Posted by Only 2 days until the next Fed Talk! Each of you is encouraged to attend our Fed Talk on Thursday, December 5, 2019, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. We will host the program at the Federal Defender Program. The talk includes one hour of ethics credits.
Hopefully you all had a terrific Thanksgiving holiday and you are now digging back into these monster cases. These days that is practically every case, if you judge based on the volume of discovery. Gone are the days when you could pick up a case on a Thursday and pretty much have the facts down by Monday after a leisurely review of a couple of inches of paper. In order to ethically and effectively represent our clients charged in federal criminal cases, we must adapt and evolve and learn how to cope with large scale discovery.
This Fed Talk offers you the opportunity to learn from the best – Valerie Surasky, FDP’s Chief Paralegal. Valerie has 40 years of experience as a paralegal. She has handled huge matters in corporate legal departments and large law firms. Nothing scares Valerie. Valerie joined FDP in 2003 during the Eric Rudolph case and we were lucky enough to keep her on. She has now developed our paralegal department which has been the key to FDP attorneys being able to handle large discovery cases. Valerie writes the book for us every day on how to handle large scale discovery and do it very well. Valerie will be joined by Jeff Ertel and Tom Hawker who are prepared to discuss handling large scale discovery cases from A-Z.
We will discuss these topics and more: (1) The process for breaking down large scale discovery; (2) How to estimate the amount of time it will take you to review discovery by the Gigabyte; (3) Ways to utilize paralegals to make large case discovery review feasible; (4) What software tools are needed for this process; (5) What the Magistrate and District Court Judges are talking about in regards to large scale discovery; (6) The implications of all of this in the context of our ethical obligations to our clients. Every lawyer who is attempting to handle a case with a lot of discovery (or every case these days) ought to attend.
The cost will be only $20 per person (and the fee includes CLE fees).
You may register for the Fed Talk by clicking on the link here.
See you soon!
Natasha Silas
The Blue Notes 