Key Issues in Electronic Discovery: AI Tools, Cloud Data, Personal Devices

Brian R. Iverson | Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

Brian R. Iverson counsels clients on high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts across the nation. His practice primarily focuses on complex business disputes, including government contract, healthcare, intellectual property, and financial services litigation. Brian also represents clients in administrative and ADR proceedings, and he serves as a mediator for the D.C. Superior Court Multi- Door Dispute Resolution Division. His recent reported decisions include Choice Hotels Int’l, Inc. v. C&O Developers, LLC, 199 N.E.3d 1 (Ohio Ct. App. 2022) and Safeguard Base Ops., LLC v. United States, 989 F.3d 1326 (Fed. Cir. 2021).

Brian frequently speaks and writes on various legal topics, and his articles have appeared in The ACC Docket, The New York Law Journal, Today’s General Counsel, Adweek, Chief Executive and others. He recently addressed emerging issues in remote depositions in the article Give Me A Break: Regulating Communications Between Attorneys and Their Witness Clients During Deposition Recesses, 36 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 497 (2023).

Brian earned a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Pepperdine University School of Law, and he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, cum laude, from Belmont University.

Alex Jacobs | Berkeley Research Group LLC

Alex Jacobs has more than twenty-five years of experience answering discovery requests and assisting clients with internal investigations, civil litigation, and in response to a criminal, governmental, or regulatory subpoena. Mr. Jacobs has employed the use of TAR in discovery for over a decade and consults with clients to enact workflows and Generative AI tools to minimize costs associated with voluminous document review and information retrieval.

He has worked within service providers, consulting firms, law firms, and industry startups. Mr. Jacobs works on clients’ most complex matters, using cutting-edge technology to minimize risk and cost. He is experienced and certified in multiple technology platforms and regularly creates new workflow tools as bespoke deliverables for client engagements.

Mr. Jacobs has worked on high-profile matters in most major industry verticals, including aerospace, oil and gas, financial services and banking, insurance, real estate, and transportation. He is well versed in all phases of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM), identifying cost-reduction strategies that exist upstream from the eDiscovery process. He regularly consults with clients on best practices and protocols for data governance and information management, including deploying culture and education campaigns to increase employee retention of legal department policies and procedures.

Mr. Jacobs is the immediate past president and a founding member of the Dallas chapter of the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS). He is active in the community as a thought leader and panelist at conferences and continuing legal education events. Mr. Jacobs studied economics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Matthew J. Sharbaugh was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge in October 2024. Judge Sharbaugh was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He earned a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, from Berklee College of Music, and he earned a J.D., summa cum laude, from Pepperdine University School of Law, where he served as the Managing Editor of the Pepperdine Law Review.

Judge Sharbaugh was previously a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Washington, DC, with a practice focused on employment litigation and appeals, as well as other complex civil litigation and a variety of pro bono matters. Earlier in his career, Judge Sharbaugh spent several years with the law firm Littler Mendelson, P.C. in Los Angeles, California. From there, Judge Sharbaugh served twice as a law clerk to Judge Robert L. Wilkins, first on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and then on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Judge Sharbaugh also spent several years following his clerkships teaching legal research and writing as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School.

I. Leveraging artificial intelligence and Technology-Assisted Review (TAR) in litigation | 1:00pm – 1:40pm

• Growth of data volumes and the need for efficient review methods
• Role of AI and TAR in reducing costs and identifying key evidence
• Ethical duties of litigators to understand and assess AI tools
• Assessment of available software solutions for document review
• Best practices and limitations of using AI and TAR
• Analysis of court rulings and ethical opinions on technology use in document collection and review

II. Cloud storage and e-discovery: Legal and practical considerations | 1:40pm – 2:30pm

• The shift from on-premise storage to cloud-based solutions
• Cost savings and risk reduction associated with cloud storage
• Challenges of managing large volumes of data in the cloud

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

• Legal standards impacting discovery of cloud-stored data
  • Proportionality under discovery rules
  • Possession, custody, and control analysis
• Case law trends and rules governing preservation, collection, and production of cloud- based data

III. Discovery challenges in the era of personal devices and BYOD policies | 2:30pm – 3:10pm

• Prevalence of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in the workplace
• Increasing access to business data on personal smartphones and devices
• Expanding scope of discovery to include texts and documents from personal devices
• Employer’s ability and obligation to obtain data from employee devices
• Case law developments addressing personal device discovery and privacy concerns