Courses | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

Modern discovery is no longer about rummaging through boxes of paper; today, relevant information is primarily stored electronically. The wealth of potential evidence contained in massive stores of e-mail, instant messages, electronic files of different types, database applications, and myriad other imaginable (and unimaginable) applications or media has engendered an ever expanding jurisprudence in the field known as Electronic Discovery. The law has struggled to keep pace with the challenges electronic information presents for the legal process, including preservation and spoliation issues, rising costs, and questions of privilege waiver, privacy, and evidentiary admissibility, to name but a few. Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that went into effect in 2006, and to the Federal Rules of Evidence in 2008, as well as an array of local and state rules that have emerged in response to these issues, have brought Electronic Discovery to the forefront of litigation. This course will cover both what lawyers need to know in order to represent clients in an increasingly digital world and address some of the broader challenges posed by electronic information.