Guest Lecturing at Mike Berman’s E-Discovery Law Class With Chief US Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm

Patrick Burke Mike Berman is one of the pioneers of e-discovery law school education. He has been teaching e-discovery law classes at the University of Baltimore and University of Maryland law schools since 2008, longer than almost anyone in the U.S. Most law school civil procedure classes barely mention e-discovery, largely being taught by law professors with little recent practical experience litigating cases involving electronically stored information.

Last week I had the privilege to guest lecture at Berman’s University of Baltimore Law School class together with none other than Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm. Berman and Judge Grimm have been friends for years and used to co-teach the class, now Judge Grimm has taken on the law school’s evidence course and guest lectures at Berman’s e-discovery class. Both focus on showing law students how e-discovery will affect their future practice of law, and how being ahead of the curve can help advance their legal careers. Judge Grimm advised the students that if asked in interviews what value they would bring to a law firm, they merely need to say “I understand Federal Rule of Evidence 502.” He expressed his conviction that it is mostly the lack of familiarity and comfort with computers by older lawyers that cause a great deal of e-discovery preservation problems, including failures to put agreements in place with adversaries to take advantage of FRE 502’s protections against privilege waiver, a failure which he considers often amounts to malpractice.

Berman caught on to importance of e-discovery early on, and then also to the importance of training a new generation of lawyers to do it better than their older (but not wiser) fellow lawyers. In addition to teaching and litigating, Berman counsels companies on e-discovery challenges and is available as a mediator or special master on e-discovery topics.

Check out Berman's blog here.