Jeffrey Fowler
Partner
Jeffrey Fowler is a partner in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office and is one of the founders and leaders of the Firm’s Electronic Discovery and Document Retention Practice. Jeff is one of the longest serving eDiscovery litigators in the country and one of the few whose practice is entirely dedicated to eDiscovery issues.
Over the last decade, Jeff has contributed his eDiscovery expertise to well over 200 Litigation Department matters in virtually every area of practice. The most notable example is representing Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in its civil antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corporation. In what is considered one of the largest eDiscovery cases on record, Jeff helped negotiate several precedent-setting stipulations designed to limit the otherwise infinite amount of electronic evidence in the possession of the parties and the computer manufacturers, retailers, and distributors subpoenaed in
AMD v. Intel. As the case proceeded, Jeff also helped to litigate the many evidence preservation, collection, production and spoliation questions spawned by Intel’s disclosure of email preservation issues.
Jeff’s entire practice involves serving as the lead lawyer responsible for eDiscovery issues in complex class actions and multidistrict litigations. In these matters, he successfully limits the scope and cost of discovery by negotiating favorable document preservation and production agreements, manages defensible and cost-efficient data collection and review processes, appears before judges and magistrates to address eDiscovery issues, takes and defends depositions of IT representatives and eDiscovery consultants, and litigates cutting-edge eDiscovery issues.
Jeff is a noted speaker and writer. He is a regular panelist for Strafford Teleconferences and is the co-author of the practice guide entitled, "Preserving Electronic Information: A Practical Approach," BNA Books (2009).
Illustrative Professional Experience
Electronic Discovery Experience
- Representing Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in its civil antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corporation;
- Representing a computer component manufacturer in a multibillion dollar transaction under review by the FTC;
- Serving as the lead lawyer handling discovery for one of the nation’s oldest and largest food companies in multiple consumer class actions;
- Serving as the lead lawyer handling discovery for a pharmaceutical company involved in a series of products liability class actions;
- Negotiating favorable parameters of discovery for a major semiconductor company in a trade secret misappropriation litigation matter;
- Negotiating favorable parameters of discovery for a global transportation company in multidistrict litigation challenging the independent contractor status of delivery persons;
- Representing a national consulting firm before the Department of Justice after the firm learned that a software glitch resulted in a failure to produce responsive documents;
- Representing a major telecommunications company in SEC and DOJ investigations involving one of the first major electronic document productions.
Traditional Litigation Experience
- Representing a leading insurance company in a malicious prosecution action against the company and its top executives;
- Representing WellPoint Health Networks in In Re: Managed Care, a series of multi-district class actions filed against every major health insurer in the United States;
- Representing a global security and information technology company in federal and state court against class and mass toxic tort actions involving air and groundwater contamination in Burbank, California;
- Serving as trial counsel for an investment company in a federal bench trial of an ERISA claim; successful judgment obtained.
Professional Activities
Admitted, California
Admitted to Practice, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; U.S. District Court, Central and Northern Districts of California
Member, Strafford Publications’ Litigation & ADR Advisory Board
Board of Governors, The Organization of Legal Professionals (2009)
Co-Author, “Preserving Electronic Information: A Practical Approach,” BNA Books (2009)
Author, “So You Want to Be A Producer: A Successful Document Production Starts With A Great Script and A Solid Cast,”
The E-Discovery Standard (LexisNexis/Applied Discovery) Spring Issue 2005;
The E-Discovery Special Report (Mealey Publications) 2006
Speaker and Panelist, Litigation Holds: Digging into the Details, Celesq® AttorneysEd Center Web Cast (January 2012);
Preservation: The next frontier for potential rule changes, Masters Conference (September 2011); 4th Annual Class Action Symposium, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego (October 2011);
Electronic Discovery Guidance 2011: What Corporate and Outside Counsel Need to Know, PLI (September 2011, December 2011);
Rule 45 Subpoena Litigation Holds, National Constitution Center (August 2011);
Litigation Holds: Translating Legal Developments Into Practical Tips, Celesq (June 2011);
The Role of Early Review Assessment and Analytics in Document Review, Deloitte (May 2011);
Trends in Social Media and Cloud Computing, Legal Tech West Coast (May 2011);
The Next Decade of Document Review: Cheaper, Better, Smatter, Legal Tech West Coast (May 2011);
Intelligent Review Luncheon, Legal Tech West Coast (April 2011);
Litigation Holds: How To Properly Respond To & Issue A Notice To Preserve, National Constitutional Center (March 2011);
Electronically Stored Information Preservation and Collection: Latest Developments, Strafford (March 2011);
Why Don't Cases Settle Early?, ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (January 2011);
Electronic Discovery Guidance 2010: What Corporate and Outside Counsel Need to Know, PLI (September 2010, December 2010);
Litigation Holds, 14th Annual Electronic Discovery and Records Retention Conference, West Thomas Reuters (September 2010);
Practical Tips for Litigation Holds, National Constitution Center (July 2010);
e-Discovery for the Corporate Market Conferences, Executive Counsel Institute (July 2010);
An Overview of Electronic Discovery, The Rossdale Group (Miami, Fl.)(March 2010);
Electronically Stored Information Preservation and Collection: Zubulake Revisited, Strafford Publications Teleconference (February 2010);
The Ethics of eDiscovery, PLI (December 2009);
eDiscovery Case Law Update – Winter 2009, Fios, Inc. (December 2009);
Cost Savings in E-Discovery, Huron Consulting Group (October 2009);
Practical Tips for Litigation Holds, National Constitution Center (August 2009);
California E-Discovery Law: Obtaining ESI Under the New Rules, Strafford (August 2009);
AB 5 -- What You Need to Know, Women in E-Discovery (July 2009);
Litigation Holds and Rule 45 Subpoenas: Nonparty Preservation Essentials, National Constitution Center (June 2009);
Practical Tips for Litigation Holds, National Constitution Center (March 2009);
Effective Litigation Holds: Best Practices to Reduce Costs and Risk Under the Amended Federal Rules, Strafford Publications Teleconference (February 2009);
First Steps on the Path to Production, West LegalWorks (September 2008);
The Complexity of Litigation Hold Plan Implementation, Annual eDiscovery Conference for the Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Medical Devices Industries (September 2008);
Inspecting Digital Forensics and Forensic Analysis, 5th eDiscovery Legal Conference, International Quality & Productivity Center (May 2008);
The Perils of eDiscovery: Why It Is Important to Your Clients, Orange County Bar Assn. (May 2008);
Effectively Using Expert Witnesses: Polishing Your Litigation Skills, Strafford Publications Teleconferences (April 2010);
Implementing Effective Litigation Holds, Strafford Publications (March 2008);
Electronic Discovery and the Amended Rules After a Year, West LegalWorks (February 2008);
Managing Costs The Changing Relationship with Outside Counsel, ALM's LegalTech New York (February 2008);
E-Discovery and Document Retention of Information Located in the EU, Strafford Publications Teleconference (November 2007);
Effective Litigation Holds: What You Need to Know and Do Now, National Constitution Center (November 2007);
Effective Litigation Holds: Best Practices to Reduce Risks and Costs under the New Federal Rules, Strafford Publications Teleconference (October 2007);
Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Admissibility, Strafford Publications Teleconference (August 2007);
Minimizing Risk: Where Should Data Live?, ALM’s LegalTech West Coast (June 2007);
Litigation Holds: Strategies for Reducing Risk and Lowering Litigation Costs, Strafford Publications Teleconference (June 2007);
Litigation Risk of Inadequate Data Management, Strafford Publications Teleconference (April 2007);
Practice Under the New E-Discovery Amendments, BNA Patent Litigation Seminar (April 2007);
The Technology Revolution and New Associates, ALM’s LegalTech New York (January 2007);
Document Retention and Electronic Discovery Issues, Annual Meeting, National Telecommunications Cooperative Assn. (November 2006);
Electronic Discovery Best Practices, LexisNexis/Applied Discovery (October 2006);
E-Discovery in Patent Litigation Workshop, BNA Patent Litigation Seminar Series (September 2006);
Meeting the Demands of Document Retention, Strafford CLE Teleconferences (July 2006);
Examining Notable E-Discovery Case Law & Federal Rules Changes - 2006 Mid-Year Update, Kroll OnTrack Webinar (June 2006);
Surviving ‘The ED Age’ Together, ALM’s Legal Tech West Coast (June 2006);
Symposium on Electronic Discovery and Document Retention, California Continuing Education of the Bar Seminar Series, (May 2006; June 2006);
Overcoming IT Hazards in Electronic Discovery, ALM’s LegalTech New York (January 2006);
E-Discovery Best Practices, Bridgeport Seminar Series (January 2006); and
E-Discovery Certification Course, LexisNexis/Applied Discovery (September 2005; February 2005)
Internal Speaking Engagements, eDiscovery Fundamentals, O'Melveny University First Year Training (2009, 2010);
A Legally Defensible Strategy for the Collection of Electronic Records, eDiscovery Practice Training Course (August 2009);
ESI: Preservation/Early Case Assessment, eDiscovery Practice Training Course (June 2009);
Electronic Discovery: It Could It Could Happen to You!, O’Melveny (April 2009);
E-Discovery Fundamentals, eDiscovery Practice Training Course (involved traveling to each domestic office March-April 2008);
Fundamentals of E-Discovery, O'Melveny (March 2008);
So You’re in Litigation: E-Discovery Preservation and the Initial Case Management Conference, eDiscovery Practice Training Course (June 2007);
Preservation Issues, Initial Disclosures & Initial Case Management Conference, eDiscovery Practice Training Course (June 2007);
Electronic Discovery: Strategies for Class Action and Mass Tort Practitioners, Class Actions Mass Torts and Aggregated Litigation Practice Group Retreat (October 2006);
Electronic Discovery and Document Retention: Practical and Strategic Considerations in a Changing Environment, Litigation Department Retreat (August 2005)
Chair, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles Associates Advisory Board (2005–2006)
Co-Chair, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles – Associates’ Campaign (2003–2004)