Description

In this CLE presentation, Professor Connors discusses amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which specifically address the discovery of electronically stored information. The program reviews all of the changes to the following rules: Rule 16. Pretrial Conferences; Scheduling; Management ; Rule 26. General Provisions Governing Discovery; Duty of Disclosure; Rule 33. Interrogatories to Parties; Rule 34. Production of Documents, Electronically Stored Information, and Things and Entry Upon Land for Inspection and Other Purposes; Rule 37. Failure to Make Disclosures or Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions; Rule 45. Subpoena; and Form 35. Report of Parties’ Planning Meeting. The program also includes a discussion of federal caselaw interpreting the rules. Finally, Professor Connors discusses the status of electronic disclosure in New York State courts, including caselaw that has applied the principles of the new federal rules in state actions.

Patrick M. Connors, Esq.

Patrick M. Connors is an Assistant Professor of Law at Albany Law School where he teaches New York Practice, Legal Ethics, a seminar in Professional Responsibility and Introduction to Civil Procedure. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Syracuse University College of Law where he taught Professional Responsibility from 1991 to 1999. He received his B.A. degree from Georgetown University and his J.D. degree from St. John’s Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review and research assistant to Professor David D. Siegel.
Upon graduation from St. John’s in 1988, Professor Connors served as personal law clerk to Judge Richard D. Simons of the New York Court of Appeals until 1991. From 1991 until May of 2000 he was a member of the litigation department at Hancock & Estabrook, LLP, in Syracuse, New York.
Professor Connors is a reporter for the Committee on New York Pattern Jury Instructions (PJI), the 11-member panel of New York State Supreme Court Justices who draft and oversee the frequent revisions of the standard instructions with which New York judges charge juries in civil cases. He is also the author for the McKinney’s Practice Commentaries for the New York Lawyers Code of Professional Responsibility and a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics. He served on the New York State Attorney Grievance Committee for the Fifth Judicial District from 1997 until 2000.