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ESI in Federal and State Criminal Actions: Constitutional and Practical Dimensions


Product Code - LGN177
Speaker(s): Hon. Craig B. Shaffer, United States Magistrate Judge, District of Colorado; Moderator: Ronald J. Hedges, Ronald J. Hedges LLC; Roy Altman, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Florida; Justin P. Murphy, Crowell & Moring LLP; Kenneth J. Withers, The Sedona Conference; John H. Yauch, Assistant Federal Public Defender, District of New Jersey
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Please use promo code LGNEXT2 to register at no cost.

Case law at both the federal and state levels addressing electronically stored information (ESI) is exploding as law enforcement and the public at large – including those accused of committing crimes – exponentially expand their use of electronic devices. At the same time, courts look to the Bill of Rights, an 18th Century creation, to address which ESI-related law enforcement techniques are consistent with our constitutional rights.

This program is intended to explore the collision between the Bill of Rights and the technologies available to law enforcement and accused defendants in the 21st Century. Learn from a faculty of jurists, prosecutors, and defense counsel as we explore an exciting and rapidly developing area of criminal law.

The faculty will also look beyond the constitutional dimension of ESI in criminal actions and will explore practical issues of importance to prosecutors and defense counsel, including cooperation and its limits between the prosecution and the defense, production and search of ESI, and admissibility of ESI.

Educational Objectives:

• Learn the constitutional limits on government use of advanced technologies to investigate criminal behavior.
• Find out what defenses are available when the government attempts to make use of the fruits of its investigations at the pretrial or trial stages.
• Understand how ESI should be managed by both the prosecution and the defense at trial.
• Discover what an attorney must know about ESI to be competent.

Who would benefit most from attending this program?

This program is intended for any attorney who prosecutes or defends criminal actions in which ESI is an issue, whether the attorney is the prosecutor, retained defense counsel, public defender, or court-appointed defense counsel.

Program Level: Intermediate

Hon. Craig B. Shaffer, United States Magistrate Judge, District of Colorado; Moderator: Ronald J. Hedges, Ronald J. Hedges LLC; Roy Altman, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Florida; Justin P. Murphy, Crowell & Moring LLP; Kenneth J. Withers, The Sedona Conference; John H. Yauch, Assistant Federal Public Defender, District of New Jersey

Hon. Craig B. Shaffer, United States Magistrate Judge, District of Colorado
Hon. Craig B. Shaffer has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Colorado since January 2001. Magistrate Judge Shaffer graduated from the College of William and Mary and earned a juris doctor cum laude from Tulane University’s School of Law. He has served as a Navy judge advocate, a senior trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, and in private practice as a partner in two different Denver law firms. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Sedona Conference and has been a contributor to the University of Denver’s Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. Judge Shaffer is a frequent presenter at conferences and seminars addressing electronic discovery, including presentations organized by the Sedona Conference, Colorado’s Faculty of Federal Advocates, the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, Bloomberg BNA, the ABA’s Labor and Employment Law Section, the Rocky Mountain Intellectual Property Institute, and Georgetown University Law Center’s Advanced E-Discovery Institute.

Moderator: Ronald J. Hedges, Ronald J. Hedges LLC
Ron Hedges is a special master, arbitrator, and mediator working with e-discovery and privilege issues. He served as a United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey from 1986 to 2007. He is a member of The Sedona Conference® Advisory Board and a member of the Advisory Board of the Advanced E-Discovery Institute of Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches e-discovery and e-evidence. He also teaches at Rutgers School of Law—Newark. Mr. Hedges is author of, among other publications, Discovery of Electronically Stored Information: Surveying the Legal Landscape (BNA: 2007) and a co-author of Managing Discovery of Electronic Information: A Pocket Guide for Judges (Federal Judicial Center: 2007). He serves on the Advisory Board for The Sedona Conference®.

Roy Altman, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Florida
Roy Altman is the Southern District of Florida’s 2012 “Federal Prosecutor of the Year.” As an AUSA, Mr. Altman has handled a wide range of criminal offenses, including drug, weapons, and sex trafficking; child prostitution and exploitation; bank, mail, and wire fraud; armed robbery; attempted murder; and the first-degree murder of a U.S. postal worker. Mr. Altman has tried 23 federal cases, including United States v. Flanders, a much publicized case in which the defendant, a former police officer, together with a pornographer, was convicted of luring hundreds of women to Miami, drugging them, raping them, and selling the video footage of the assaults. Mr. Altman has also argued, and won, a case before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to joining the USAO, Mr. Altman clerked for the Hon. Stanley Marcus, United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Mr. Altman is a graduate of Columbia University and the Yale Law School.

Justin P. Murphy, Crowell & Moring LLP
Justin P. Murphy is a counsel at Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office, where he practices in the White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement Group and E-Discovery and Information Management Group. Mr. Murphy's practice focuses on SEC enforcement, white collar criminal matters, e-discovery matters relating to internal and government investigations, and related civil litigation. He has represented and counseled corporate and individual clients in all phases of securities, white collar criminal and civil investigations and proceedings involving the SEC, FINRA, Department of Justice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CFTC and other agencies.

Mr. Murphy also advises clients on e-discovery issues. His practice includes litigation readiness planning, legal holds and electronic discovery processes. He routinely counsels clients on electronic discovery issues in the context of internal and government investigations, including the use of computer forensics as an investigative tool, and has extensive experience in negotiating with government investigators concerning the preservation, processing and production of electronically stored information (ESI). Mr. Murphy also has extensive experience advising clients on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure related to electronically stored information (ESI), records and information management, technology issues, cost considerations and related ethical issues.

Kenneth J. Withers, The Sedona Conference
Ken Withers is the Deputy Executive Director for The Sedona Conference, an Arizona-based non-profit law and policy think tank which has been on the forefront of issues involving complex litigation, intellectual property, and antitrust law. Since 1989, he has published several widely-distributed papers on electronic discovery, hosted a popular website on electronic discovery and electronic records management issues, and given presentations at more than 300 conferences and workshops for legal, records management, and industry audiences. Mr. Withers’ most recent publications are "Ephemeral Data and the Duty to Preserve Discoverable Electronically Stored Information," 37 U. Balt. L. R. 349 (2008) and "Living Daily with Weekley Homes," Texas State Bar Advocate, Vol. 51 (Summer 2010), 23. From 1999 through 2005, he was a Senior Education Attorney at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington D.C., where he developed Internet-based distance learning programs for the federal judiciary concentrating on issues of technology and the administration of justice. Mr. Withers contributed to several well-known FJC publications, including the Manual for Complex Litigation, Fourth Edition (2004), Effective Use of Courtroom Technology (2001), and the Civil Litigation Management Manual (2001).

John H. Yauch, Assistant Federal Public Defender, District of New Jersey
John Yauch defends clients charged with a variety of federal offenses including RICO and complex fraud cases. He has extensive experience in investigation, discovery, pretrial motions, trail and appellate process. Mr. Yauch was formerly an assistant prosecutor in Essex County, New Jersey, where he was responsible for the prosecution of felony offenses including drug, sexual assault, fraud and murder offenses. He has extensive trial experience in the Superior Court of New Jersey.

Mr. Yauch served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Edmund Kirby (retired) and is a graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law and of Fairfield University.