Contacts:
Robert "Bob" B. Duncan, Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The December 1, 2006 changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure related to electronic discovery have focused enormous attention on how businesses store, collect, and produce in litigation the vast quantities of electronic information they maintain. But many companies that have digitized the information and data upon which their operations depend have long been aware of the importance of properly managing information both to achieve their business goals and respond to increasingly sophisticated demands for information from opposing parties and government regulators. At Hogan & Hartson, we have developed a multidisciplinary approach to electronic records management and discovery to meet all of these challenges.

The foundation for successful records and information management is a program that puts the efficient functioning of your business operations first, while simultaneously ensuring compliance with records retention obligations and positioning your company to respond to inevitable requests for electronic discovery. At Hogan & Hartson, we have extensive experience in auditing our clients' records management programs to achieve these goals. We also advise our clients on the best practices for ensuring that a company's lawyers, information technology personnel, and other key constituents work together, seamlessly, to manage information.

When pending or anticipated litigation, government investigations, or regulatory inquiries trigger the need to preserve and produce relevant electronic documents, Hogan & Hartson is ready to assist clients from day one. We know that in today's legal environment, where every request for information is a stalking horse for a spoliation claim, buttoning down a workable document preservation agreement at the outset is among the most important and challenging of tasks. We also have extensive experience in implementing litigation holds for companies whose operations span the globe and whose information technology systems encompass every conceivable sort of technology and media. Frequently we can arrange cost-efficient preservation agreements that satisfy uncoordinated federal and state investigators and plaintiffs' counsel who are focusing on the same business practices. And we regularly negotiate production agreements for e-mail, electronic documents, and data that involve only what government investigators or litigation adversaries are actually entitled to, instead of what they fervently wish to get. Finally, when our clients’ needs require affirmative litigation to protect their intellectual property or other business interests, Hogan & Hartson has the know-how to use every tool in the electronic discovery kit.

Related Experience

• We are national coordinating electronic discovery counsel for a major insurance company, which we are also advising in connection with its corporate-wide revision of document management and retention policies.
• We are advising a leading national health benefits company on their enterprise-wide response to the new federal rules relating to electronic discovery as well as their electronic document retention policies.
• We are providing counsel to a major disaster relief nonprofit in connection with its records management and retention policies, particularly with respect to its ability to respond to litigation.
• We are counsel to a leading national health benefits company involved in multiple class actions regarding all aspects of electronic discovery, including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance related to production of documents and data containing patient/subscriber information.
• We designed and administered a secure Internet portal that serves as a document repository for a large energy and bankruptcy litigation. Our system has the capability for most e-discovery tasks to be completed online, including document review, coding, document production, and preparation of privilege logs. We have also developed and administered automated search tools, for the efficient and effective retrieval of relevant documents from our clients’ computer systems.
• In connection with existing retention related to government investigations and litigation, we advised a major international medical device company on worldwide electronic document retention policies and on implementation of those policies. For that same company, we managed and implemented the collection, review, and production of electronic documents from over 400 custodians.
• On behalf of a large pharmaceutical company and a major technology company, we have managed the search and review of more than six million database records, utilizing an electronic document review interface that we helped the client’s information technology litigation support specialists develop and implement.
• On behalf of a major pharmaceutical company, we managed the implementation of enterprise-wide electronic document retention policies and the collection, review, and production of terabytes of data in response to criminal investigations and complex commercial litigations concerning common subject matter. The commercial litigation includes a massive class action, as well as cases concerning related issues filed in several state courts across the country.
• In connection with retentions related to mergers and litigation, we have worked with and evaluated all of the major electronic discovery vendors. Over the course of those representations, we regularly provide input on ways to improve their systems to benefit our clients. We have also negotiated multiple contracts with those vendors and have obtained excellent pricing as well as unique provisions designed to benefit and protect clients from the potentially exorbitant costs. Such provisions have included accountability clauses, three strike savings provisions, and free/minimal cost upfront storage.
• In connection with existing retention related to class action litigation, we are advising a large hospital system on electronic document retention issues both for the litigation and going forward.