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Halie Kaplan

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Halie Kaplan is a discovery attorney in the E-Discovery & Information Management Practice in Crowell & Moring’s New York office. Halie’s practice focuses on electronic discovery and information management in a wide range of practice areas, including banking and securities, antitrust, commercial litigation & regulatory defense. She has experience in all phases of discovery, including document collections, formulating discovery strategy, first and second level review, quality control, privilege review, and privilege logs. Halie also has experience with the use of technology to efficiently manage and streamline discovery.

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Finding that a lower court had underestimated the harm resulting from the government’s seizure and ongoing possession of privileged material, the Fifth Circuit ruled recently that a “taint team” process was insufficient to protect the rights of the party holding the privilege.  The appellate court’s ruling is part of a trend in which courts have expressed skepticism that the use of “taint teams” by the government is an adequate safeguard against undermining the sacrosanct attorney-client privilege.

As part of a criminal investigation spawned by civil False Claims Act qui tam actions, the government executed search warrants at the offices of Harbor Healthcare System and seized “a wealth of information protected by the attorney-client privilege” including communications between the company’s Director of Compliance and its outside counsel.  Harbor subsequently filed a motion for return of property as provided for in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g).  The District Court ultimately granted a government motion to dismiss that proceeding, finding that a “filter team” and screening process were adequate to protect Harbor’s privileged information.Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Bolsters Company’s Claim for Return of Privileged Documents Seized by Government

E-Discovery no longer dominantly involves emails and shared drive documents. With the increasing prevalence of mobile devices in the workplace and new apps being developed daily, mobile data and other non-email communications are moving to the forefront of discovery. Times have changed, and attorneys have professional and ethical obligations to keep up. To effectively and competently represent clients, attorneys must stay apprised of how to work with these ever-changing forms of data – or get help from someone knowledgeable. To do so, we have set out some suggestions below organized around common stages of the discovery lifecycle of digital evidence.

Identification. In conducting custodian interviews, ask questions to target the data types the custodian works with. Start broadly by determining if the company has a BYOD policy and asking if they allow the use of personal devices for work purposes. Confirm which messaging tools they use for business purposes, with the understanding that people tend to play down such use. For each messaging application, ask how they are used and with whom they communicate. Discuss these same topics with your client’s IT team to better understand  the company’s policies and capabilities for controlling the use of personal devices, as well as employees’ actual practices.Continue Reading Best Practices for Navigating Discovery of Mobile Data and Alternative Communication Tools in Today’s Digital World