Scott Carlson Quoted in Chicago Lawyer
“Electronic discovery pushes lawyers to think differently”

The article, “Electronic discovery pushes lawyers to think differently,” in the June issue of Chicago Lawyer opens with Scott Carlson. Noting Scott’s background in computer science and experience as a software engineer, the article quotes Scott saying, “If you don’t understand the technology, I don’t think you can give good advice to your clients.” Concerning the prominence of electronic discovery today, Scott says, “E-discovery has been in every case for a long time, but it just wasn’t raised very often…. Now we have to talk about it, and we should talk about it.”

The article notes that since amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning electronic discovery went into effect on December 1, 2006, many firms have been working internally to sort through the changes that the amended rules bring about. Because of the vast array of electronic information created and stored by clients, lawyers now have to become more familiar with the ways in which their clients’ data management systems store and access their electronic information. And, because of the sheer volume of electronic discovery, old models of associates pouring through documents is no longer possible.

One of the changes taking place, according to Scott, is that rather than avoiding talking about e-discovery lawyers for opposing parties are talking in the early stages of proceedings about how electronic information will be stored. “I saw great value in saying to the other side, ‘this is what we are doing, and more importantly than what we are doing, this is not what we are doing. If you have a problem with that, let’s argue it now instead of making the same argument two years later.’… There is really no great incentive to postpone that argument.”

Scott explains in the article that his group’s role at Seyfarth Shaw, in addition to internal education, has two components: consulting with clients to establish a process for handling electronically stored information and assisting litigators by developing a plan for dealing with electronic discovery.