e-Discovery Special Masters

Chere Estrin, CEO of Estrin LegalEd and owner of The Estrin Report blog, wrote on February 11, 2008:

I'm telling you, when a field pops, it really pops.  Apparently, the increased use of electronic discovery has resulted in a new set of practitioners: e-discovery special masters.

According to The Daily Record, a special master is an officer of the court appointed to help with its proceedings, and may perform functions such as taking testimony or advising the court as a neutral expert.

“Essentially, you represent the judge and the court as an independent in evaluating technological disputes and electronic discovery issues,” explained Peter S. Vogel, chair of the Electronic Discovery and Document Retention Team and co-chair of the Internet and Computer Technology Practice Group at Gardere Wynne Sewell in Dallas.

Vogel, a partner at the firm, has worked on more than 20 cases with some form of an e-discovery special master. The role varies, explained Judge Shira Scheindlin, a U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of New York and the author of several seminal opinions on e-discovery, including Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 229 F.R.D. 422 (S.D.N.Y. 2004).

Read the full post here.