Blue LLP partners Dhamian Blue and Dan Blue III recently attended the Duke Law Bolch Judicial Institute’s invitation-only Distinguished Lawyers conference, held in Arlington, Virginia from June 20-21, 2019. About the Bolch Judicial Institute, “[t]he Bolch Judicial Institute’s mission is to study and advance rule-of-law principles, judicial independence, and law reform through technology and innovation.”
The conference, titled Evaluating 2015 Rule 26 Discovery-Proportionality Amendments and Botch-Duke Guidelines and Best Practices, focused on (1) evaluating the effect of the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and (2) recommending any revisions or additions to the Bolch Institute’s Rule 26 Guidelines and Best Practices. A critical focus of the conference was how to keep discovery costs reasonable while also ensuring fairness in the federal civil judicial system. The conference also highlighted the use of technology, including Technology Assisted Review, in the efficient administration of complex commercial litigation such as antitrust, consumer, and wage and hour class actions.
Ten federal judges and approximately 75-100 practitioners from across the country attended the conference.