K&L Gates Electronic Discovery Law blog has been around for ten years, since electronic discovery was only just becoming known as a discovery model. Since then, technology law has only taken off, and with it the Electronic Discovery Law blog. The blog is frequently updated on the latest developments in what remians a complex area of the law, and they do their best to bring out the finer points while making it all easy to understand.
And all of this is probably why the publication made its way into the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. And, continuing our series interviewing LexBlog Network members who made the Blawg 100, we spoke with the Electronic Discovery Law’s Bree Kelly.
Why did you decide to start this blog/why did you start blogging?
The e-DAT practice group at K&L Gates decided to start our Electronic Discovery Law blog back in 2004, when electronic discovery was clearly emerging as a new discovery paradigm. By then, several of the Zubulake opinions had already been issued and the proposed amendments to the federal rules were about to be published for public comment. We knew there would be a lot of questions in the coming months and years regarding how the new rules and developing jurisprudence would affect day-to-day practice, and we wanted to provide a resource for our own firm and for other practitioners dealing with the rapidly changing discovery landscape. Legal blogs were something of a new idea at the time, but it seemed appropriate to address electronic discovery in an electronic venue, and so, the Electronic Discovery Law blog was born. Now, more than ten years later and with another round of major amendments to the federal civil rules on the horizon, we look forward to continuing the tradition of providing a reliable resource for keeping up with this important area of the law.
Why do you enjoy blogging? What’s most rewarding?
Our current blog editor, Bree Kelly, is a self-proclaimed rules and discovery nerd. She simply enjoys the process of keeping current with the cases and rule changes.
We believe that a solid understanding of electronic discovery is vital for any practitioner or judge, but we also understand that it can be difficult to find the time or the resources to develop (and keep up) such understanding. It is incredibly rewarding for e-DAT to be a part of the solution to those difficulties by providing a reliable place to stay updated on the latest cases or rule changes around the country. The more we all understand about e-Discovery, the better we can all serve our clients, and it is in that spirit that we maintain our blog.
Why do you think you made it on the Blawg 100? What sets you apart?
We are set apart by the nature and number of e-Discovery resources available to the readers of our blog. For more than ten years now, the Electronic Discovery Law blog has provided a resource for practitioners, judges, clients, law students and interested members of the public to come and learn about electronic discovery. Currently, visitors to our blog are free to peruse more than 750 e-Discovery case summaries, links to the e-Discovery rules in all local federal and state jurisdictions, and numerous announcements and updates regarding important events (such as the anticipated amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 2015). Readers may also access—for free—a searchable e-Discovery case database containing more than 2,700 entries. We are proud of the resources we offer and we invite you to take advantage of them by visiting our blog and case database regularly, to see what’s new.
What’s the biggest challenge you have in blogging?
New cases addressing different aspects of electronic discovery come out every day and many of them provide valuable insight into issues affecting ongoing or anticipated cases around the country. Sometimes it can be tough to choose the best cases to share! We do our best to provide summaries of those cases that will provide the best insight into the sticky issues of electronic discovery or that are just plain interesting, and we comfort ourselves (and our readers) with the knowledge that even if a case doesn’t make the blog cut, it can still be available in our case database.
Why did you choose LexBlog to help you with blogging?
Support, service and technology. Whether we have a technical question or ideas about how to change and grow our blog, we know the folks at LexBlog can help us to get the answers we need or to make the changes we desire; they are an important part of our blogging team!