical audience.

Williams Mullen acts as National eDiscovery Counsel for several clients, providing guidance in crafting defensible and uniform approaches to records management and retention, litigation hold implementation, legacy and obsolete data disposal and migration, and outside vendor relationships and costs. Our attorneys stay abreast of the near daily developments in eDiscovery law and are frequent presenters and writers on the subject.

Technology specialists at Williams Mullen are adept at working with our clients’ data, whether they are conducting targeted and remote collections, keyword or concept searches, or processing data into a reviewable format. Our technology specialists help Williams Mullen attorneys and clients decrease the overall cost of the eDiscovery process through the use of “in-house” culling strategies and advanced technology to target relevant data. For many of our cases, we store data internally on secure servers, and provide our attorneys and clients access to the data via a web-based document review and management solution. Our attorneys and technology specialists have also built strong relationships with local and national vendors of eDiscovery and computer forensics services. By combining our internal eDiscovery services with discrete outsourcing, Williams Mullen is equipped to handle any ESI issue that arises.

Representative Experience

• Williams Mullen serves as National eDiscovery Counsel for a national railway transportation company. We provide high-level eDiscovery and records management consulting, as well as matter-specific eDiscovery consulting, wherein members of the eDiscovery Team oversee and coordinate the identification, preservation and collection of the client’s data for cases pending across the country. Williams Mullen’s Litigation Support Department processes the client’s data using state-of-the-art litigation support tools and provides access to the processed data to merits counsel across the country via a web-based document review and management solution.
• As long-time counsel to a leaf tobacco merchant and processor, Williams Mullen is working closely with our client’s management, general counsel and IT department to update their 10-year-old record retention policy and implement an email management system throughout its domestic offices, and then perform similar tasks for the company’s offices around the globe.
• Williams Mullen acts as local and eDiscovery counsel for a domestic marketer and distributor of advanced nutritional products involved in an ongoing Lanham Act dispute. Under the exceedingly tight deadlines of the infamous “Rocket Docket” of the Eastern District of Virginia, our eDiscovery Team has conducted interviews with all key custodians, remotely collected potentially relevant data identified by the custodians, run previously agreed-to keyword searches, processed the “hits” for review in its web-based review platform, and supervised document review and production.
• Williams Mullen’s Labor and Employment Team turned to the eDiscovery Team for help with an unlawful termination suit pending in state court in North Carolina against a wholesale chemical distributor. The eDiscovery Team negotiated with opposing counsel to avoid discovery disputes that could arise from navigating the tricky waters of collecting data from European employees, and then worked with the client’s privacy officer to collect the data in a manner that complied with the EU Privacy Directive.
• When an ocean vessel transportation company suspected an employee of fraud, it contacted Williams Mullen, and the eDiscovery Team was a critical part of the firm’s rapid response. Our eDiscovery Team quickly engaged a certified forensic expert and within 48 hours supervised a clandestine collection. Williams Mullen’s technology specialists then processed and searched the data around the clock to provide our Government and Corporate Investigations Team with ammunition to confront the rogue employee a mere week after the client first called.