Seyfarth Shaw Announces Rebranded eDiscovery and Information Governance Practice Group

Contacts:
Kevin Livingston, National Director of Public Relations
(312) 460-6681 / (212) 218-5272, klivingston@seyfarth.com

Ivette Delgado, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, idelgado@seyfarth.com

New name better reflects the broad range of services Seyfarth provides in the handling of electronically stored information

CHICAGO (May 25, 2011) — Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of America’s leading full-service law firms, announced today that it is rebranding its eDiscovery practice group to better reflect the broad range of services the firm provides in connection with electronically stored information, or ESI.

The group’s new name is eDiscovery and Information Governance. With one of the largest and most sophisticated stand-alone eDiscovery practices in the country, the group offers a range of dedicated services in this area that far exceeds its competitors. Some of the services more properly characterized as information governance include implementing document retention policies, preparing enterprise data maps, and advising on cloud computing initiatives.

Partner Scott Carlson, co-chair of the practice, said electronically stored information is a mainstay of every business organization today. Companies of all sizes utilize and rely on documents and other information stored electronically to conduct and record their business, with e-mail being just the tip of the iceberg. The prevalence of ESI has led to new emphases both on the discovery of such information in litigation and on efforts to take control of ESI in a proactive manner, managing where it can be stored, establishing enforceable IT policies, and controlling the implementation of new technologies. Carlson added that there are only a small number of attorneys in the country who truly understand all aspects of this area.

“We have nine full-time attorneys doing nothing but eDiscovery and information governance counseling and litigation, as opposed to document review, which we believe is the largest dedicated group in the country,” Carlson said. “Each of our litigation attorneys has a technical background and unlike most firms that have assembled task forces, this is all we do.”

The team, which has attorneys positioned in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, includes lawyers who are also forensic examiners and is backed by over a dozen litigation support and IT professionals across the country.

“eDiscovery is a complex area and our lawyers understand IT issues from both a legal and technical perspective,” Carlson said. “This saves time and money for clients. Our team is highly qualified in quantitative and technical subjects like mathematics and computer science, and our attorneys are committed to staying on top of cutting-edge developments and training in the area.”

Carlson noted that the entrepreneurial nature of Seyfarth has allowed the practice to develop and expand successfully to the benefit of the firm’s clients. Those clients are a mixture of firm institutional clients and those that are self-generated and come directly to the firm’s eDiscovery and Information Governance practice. The group also receives referrals from other firms with no or limited in-house eDiscovery expertise of their own.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., as well as internationally in London. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate, and real estate. The firm’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business and social fabric. Clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state and local governmental and educational entities. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com or the following other sites:

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