Key Discovery Points: Petty Finger Pointing Over Search Terms Results in Wasted Time
False Claims Act Insights - Is DOJ Allowed to Share Privileged Documents with Whistleblowers in FCA Disputes?
As artificial intelligence (“AI”) and generative AI (“GenAI”) tools become increasingly integrated into daily operations across industries, the legal industry is rapidly adapting. Law firms and companies of all sizes are...more
ComplexDiscovery Editor’s Note: AI has moved from speculative promise to operational reality in privilege review, and legal teams can no longer afford to treat it as an emerging side issue. Drawn from a Legalweek 2026 panel...more
At the end of 2025, amendments were made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that fundamentally change when and how litigators must address privilege issues in federal court. These amendments followed an important...more
Disclosure: This article is based on a panel session sponsored by HaystackID at Legalweek 2026. The panel moderator, Esther Birnbaum, is Executive Vice President of Data Intelligence at HaystackID. The panel also featured...more
Clients’ agents and consultants are almost always outside privilege protection — unless they are necessary for the clients’ communications with their lawyers, such as translators or interpreters. Can a non-lawyer acting for...more
On 17 February 2026 in U.S. v. Heppner, 1:25-cr-503 (S.D.N.Y., Feb. 17, 2026), Judge Rakoff held that a defendant’s written exchanges with a public generative AI platform were not protected by the attorney-client privilege or...more
On November 4, 2025, federal agents arrested Bradley Heppner and seized thirty-one AIgenerated documents created for the express purpose of obtaining legal advice. See United States v. Heppner, No. 25-cr-503 (JSR), 2026 WL...more
The Massachusetts Superior Court recently issued a notable discovery ruling that serves as an important reminder for litigants who consider naming a former attorney as an expert witness. In Cummings v. Deloitte, the court...more
Clients can lose privilege protection through explicit waiver (caused by disclosure), implied waiver (usually caused by reliance on undisclosed privileged communication to gain some litigation advantage), or as a sanction for...more
The Heppner ruling marks an early and consequential development in how courts may evaluate privilege when artificial intelligence tools are incorporated into legal, tax, and business operations....more
In what appears to be the first decision of its kind, a federal judge has ruled that documents a client prepared using a commercial AI tool and then shared with his attorney are not shielded by attorney-client privilege or...more
Recent developments in a Southern District of New York criminal case serve as a cautionary tale about the risks of using artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools for legal strategy and communications....more
As generative AI (GenAI) tools become embedded in legal and business workflows, courts are grappling with questions regarding how attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine apply to GenAI data, including prompts,...more
Challenges and delays during the discovery process are a frustrating part of civil litigation. One cause for such delay is the attorney-client privilege arising from internal investigation materials. Internal investigations...more
A new ruling from the Southern District of New York has implications for anyone using GenAI tools in connection with litigation, government investigations, or legal advice. On February 17, 2026, in U.S. v. Heppner, Judge Jed...more
Protecting privilege while using AI is not as straightforward as you might think. A new decision out of the Southern District of New York establishes that the use of free or public large language models to create...more
On February 10, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York issued a bench ruling holding that a defendant’s use of generative AI to analyze legal exposure is not protected under attorney-client...more
On Feb. 10, 2026, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York delivered a ruling from the bench in United States v. Heppner that dismantled a central pillar of the defendant’s legal shield. The court held that...more
On February 10, 2026, Judge Rakoff of the Southern District of New York ruled that certain AI-generated documents, created by an individual using an AI tool and then sent to that individual’s attorney in the context of...more
Effective December 1, 2025, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure added new Rule 16.1, “Multidistrict Litigation,” and amended Rules 16 and 26. The takeaway is straightforward: Rule 16.1 provides valuable structure for the...more
Two recent cases show that the “intensely practical” work product doctrine can protect a lawyer’s selection of intrinsically unprotected material — if the selection would give the adversary insight into the lawyer’s strategy...more
Love is in the air – for eDiscovery case law! In our February 2026 monthly webinar of cases covered by the eDiscovery Today blog, we will discuss disputes related to underlying source data for produced spreadsheets, in camera...more
Pharmaceutical companies generate vast data during drug development and regulatory processes, making eDiscovery complex due to data volume, sensitivity, and compliance. Efficient eDiscovery solutions are essential to manage...more
This blog addresses two of the issues resolved in Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. v. Allen Interchange LLC, 2025 WL 3485862 (D. Minn. Dec. 4, 2025). Toyota moved to compel Allen to produce certain discovery....more
In the corporate setting, it can be difficult to distinguish between communications that are primarily business-related and those that are primarily legal. ...more