Stop the Lip Service: Real Advocacy Under the Federal Rules

Patrick Oot is a Chambers-ranked global practice leader in e-discovery and government investigations. Patrick is recognized in Who’s Who Legal for his expertise in electronic discovery and data privacy. He is one of the few e-discovery and compliance attorneys in the nation that possesses the tripartite experience of an in-house corporate counsel from a Fortune 16 organization; a senior attorney at a federal regulatory agency; and a partner in a global firm.

Patrick works towards merits-based case strategy to avoid litigation issues that arise from electronic discovery. He has negotiated favorable scope and terms in both government investigations and civil litigation for his clients. He has both prepared 30(b)(6) deponents for electronic discovery issues and testified regarding highly technical issues on behalf of organizational clients in federal litigation. Patrick has also directed counter-discovery strategy against legal adversaries using computer forensics and digital investigations techniques. He has successfully defended against “discovery-on-discovery” in motion practice.

Before joining Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Patrick served as Senior Special Counsel for Electronic Discovery in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his tenure at SEC, Patrick co-chaired the agency’s cross-divisional Electronic Discovery Action Team and co-authored The SEC Electronic Discovery and Litigation Response Manual. He counseled SEC senior leadership and agency staff on best practices and guidance for discovery and litigation strategy and privilege protections and on strategically significant matters involving forensics, technology and Electronic Communications Privacy Act interpretation for subpoena enforcement. Patrick appeared twice as SEC’s 30(b)(6) deponent to defend the agency’s discovery practices with favorable outcomes to the agency. He successfully designed and implemented SEC’s preservation process as well as a federal government-wide educational program that includes participation of the federal judiciary.

Prior to serving at SEC, Patrick was an experienced in-house counsel leading Verizon’s electronic discovery practice as Director of Electronic Discovery and Senior Litigation Counsel. Patrick was one of the nation’s first in-house attorneys charged to create and deploy defensible policies, guidelines and procedures for litigation response. While at Verizon, Patrick testified as the company’s Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) witness, defending the same policies and guidelines that he helped design and implement. In 2006, he was nominated for the Verizon Excellence Award after playing a key role in the successful completion of Verizon’s response to the Department of Justice’s Second Request for Documents in its acquisition of MCI. As a result of his work, Inside Counsel magazine named Verizon’s e-discovery team as one of the ten most innovative legal groups of 2007, the group’s second year winning the title. In 2007, Patrick appeared with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at Georgetown University Law Center’s H5 Summit on Electronic Discovery. He has testified before the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence where he presented his position on Proposed Rule of Evidence 502. The committee included language incorporating his suggestions in its draft to the Judicial Conference.

Outside of work, Patrick volunteers his time as a co-founder of The Electronic Discovery Institute, a non-profit organization that conducts studies of litigation processes and produced education programs for the benefit of the federal and state judiciary. Patrick lectures regularly at educational events and legal conferences internationally. He has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and was interviewed for the August 2008 edition of The Economist.

Jamie Borwn is the Vice President of Global Advisory Services at Lighthouse. Prior to Lighthouse, she worked for several leading financial institutions, including UBS and Barclays. She also served as a trial attorney, and subsequently, assistant general counsel for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Brown began her career as a litigation associate at King & Spalding, and later, as a partner at Fennemore Craig. She is a former law clerk to the Honorable Roslyn O. Silver for the US District Court of Arizona and a Duke Law graduate.

Bob Owen has decades of commercial litigation experience in New York and around the country. A nationally recognized adviser to financial services, energy and technology companies, Bob is known for efficient, creative and early dispute resolution. He has handled hundreds of cases before federal and state courts and arbitration panels throughout the United States. His accomplishments as a trial lawyer have been recognized by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy which has invited him to teach trial skills at its flagship national program in Boulder, Colorado (seven times) and at many of its regional programs.

Bob is a nationally recognized authority in e-discovery, managing the costs and risks that e-discovery now adds to the litigation calculus. Bob currently serves as Partner in Charge of the Eversheds Sutherland (US) New York office. Chambers consistently rates him as one of six first rank leading individuals in e-discovery nationally, and reports that he is “‘clearly a leader in the field’ of e-discovery” who is “revered by his clients as ‘a visionary whose knowledge…of e-discovery is top tier’” and is “recognized as ‘a seasoned litigator who has the unique perspective of being both skilled in the law and in technology.’” In addition, he is president of the non-profit Electronic Discovery Institute and a member of Bloomberg Law’s Litigation Innovation Board, which advises Bloomberg on the company’s forthcoming litigation and analytics solutions.

George Socha is responsible for increasing market awareness and adoption of Reveal’s platform globally. Additionally, George is tasked with guiding the product roadmap and consulting with Reveal customers on effective deployment of legal technology. In 2005, he co-founded the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) whose frameworks and content have empowered a generation of legal professionals. He has worked for over three decades as a lawyer, advisor and court-approved expert.

George received his JD from Cornell Law School and his BA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.