JMBM Launches Discovery Technology Group

Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro Launches Discovery Technology Group

LOS ANGELES—January 10, 2006—Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro LLP (JMBM), one of California’s foremost full-service law firms, today announced the formation of its Discovery Technology Group, a practice group focused on providing businesses with practical and cost-effective electronic data management and e-discovery solutions.

“Failing to preserve relevant electronic evidence can result in crippling sanctions,” said Michael Gold, JMBM partner and member of the Firm’s Discovery Technology Group. “Courts have shown an increasing willingness to punish businesses that are deficient in their electronic discovery practices.”

Every business that uses email or maintains data electronically must retain such materials once it is on notice that they may be relevant to anticipated litigation, or face drastic consequences. For example, sanctions against Morgan Stanley for its failure to stop the overwriting of emails and to timely produce emails led recently to a $1.54 billion fraud verdict against the financial services giant. This new and potentially hostile legal climate creates a need for efficient pre-litigation electronic discovery planning.

Businesses must at the same time be mindful of costs. The expenses of conducting and complying with electronic discovery can be astronomical. The key to cost-effective electronic discovery is putting together and implementing an electronic discovery plan that covers pre-litigation management and storage and litigation strategy to retrieve and code critical documents.

“Our careful planning and diligent monitoring help clients keep e-discovery expenses under control, both on offense and defense,” said Dan Sedor, JMBM partner and member of the Firm’s Discovery Technology Group.

In litigation, results are critical. JMBM’s Discovery Technology Group brings its members’ knowledge and experience to bear on the nuts and bolts of conducting and complying with electronic discovery, producing and reviewing electronic evidence, teaming with forensic evidence consultants, and managing and using electronic evidence effectively during litigation and at trial.

“We manage every aspect of the process aggressively, from start to finish, working as a team with the client to maximize results,” said Stan Gibson, JMBM partner and member of the Firm’s Discovery Technology Group.

JMBM’s approach works. In a patent lawsuit against medical device manufacturer Medtronic Sofamor Danek, critical evidence uncovered through extensive electronic discovery efforts led a jury to award the Firm’s client $570 million in compensatory and punitive damages—one of the largest verdicts in the country in 2004.