Law Commons^™

A Topic Both Timely And Timeless, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

Electronic discovery therefore represents one of the most momentous developments in the everyday life of the modern lawyer. Its effect on civil litigators is obvious, but other lawyers need to pay heed to the issue as well. Transactional attorneys, legislative aides, prosecutors, in-house counsel, and anyone else with legal responsibilities must be aware of the consequences of using electronic means of documentation and communication. Even an act as innocuous as sending an e-mail (an act that occurs thirty-one billion times a day7) creates a digital paper trail that is subject to discovery. Delete a client 's e-mails - or close …