by Cary J. Calderone
One highlight at the Carmel eDiscovery Retreat, was hearing from THE plaintiff Laura Zubulake. Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC., 217 F.R.D. 309(S.D.N.Y. 2003) is a seminal case and is the foundation for many other discovery decisions and even modifications to discovery procedure rules. Rules were modified so they could be better applied to electronic media and computers. Now I have to admit, I was like many attorneys who assumed that some very smart lawyers had recognized the value in searching defendant UBS's emails for evidence of wrongdoing. But, that is not how it happened. Laura was actually the one who insisted her attorneys demand production of emails because she KNEW the defendant had not done a reasonable job in producing the relevant materials in their possession or control. The end result? A $29.2 million dollar jury verdict in her favor. As Laura noted, Electronically Stored Information (ESI) and email in particular, is "like DNA evidence for trials!"
